Aragon, Abel

 
Hello everyone! My name is Abel Aragon, and I go by Abel with no preference in English or Spanish pronunciation. My pronouns are he/him/his or they/them/theirs. I am currently a 3rd-year Geology major with a minor in Chicana and Chicano Studies. I chose Chicana and Chicano Studies as a minor after taking the 10A intro course with Professor Gaspar de Alba and have enjoyed the courses available ever since. I primarily chose to minor in Chicana and Chicano studies to ensure that I am able to be a strong advocate for Queer Chicanx representation in STEM and especially within the geosciences, where diversity is severely lacking at higher levels. As a Queer Chicano myself, I am deeply interested in the role of Queer Chicanx people throughout history and how they helped shape the movement (this is one aspect I am excited to explore within this course). 

    I currently work in a paleoclimate lab, analyzing deep-sea sediment core samples from the Eocene-Oligocene transition to better understand Earth’s conditions during the time. Alongside that, I work with the Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences diversity committee as their undergraduate representative. Aside from my research and work interests, art is a passionate hobby of mine and I love learning about art history, which is another motivation for me taking this course. I’d love to explore Chicanx and Latinx art in depth, which I’ve only gotten to do in extremely small sections in past art and art history courses. 

The reading that was provided for week 1, Printing and Collecting the Revolution by E. Carmen Ramos, I found to be extremely engaging. I was mostly drawn to the section discussing Queer Chicanx artists and their work, such as Ester Hernandez’s La Ofrenda and Julio Salgado’s Quiero Mis Queerce, especially since I resonated with his experience as a Queer Chicano feeling pressured to hide their femininity. This reading mostly seemed like an overview of what’s to come with this course, so I’m excited to dig deeper into some of these aspects of Chicanx and Latinx art.

I look forward to meeting all of you in class!