Jessica Lopez

Hello! My name is Jessica Lopez, my pronouns are she/her/hers. You can call me Jess for short. I am a fourth year transfer student, expected to graduate this upcoming Spring 2021. I am majoring in Sociology and minoring in Chicanx and Central American Studies. I was born and raise in South Central, Los Angeles and transferred from Compton Community College to UCLA Fall 2019. I currently don't have a particular research interest but I have always been passionate about my community and the social impacts we face that causes us to be underfunded and underrepresented, so I am currently trying to pinpoint an area that most interests me to research. 

I consider myself a creative, and this class was a must on my list. I enjoy anything that has to do with visual arts especially when it has to do with activist work created by people of color because they usually entail a piece of their lived experience, the over all struggle in communities of color, our perseverance, and our resiliency. This course encapsulates a lot of interests of mine, and I hope to learn about and find new interesting artist along the way. 

Week one's reading, ¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now, composed by E. Carmen Ramos corresponded to how art activism brings awareness to issues affecting communities of color. Particularly prints were easily able to circulate and not be censored across communities in order to galvanize people into joining movements across history. The reading reminded me of the social movements we have seen take place in Los Angeles and across the U.S this past year in 2020. Murals and digital artwork was seen across all platforms, and in the protests as well that depicted the brutality and the reality that people are facing and that propelled others to support and uplift their community members in any way they could at the time. Graphics as such were passed around through social media to bring awareness to where to donate and to inform people of events that took place or events that were going to take place. The fact that art can have an encouragement on communities to seek civil justice and inform them that they are seen and heard by others across the world, gives them the power they need to continue their fight on all fields.