Week 10 Post: Final Reflection

As I think back on the beginning of the quarter, I immediately think about how mentally constrained I was in terms of specific guidelines and how to get the good grade in my classes. The experience of keeping a sketchbook and materials near by and picking up a pencil and drawing at whatever time and pace I like was very new to me. As a busy university student and as an individual who carries many responsibilities on her shoulder, I never have time for self-expression. This state of being constantly busy has lead me to neglect my bodily, mental and physical needs. This sketchbook helped me bring attention to those needs and helped me Brea my mold (which is the title of my Sketchbook). It allowed me to draw differently and look at objects differently. When Professor Lopez would remind us that the drawings of our hands were just that, drawings of hands, not actual hands. This allowed me to accept my drawings as I was drawing working on them and helped calm my perfectionist mentality. While writing down the names of Chicana artists we new during the first day of class, I felt very embarrassed at my inability to name Chicana artist that were not the mainstream Frida Khalo artists. Today, I not only know the names of many more Chicana artists, but I am knowledgeable and identify with many of the themes expressed in their paintings.
One of the many topics that will forever resonate with me when I see her portraits is the significance behind La Virgen de Guadalupe. This class has allowed me to develop a connection with her as a feminine and cultural icon and less as a Catholic icon. The idea that Yolanda Lopez presented regarding viewing our grandmothers and mothers as Virgenes was also a strong message because my mom, and mother figures in my family, have always been my heroines, leaders and idols and now I feel like representing them in this Virgen de Guadalupe light is representative of my love for them. Finally, I decided to post this image presented today by Pola Lopez is representative of my identification as a Chicana feminist. I feel like this painting is so me because the nopales are sprouting out of her and she is using them as a defense mechanism against society and its standards. The use of loteria cards on the body are almost like tattoos, which are highly unacceptable in my family. I identify with this because the cards are like the culture that is forever instilled in my body, mind and blood. I also take much pride in being of Mexican decent and am growing conscious of that part of my identity as well.
I have grown very much within this time frame and hope to continue growing as an individual and expanding my level of cultural consciousness.

Week 9 Blog Post: Thanksgiving Celebration

Throughout the years, my Thanksgiving celebration has lessened in its family significance. When I was little, I remember that my family would switch off on who would host the celebration but would always come together. Our family size would make any large house into a small house because of how crowded it would be. Those who would host the gathering would bake the turkey and all those who would visit would bring side dishes like ham, mashed potatoes and more. We would combine all types of tables so that we could all sit together, eat and socialize as one. We would hold hands and pick one person to say grace. This person was either an adult or teenager who had a very successful year. It was an honor to be chosen to say grace, even though we were not very religious. Once the person finished, we would all hug one another and sit and eat. These times were great and will forever live in my mind and heart but as time as passed, the family has distanced themselves from each other. Small conflicts within parts of my family have been turned into year long feuds that have yet to end. Although we have lost the family touch, I will continue the significance of bringing our families together with the my generation and our children.
After reminiscing about what used to be, I'm still very glad to be able to spend time with my family, regardless of whether or not it is a holiday. For this Thanksgiving day my family and I celebrated with my cousin's girlfriend's family in the Crenshaw area. Although I was a bit sentimental to have to celebrate my first Thanksgiving without my mom, I was able to allow myself to be happy for a night and create new memories with my family. Although we were not with our biological family, we spent time with our new soon-to-be family as my cousin proposed to his girlfriend after singing her a serenata. We were all very excited and overwhelmed but full of joy. This year has taught me that although some people share the same blood as me, they aren't necessarily my family. Sometimes people who were complete strangers are better family than those who share my DNA. My Thanksgiving was all in all very well spent. My family is so important to me that i kept them to myself in my drawing. What I was willing to share about our celebrations and our homes is that we love (and make) amazingly delicious food, we have very vibrant homes, cultures and personalities. In addition, as you can tell by the cross on the wall, there is a general tone of religiousness but we are not strict practicers. We also absolutely LOVE dancing to and singing songs. As the continuing couch indicates, there is another room where music is coming from and where my family is dancing but it is left up to the imagination of the viewer to see what is happening. This lack of specifying the physical appearances of my family can also allow viewers to further relate to the set up of the home and the symbolism behind something as simple as a cross on the wall.

