Reflections

 Looking back at the beginning of the quarter I just feel really grateful for having taken this class and I am able to reflect on a lot of the growth that I have had throughout the time. As a queer, Mexican, first gen, woman I think that this class really inspired me to be proud of who I am and how resilient my people are. I feel that as an artist I have also been inspired to take more time to create things and express the way that I am feeling. I especially felt empowered listening to Xandra Ibarra present to the class. I loved listening to how her work is creative and her whole creative process that leads to the finished artistic creations that she has. I feel like it is so important to be introduced and be made aware of this kind of representation in the artistic world. Growing up I felt that my love for art was just a hobby and as a result I felt that I needed to repress it not focus my energy much on it. Also as first gen I felt a sense of obligation to carry the family and provide for them. I think that seeing so many of the artists that have the same background and pressures as me excel in what they love to do is beautiful. I absolutely love seeing brown art. Even more, I love to learn about the artists like Camen Lomas Garza and Yolanda Lopez who really pioneered the movements of Chicana art and activism. I feel that a lot of art in this class was centered around politics, but I also absolutely loved seeing and listing to presentations that were just about the beauty of art itself and the Chicana culture. I think that the wikipedia project was so much fun to do, I just feel that I was overwhelmed with a lot of my other deadlines to fully put my all into creating a page for my artist. However, I really do plan to keep adding and doing my part in making the artist feel more represented and seen. Overall, I absolutely loved this class, loved my peers, loved the presenters! And again, I just absolutely love seeing brown art and brown creativity be represented and rejoiced over.