During another segment of Seen and Unseen, fellow activists and artists Ester Hernandez and Omequetzal Lopez were featured to discuss their work and impact on the community. I'm choosing to focus on Ester Hernandez as her visual work resonates with me more. Hernandez is a San Francisco-based visual artist born in Dinuba to a Mexican/Yaqui farm worker family and is a UC Berkeley graduate.
During the 80's, Hernandez had created an extremely controversial piece at the time for depicting a confident nude woman with tattoos and punk hairstyle, which was normally associated with men, and implied a romantic relationship with another woman. This piece stands not only as a rejection of gender norms but critiques our heteronormative society. As was mentioned in the video, Hernandez took a great risk with this piece that could've cost her rejection by her own community.
The conversation then proceeded to a lesson on gender pronouns, gender identity, expression, sexual orientation, and sex as a social construction. I had already been aware of this topic but was given clarity in regards to sex being a social construction as I had previously thought only gender was. But with the explanation of how there is no binary with the biology of sex, in regards to intersex individuals which provided me with tools to inform others on this topic. I have gotten into conversations prior with individuals who do not under the identity of non-binary or raising children as gender-neutral.
During the film they had showed of Ester Hernandez, several moments she discussed about her childhood reminded me of myself. She talked about drawing in the mud, using charcoal and drawing her family and friends. When I was in elementary school, I would draw in bic blue pens my classmates in my math packet. All the way until my senior year of high school in my AP Calculus class I would draw on my math worksheets which told me a lot about which career I should strive for.
Hernandez's family had been farmers as well so she aligned herself with the agenda of the United Farm Workers union. This piece she created, disrupts the narrative that farmers are these happy workers who enjoy their job. In reality, they are exposed to dangerous chemicals, unfair working conditions, and low wages. She also demonstrated the use of women in advertisements of commodities. Though this is a relatively tame image compared to the advertisements I've seen of women in food commercials. These advertisements were mainly on the Spanish Language channels with telenovela actresses acting sexy for product commercials like Ruffles and Pepsi.
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