Bravo, Adriana

 Hello everyone!

My name is Adriana Bravo (she/her/hers) and I’m currently in my last year at UCLA, majoring in Chicana/o Studies with a minor in Education and Statistics. I am from Colton, a small suburban city in Southern California. Being a first-generation and Mexican/Guatemalan American student at UCLA has been no walk in the park, but I'm extremely grateful for the sense of belonging and community that the Chicana/o Department has offered me.

My time at UCLA has sparked a lot of interests as I've navigated my identity. However, what has touched me the most is the power of learning and connecting to oneself and others through solo travel. 

In addition to this, I'm extremely interested in digital media; I'm particularly attracted to the use of social media as a medium for digital storytelling and activism. 

In my last Chicana/o class, we had a guest speaker focus on this specific subject in collaboration with their artwork and I was left with wanting to know more about influential artists to compare the evolution of Chicanx/Latinx art. Therefore, I anticipate a great quarter in this class learning about the history and impact of Chicanx/Latinx Artists through different mediums of art.

Introducing the class with the reading, ¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now by E. Carmen Ramos was a fitting way to get a sense of the impact of Chicanx Art on social movements as well as an individual's self-consciousness. The image that resonated with me is Libertad de Expression Mexico 68 by Adolfo Mexiac. It was created in 1954 and portrays a man gagged by a chain labeled "Made in the USA"; Mexiac created this as a representation of Indigenous silence during the US backed military coup in Guatemala. I loved the power of this photo, but most importantly the sense of timelessness it projects. For example, this same image was used in Mexico in 1968 after student protesters were repressed by the Mexican government for their use of speech. 

Although these instances occurred several years ago, there are still governmental attempts to silence oppressed groups worldwide; and all these continuous social movements open opportunities to recycle previous art in attempts to create/maintain timeless unification.