Gonzalez, Annette (Week 1)

    Hey everyone! My name is Annette Gonzalez and my pronouns are she/her/hers. I am a third year majoring in Biology and minoring in Chicanx/Central American Studies. After completing my four years here at UCLA, I am planning to continue my education and pursue a career as a Physician Assistant . I was born and raised in the Bay Area and am the first in my family to attend college. I am the oldest of four and some of my hobbies include hiking with my dog, running, and discovering new places to eat. 

Growing up, I lived in the area of my city that primarily consisted of Latinos. Throughout the years as I was growing, I learned a lot regarding my roots and my culture from my family and from those who surrounded me. Going into high school, I attended a high school located near the Mission District in San Francisco, which widened my intrigue into wanting to learn more about Latin America and the different things that made it up such as the people, the different ways of life, the cultures, etc. During this period of time, I also began to learn more and participate in social justice. I was just getting my foot into the door with those experiences in high school and it sparked my desire to know more about the inequalities/injustices that were present within the Latino community. I grew interested in learning more about difficult topics that my family did not have much knowledge about and therefore were not discussed as much in general. Coming into UCLA I wanted to expand my horizons and decided to minor in Chicanx Studies to understand more and learn about different topics that I did not have a chance to do at home. Having taken the classes here of my interest, I chose to take this class because I haven't taken a look into more of the artistic side that makes up the Chicanx/Latinx studies. In the previous classes however, images and different pieces of art work have been brought into discussion and it was interesting for me to see how many of the details that make up an art piece have an important role to play in delivering the overall message that is interpreted by the public. I am excited to learn more about the different artists that have contributed to this field and to learn more about the history/background of the pieces themselves and the impact they have made.