Category: Response 9

Image blog post for Nao Bustamante’s “Bad Girl” Aesthetics

I picked this image to talk about because on the description of Nao Bustamante’s website for this art piece, it said that she was under this rug. I think this really makes a statement because she could have thrown anything under that rug but instead she thought to put herself under there. A lot of art is open for interpretation and I think here I’m interpreting that she has been put under the rug in her life- meaning that people have penalized her for a number of reasons. It could be that she is a Latina or it could be that she is a woman. The intersectionality of her identity has influenced her art and has given her art a bigger meaning for her personally. I really like this piece because I think a lot of people can relate to it but with their own story. That’s how this piece speaks to me.

Source of image: naobustamante.com/art_undertherug.html

My body, My art

We believe that being quiet is being silent.

Eso no es cierto!

Not when our body is present,

Not when we choose to deconstruct stereotypes through the arts.

Not when we transform what we wear into a crucial part of who we are.

 

And certainly not when get so deep into character and perform our lives.

 

We have to be silent, stay still and pay attention.

Presta atencion!

Because when our bodies talk, we must listen.

Listen to all the stories and intense feelings that has to let out.

They always come out…

 

 

 

Differences

I always believe that we should embrace our differences in order to be better,  in order to grow. Sometimes you don’t want to be different you want to be accepted. Two years ago when I was teaching to little kids I could see how they bullied a kid because of his skin and I felt disgusted. At the moment I only thought how mean the little kids were but I stooped myself and I did not shout, I silence myself and run to hug the kid. Instead of making a big deal out of it I hugged the fears out of the kid, the black kid, Tino.

At the moment I understand that shout to the kids would only scared them and it would be a short term solution, the long term solution would be doing the opposite of what they are expecting. I hugged Tino but later in the class we talked about our differences and the fact that we need to respect them.

 I needed to put myself in both sides.That day I learned that we can not be guided by our emotions, we need to be rationals and do our best.

Response to “Everyday Grace” by Mirtha Quintanales

Grapes and Passionfruit inspired by a collective of Tell it To Live

Sour and Hard

The taste on my tongue makes me miss you

It makes her

Put her heart out and scream her feelings out

The grape is like a ball

Like the knot I have in my throat of sadnesss

Hard like my battles

A room full of empty souls

Many dreams broken, still a lot of hopes to fill

Cherish the good and remove the bad.
Some people don’t realize till it is gone

Moving on is a way of life.

There will always be obstacles, pain, and strife.
although it may be risky like eating a forbidden fruit
never let anyone steal your shine and make you frown
So will you sit in the shadows and let darkness

Or will you rise up and with the Latinas lost in the room?

Dile Que Es Amor

Y eso fulls my life

I fell in love with the sound of hopes and dreams not sadness

Eating Mango

The way it shapes only the curves of a womxn can be explained

Reminds me of the islands

Pero tenemos que seguir luchando to make our womxn praised as much as a mango would

You and us as ONE

This is not the end but we will be back soon

De lo que es amor, de lo que es la vida

De lo que es amor, de lo que es la vida

to me it is to think and clear out my mind

to let go of what you cannot control

the political themes  Ines Hernandez Avila touches on

is amazing to do through ones passion

the passion of writing poems

I wish I could be brave enough

enough  to express my thoughts and put them out there

La Bruja

Norma E. Cantu’s piece “Bruja’s Fears and Desires” was so interesting to me because I feel like it highlighted the ways in  which a lot of Latina women in my life often experience the world. I think that the religion vs. spirituality aspect was especially interesting, because it pertains to my mother’s own interaction with Catholicism in her life. My mother also has an alter where she has La Virgen de Guadalupe framed in the center while pictures of her siblings, parents, husband and children are scattered around her. It is as if she is positioning La Virgen as the sun which the rest of us revolve around; without La Virgen’s light and guidance, perhaps she wouldn’t be lucky enough to have three kids pursuing higher education and her family back in Mexico still in good health.

