Thursday, January 9, 2020

2020 Olsen, Eric - Week 1

Hello, my name is Eric and my pronouns are they/them. I am a second year Geography and Environmental Studies major minoring in History and hoping to add a Chicanx minor as well. I am not currently involved in research but I do work in the Special Collections Library of YRL and regularly read and organize materials that pass across my desk helping to put together projects and create display cases in libraries across campus. My job allows me to access materials from collections ranging from Lesbian Catholics of America to early Aztec codices and the L.A. Latino Family Photo Project. My job among other things influenced my decision to pursue a major/minor(s) outside of art -which I was originally attempted to the university under. Being a Latinx queer person has greatly influenced my art and my life. 
Both my parents are staunch Catholics, so when reading Its Not About the Santa in my Fe, but the Santa Fe in my Santa both past history knowledge and my personal experience shaped a previous bias to how I interpret the religious symbol of the Virgin Mary. It is difficult, yet important to read how the symbol is not solely an extension of the Catholic Church and its violence, but rather historically was created for Indigenous subversion and resistance. I had never read a text like There’s No Place Like Aztlán before that tied the word ‘queer’ -a term I self-identify with- in context to Malinche -a word I learned from my Mother to be an insult. I hope to read more radical queer literature in this class.
 

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