Public Art Presentations: Graciela Iturbide

For this blog post, I wanted to talk a little more about Graciela Iturbide's photography. Specifically this photo of one of the cholas from the White Fence pandilla who were showing Graciela Iturbide around their neighborhood. As stated in class, the women chose where, when and how to pose and take a picture. This form of freedom for the "models" transformed the pictures into the most natural and organic depiction of the culture within their communities and how the women feel they are treated and represented in the community itself. I found this image most interesting because the other two images shown through the presentation by my classmate, Marco Padilla, exerted a powerful aura. The faces of the women in the other pictures, including Cecilia who is in this photo, looked tough and mean.
However, this image shows this harsh chola as a delicate being who is comfortable with exposing her body. I believe that her pose and the closing of her eyes and the fact that she is laying in a bed doesn't depict vulnerability but realness. Although these women were integrated into a society with a culture that does not, as stated by Marco, appreciate or respect the value of women. This picture shows that although she shows that she is a strong person on the outside, she is a delicate woman who wants a peaceful life, maybe away from the violence that gang life brings.

Codex Carmen Lomas Garza

In the book Carmen Lomas Garza, chapter four, called “A Chicana Reconquista”, describes the powerful reappropriation of ionic persons and symbols within the Chicano culture to fit our needs as a community. When artists reconquer the portrayal of the struggles of their indigenous ancestors, “They become… cultural mediators. The line between pre-Columbian peoples and Chicanos is thereby re-inscribed, and the gaps in our collective memory are filled” (p.). Carmen did so by  reintroducing the history of Natives and Chicano peoples through her two series: Codex Lomas Garza and Homenaje a Tenochtitlan. The most empowering image portrayed in this chapter was the 1992 watercolor cover of Codex Lomas Garza. The cover includes a Mexican chameleon surrounded by red and black ribbons tied into bows at the corners. The author describes the chameleon as a symbol of “self-preservation” through its ability to change colors and compares it to the Chicano community (p.63). I also believe that it was set as a cover because it is like a recipe book. It holds the secret to cultural preservation and is bound by red and black colored bows because they are colors used in Mexico to symbolize la lucha. Chicanos are enduring a fight to preserve ourselves and our culture, but first we must realize the core of our cultures.

Blog 5: Stencil

I made two different stencils. One is the logo of the decepticons and the other is of the autobots. I chose these two figures to put the autobot in the front cover of my sketchbook and the
decepticon. These symbols make me reminisce about my childhood because I would watch some episodes in the morning with my sister while we ate breakfast before school. I also like the competition between the two. I classify myself as a competitive person because I have grown by setting goals for myself and competing with myself to see what my limits are mentally and physically.

I found difficulty in making these stencils even though they look fairly simplistic. I firstly found it hard to know where to cut and be careful not to cut any vital aspects to the stencil. Also, I am inexperienced with the X-acto knife and found that I would sometimes place too much pressure on the knife to where my fingers hurt and other times I would not place enough pressure and wouldn't cut completely through the folder. I also found it difficult to meet the cuts. For example, the edges had to meet well so that the paper would easily come off but I would have to pull the papers to rip them away from the stencil I was attempting to make.

Even though I had a tough time creating my stencil, I am excited to see the result on my sketchbook.

