This week I’ve chosen to respond to a post by Janel Preciado
regarding a piece done by Ester Hernandez.
The piece which was selected was that of the “Sun Mad Raisins” and I
particularly liked what Janel about Hernandez’s use of a skeleton woman on the
façade of the box. I feel that the
message which Ester intended for her viewing audience is easily interpreted
because it provides such a stark contrast compared to the mainstream raisin box
image. The original image depicts a
beautiful young woman and the logo says Sun Maid natural California raisins
whereas Ester’s reworking of the image shows a skeleton woman with a logo that
reads Sun Mad unnaturally grown.
Another thing I liked which Janel mentioned was that she was
instilled with knowledge of personal health from her mother. The raisins were not necessarily part of a
healthy diet because of all the insectides, miticides, herbicides, or
fungicides which may be present in the fruit.
The growing process was done very sloppily and the health of the general
public was not being taken into account.
I feel that I can connect with Janel because my mother also raised me to
be conscious of the things I was eating and making sure that I had good healthy
options.
Thank you for sharing. It's important to give credit to our first teachers, our mothers, for instilling their knowledge in us.
ReplyDeleteNow that I look this image, I am wondering why she chose this image out of other iconic food images. There is an instant connection to the fields when looking at this image but what about the chose of a placing a women in the original image? I took a Chicano theater class in conjunction with this class and the plays were male dominated and patriarchal. The few instances there were female characters they were placed in the whore vs. virign (La Malinche vs. La Virgen) dichotomy. Female farm worker issues were ignored so I wonder if there is an extra layer that is pointing out that women are more likely to die in the fields? Most of the working class is made up of women. Some questions to think about.