Santos, Evangeline

Hello everyone! My name is Evangeline Santos, my pronouns are she/her. My major is Sociology and I’m pursuing a minor in Urban Regional Planning. I am a second year, non-traditional student, and transferred from East Los Angeles College and will be graduating this spring 2021. My focus is on criminal justice and reform. At my time at East Los Angeles College I started a club with other students for formally incarcerated students and other non-traditional students, and our goal was to help guide them and give them the tools to be able to navigate school. My goal is to eventually go to Law School after I graduate, still have not figured out all the logistics on that. 

I have always been interested in all forms of art. I started playing an instrument at a very young age. Joined art clubs in school. But there has always been this disconnect with the art I was involved in before going to college. From the music we played to the art we studied, in terms of identity and finding space within the arts. I currently work at the Music Center of Los Angeles and we are also neighboring the Broad Museum and MoCA (pre-remote work). Although it has been a privileged to be able to work and be in a space that encompasses art, I still oftentimes feel like a person on the outside looking in. Not included or identifying with the art, along with my community. 

Which is something this week’s reading, “Printing and Collecting the Revolution” by E. Carmen Ramos, touched on. The lack of representation in SAAM. I often see this in museums when they do not have exhibits or instillations from BIPOC. Or they have instillations from BIPOC but the leadership and/or employees do not represent the art or artist. Another thing that resonated with me is that there is space for everyone in a “revolution”. We see that with the graphic artists and their impact on social/political issues. 

I just took a Chicanx Theater class last fall and we learned about Chicanx Theater and its connection to the United Farm Workers, strikes and union. The artist and their art were mentioned in this week’s reading, so it was nice to read about the graphic art side of the movements and see the art. I am looking forward to learning more about Chicanx art and artist and expanding my knowledge on Chicanx art.