Ramirez-Oropeza, Martha

I am incredibly delighted to be able to present on this amazing woman, Martha Ramirez-Oropeza. She is currently my professor for the course Dia de Los Muertos. She is such an inspirational individual and focuses greatly on one's spiritual balancing. I am excited to be able to possibly interview her in regards to her works. She has studied the Nahuatl peoples throughout her life and  I am glad she can be a representative of their traditions and cultures. I am also astonished because I had planned to present on two other Chicana artists who worked specifically in painting and was beaten to it. I am very happy that I was beaten to the other to artists!

Blog 4: Laura Alvarez

After Laura Alvarez shared her personal background and creativity behind her mystery solving characters and various paintings, I was able to get a better perspective on the meanings behind her paintings. Laura Alvarez shared that her mother originated from Tamaulipas, Mexico and obtained a legal status here in the United States through her marriage. She worked as a housemaid and would bring Laura along with her when she was a little girl. Ms. Alvarez also confessed that as a small girl, she would dress up in her fanciest of clothing before going to clean homes that were sometimes those of her peers at school. She was unconsciously developing a form of rejection of the possible perspectives of those around her. She did not want to be seen in ordinary clothing and help homeowners and society devalue her self-worth as there are strong stigmas toward housemaids being illiterate or non-English language speakers and thus being treated inhumanely. She dressed up to be seen and accepted and become visible, as opposed to invisible. Thus, her "dressing up" added value to the work she was doing in the sense that she looked like a jewel and should be treated as one too.

Alvarez's environment shaped how she expressed herself through her experience at specific times. When I see this painting, I imagine Double Agent Sirvienta Remedies (and little Laura Alvarez) changing from her self-assigned uniform, on a bus bench after work, into the shoes that she explained (in class) served as "the perfect shoes for crossing the border". Although Double Agent Sirvienta has now gained all the information she could when working as a Sirvienta and is changing out of he disguise, Laura Alvarez is changing  from a false identity, as seen by her nice dress and heels, into comfortable shoes and returning to her true identity as a Mexican-American young woman.The small map-like drawing on the side indicates a sense of direction and confidence that Double Agent Sirvienta has obtained from the information at the home. This information for Double Agent Sirvienta can be translated as Laura Alvarez's consciousness and acceptance of her identity and her possible future.

This is the bread and butter of Blake's arguments in her book Chicana Sexuality and Gender regarding political location. Blake argues that it is vital to consider one's own intersectionalities in order to be conscious of our own identities and political location. In other words, we must know who we are in order to gain proper representation and further consciousness for ourselves and others. Laura Alvarez does so through the changing of clothing, the sitting on a bus stop and the sense of direction. 

Shifra Goldman: Iconography ofChicano Self-Determination

The article, "Iconography ofChicano Self-Determination: Race, Ethnicity, and Class"  by 

Shifra M. Goldman, described the importance of self definition and ethnic preservation through resistance, maintenance and affirmation. As different ethnic groups migrated to the United States, the physical and language differences between the whites and the new arrivals became the factors to dehumanize the new arrivals. Soon, the '"acceptable ethnics" are those who can be assimilated into the middle class and who accept the values of the "American Dream" as a realizable goal' (169). In order for the culture to be preserved within these people,  the peoples must resist integration with methods like continue speaking their native language, pass values like these for several generations and affirm their importance. 
A form of resistance has emerged as art. For example, Yolanda M. Lopez has created several paintings and collages that represent the history and sometimes current struggles of the Chicano peoples. This method of reproducing the lives and culture of these people through art is a form of resistance, maintenance and affirmation. One of the paintings that portray the resistance within a culture is the collage above. Yolanda depicts a Chicana mother breast feeding her child after being inserted in a Virgen de Guadalupe background. The woman becomes the Virgen e Guadalupe and she is appreciated and celebrated. People often find great feeding as uncomfortable or displaying nudity but the nature of breast feeding, the beauty of being able to feed another living being and give it energy through milk, has been idolized by being incorporated into the painting of La Virgen. We are shown that it is important and must appreciate the beauty that comes with it. This painting resists sexual categorization and supports female abilities. Many other of her works do the same.

