Moreno, Alma (Isa)

Hi everyone, my name is Isa Moreno and my pronouns are she/her and hers. I’m from Watsonville, California which is around seven hours north of LA. My mom is from Bell/Southgate though so I’m spiritually a South Central Local.
I’m a first year, and I’m majoring in Chicanx Studies. I had originally wanted to earn a BFA throughout high school because I’ve been in love with painting and drawing all of my life. However, I figured that along the way that focusing on my Chicana identity would create a deeper impact on my art and its message as I would be able to extend my lived experiences into my paintings. Since I’m only a freshman, I haven’t done any formal research, but I’m interested in understanding how queer & trans folks reclaim space in higher academia through their self-expression and style. 

            I found Chicana Sexuality and Gender relatable in the way that Debra Blake explained how strong female characters, especially females and femmes, in Mexican culture are continuously erased or labeled as deviant in our history. This is shown in the stories of La Malinche and La Llorona, both indigenous women who took agency by “disrupting and unifying Spanish and indigenous cultures” through their sexuality and resistance to Spanish rule, respectively, and how they are both labeled as traitors and evil in our culture today as a result. Although I’ve heard these bad things about these mujeres throughout my life, I find it powerful to think about the ways in which Chicana artists, like Professor Lopez and the way in which she depicts La Virgen as a lesbian, refigure images of mujeres categorized a certain way in Mexican history into their own positive interpretations. It’s important, for me as a Chicana artist, to be able to imagine myself in the place of the female symbols Blake talks about and identify with their oppression.