Lepe, Kimberley

Hello all!  My name is Kimberley Lepe and my preferred pronouns are she/her/hers.  Though Kimberley is my full name I typically introduce myself as Kim.  I am a fourth year Psychobiology major at UCLA with an interest in medicine.  I currently work as a medical assistant/scribe with a goal to pursue a career as a doctor.  My main focus is to be able to help in closing the gap in communication, racial, and ethnic barriers that affect our healthcare system present day, which is also along the lines of my research interest.  

So why exactly am I taking this class?  In the simplest explanation, I love art and I would love to learn more about Chicana/x culture, and to further deconstruct common narratives. 

I am Mexican American, and though Chicana/x culture is a big part of my life, I aspire to learn more about the Chicana/x artists that persevere through a rather male dominated field.  I am definitely not an artist, and sadly the most I can do is draw stick figures.  On the contrary, learning about art that can captivate my emotions and I love to see artists express themselves visually in a way that words cannot.  I am looking forward to speaking with others in the class and to be able to discuss the complexities and contributions of Chicana/x artists.  

In "Conditions for Producing Chicana Art," Venegas makes very interesting points in light of a role strain that Chicana/x women often face.  I found this very interesting, especially through her discussion of the Virgen de Guadalupe, and how this role itself created a passive bind that Chicana/x artists had to overcome.  Venegas also focuses on a male-dominated aspect of art from the larger paradigm of Western culture.  Thus, Chicana/x artists  not only had to overcome this Western ideology, but also breakaway from the typical submissive roles in Mexican culture.