Questions to the Readings: Alicia Gaspar de Alba

-“Out of the House, the Halo, and the Whore’s Mask: The Mirror of Malinchismo” -

While reading the first article, "Out of the House, the Halo and the Whore's Mask..." by Gaspar de Alba, many topics resonated with my life regarding patriarchy and many questions were sparked in my mind. I am interested in these questions because they are vital to address in order to achieve successful social movements and affect me directly as I identify myself as a feminist.

1. Is it possible for a group of people to be involved with the same causa and movimiento, when there are intersections regarding class, race and gender differences? In order to minimize the argument that "some members of the Movement are more equal than others", should groups that have different intersectionalities segregate? Would that be contradictory to the over all message of mobilization?
2. Would you agree that it is a juxtaposition for Chicanos to devalue the humanity of the females but try to fight for their right to be recognized and valued as artists? Yes, machismo and patriarchy are present in the Mexican home, but doesn't being a Chicana/o mean that they are conscious enough to know about the cultural deficiency that comes with machismo and therefore at least try to give women an equal voice? By definition then, weren't the men the traitors?
3. Why did some of the women resist the word feminists? What gave that word a negative connotation?

-"There's No Place Like Azlan: Embodied Aesthetics in Chicana"-

-When speaking about "race-aesthetics", it was mentioned that not only do we have to define race and identity through the equation presented, which included topics such as race, political identity, religion and more, but all the space in between those identifiers. As I was reading this section, I though of my roommate from last year who argued that she did not identify herself as African American but as "black" instead. She was almost offended when I would try to speak "politically correct" and call her African American. She felt this way because she felt no connection to Africa. She said she was not from there and that she was a reproduction of someone who was from there. I found this troubling because as she was neglecting her direct association with her ancestor's place of origin, she was also denying the culture that came with being born into a family with African roots. I also found it intriguing that she would identify more with a sociological term that was created to dehumanize the slaves at the time. My roommate was a strong advocate for political equality and took part in many Black Lives Matter protests and events. I don't believe that as she as denying her Africanism, she was making herself superior in the social hierarchy but I do believe that she was wrong to say this because her meals are culturally from Africa, her customs and family ideologies are custom to African families. Because of this, many questions come to mind. Is she "politically correct" to neglect Africa as an identifying characteristic while supporting the term black as her identifier? Is she denying her cultural identity by denying her Africanism? Although the term black has been widely accepted by people of color and in turn taken control over its affect, was it not a term constructed with an African culture? Does this mean that every person who identifies as black would also be identifying as African American? 

Galeana, Alejandra

My name is Alejandra Galeana. I am a third year at UCLA, majoring in Political Science and double-minoring in Chicana and Chicano Studies and Labor and Workplace Studies. I am highly interested in this course because as a Chicana who is striving to be conscious, I have made it my job to be educated so that I may, in turn, educate my community. I have begun this intellectual journey by studying myself through my culture's history. As a young woman who has been under the patriarchal foot her entire life, I enjoy taking classes that not only educate me but empower me as a Chicana. 

I, much like Professor Lopez, grew up in a culturally Catholic family where we would maintain traditions like: performing baptisms and marriages and nos persignabamos as we passed a church, or as we begun driving, as a gesture to ask for God's protection and safety. I never understood the inequalities and restrictions given to me through my Chicana culture and even more limitations through the Catholic religion. It has not been until recently that I have made a connection with God by myself but will forever maintain my distance from structural religion. 

However, I grew up constantly aware of the idolization of La Virgen de Guadalupe. Although I maintained my distance from church, La Virgen was close to me at all times through pictures that hung on the walls of the homes of my family and neighbors, on necklaces, murals and more. I began to love seeing Her because She reminded me of my family, my culture, my home. Even though I knew the Christian religion discredited Her and didn't give Her the love my raza gave Her, she remains beautiful in my eyes.