Arroyo, Evelyn

Hey y’all! My name is Evelyn Arroyo Gonzalez. My pronouns are she/her/hers/they/them/theirs. I am a self-identifying Queer Muxer of Color and am continuing to learn about my fluid heart and soul. I am a second-year transfer student from the North Bay double majoring in Sociology and Chicanx Studies. I am currently an Arts IN research scholar who is analyzing how Queer Muxeres of Color use art as a decolonial tool and a way of continuing to exist and resist through a particular coded iconography/language in their works. Therefore, this class is one that aligns perfectly with what inspires me.

In Blake’s Chicana Sexuality and Gender,  she discusses how Chicana feminists have found a way to produce art to reveal a “countermemory” to hxstory that has continued to erase the narratives of people of color, womxn of color, and queer and Trans people of color. Through visual representations, Queer Chicanas have found a way to disrupt the dominant discourse. The ability of these queer muxeres to be able to find a voice through their image and experience is something I find so powerful and liberating. In “Our Lady of Controversy” by Professor Lopez, we see many examples where muxeres have reimagined cultural icons such as la Virgen to advocate for agency and empowerment. Through colonization, important Indigenous and spiritual connection to goddesses such as Coyolxauhqui have been erased from our memory. But, art has acted as a way of restoring and transforming the way muxeres of color see themselves by these counter-representations provided, such as the mother earth goddess Tonantzin and Coyolxauhqui. Ultimately, the readings show me how it is up to us to become our own agents of social change and liberation. Too often I find that art is not valued as a valid form of knowledge in academic institutions, but its clear with this week’s readings that art is a source of knowledge and herstory that further transforms la identidad and comunidad of Queer Muxeres of Color.