So while my Irish grandmother will pray on her rosary and go to church every Sunday at noon, my mother quietly practices Catholicism her own way. Just this past Easter Sunday, we were not expected to go to church. Instead we helped around the house, paying special attention to make sure the flowers placed on the alter of La Virgen were vibrant and given enough water, while also making sure that the food that was to feed all of our hungry extended family members was being prepared properly. I think that my mother is a very spiritual person in the sense that she sees it as a personal, almost internal responsibility that she worships La Virgen in order to maintain homeostasis among her loved ones. Her alter to La Virgen and the crosses she has nailed above our headboards is less an imposition and more her own version of prayer–making sure that those she loves are safe and given every cosmic good fortune available.

Victims

Reading Night Terrors can be extremely difficult to anybody, even if you dont have experienced an assault like that. Sexual assault is one of the most dehumanizing types of abuse. It attacks you where you are most vulnerable and makes you doubt everything about yourself. It makes you wonder why victims tend to ask themselves was it my fault?.  Unfortunately, victims have the tendencies to believe that they brought the trauma upon themselves and that the assault is their punishment for being “bad” or inadequate, as it was showed when the first assault occurred and she asked herself Was I a bad girl? What did I do to deserve this?.

The idea that victims of sexual assault are somehow to blame because they didn’t take the necessary steps to protect themselves is something that is woven into the fabric of society and how people react to sexual assault, people tend to label or to accused the victim by saying things like she must have provoked him, she shouldn’t have been wearing that kind of clothes or the popular “ella se lo estaba buscando”.  Which is why it should really come as no surprise that survivors blame themselves; it seems that society only takes rape seriously when the victim was violently overtaken by a stranger jumping out of the bushes. However for most of the victims, the rapists were wolves in sheep’s clothing. They were their dates, their friends, their teachers or even their fathers.

As a child, we learn to protect ourselves from strangers, so we grow up assuming a rape cannot possibly occur between friends or family members, but sadly, most of the time a person is raped by someone they know, trust, or love. It is hard to accept that a person they spent Christmas dinners with, or someone who came to their birthday parties, had the capacity to commit one of the most heinous crimes known to humankind, but is possible.

It can happen to you, to me or to anybody and the most helpful thing we can do is to stop saying the classing lines that only help to reinforce the victim blaming.

Stop Crying or I’ll Give you a reason to Cry About

“Stop Crying or I’ll Give You a Reason to Cry About”
The bruises and the scars remain on my back…
The bruises and the scars remain on my heart…
But it was all out of love
It was all for my progression and success
But I must confess
I am scarred.
I try so hard
to forget
I try so hard
to imagine a future
In which I don’t hit mis niños
Yet at the same time
Lo encuentro duro pensar su futuro
If I don’t.

This is in response to the recurring theme of the body and the opening passage “The Body Re/members.” In my personal experience, my body has always been a target for my parents. I think it is just part of the culture, as they were also beaten as kids. So, whenever they would get angry at me, instead of speaking to me, I’d just get hit. Because of this, I struggle with whether I deserved it or not and how I will discipline my kids in the future. I don’t want to hit them, because I never liked being hit myself. Yet, at the same time, I have no idea how else to teach them right from wrong.

Response 9

Poetry response to Quintanales’ “Depression”

 

The past haunts me too

And all the injustices I have faced within myself

The hatred I used too, and sometimes still feel towards my body

This vessel that confirms my entire being

Everything I ever was and am, settled down within me

Why is it so hard to love myself?

Why is it a daily inconvenience?

Everyday I try to start anew

But what for?

What about the memories, talents, love within my body?

I am trying, slowly and willingly

To accept this vessel I call my body

To love it as much as I love others

I want to repair my beautiful skin

And nourish it, adore it

I have one life to live

My body has been my everything

My war tank, my demise, my whole presence

So let me work on myself

And learn to protect and nurture my body

Because it’s my own and will always be mine.