Transforming Borders - What do we do with this? Where do we go from here? What does it mean to transform? What is transformation? How can we use these theories for transformative work? Growing up, in K-12, I was the little girl in the front row of the class picture. I was small for my age. In 4th grade, I became interested in basketball. I distinctly remember thinking that I wanted to perform beyond my dance classes which I was slowly disliking as I got older. So I transformed from a ballerina to a basketball player. I remember the wanting of approval, the cheering of the audiences. I wanted the spotlight. When I tried out for basketball my freshman year of high school, the coach at my school told me that I was too short to be on the team. I was short. But to not provide me with an opportunity to even try out is something that I still carry around with me. Had I had the ganas at that time, I would have four lettered that coach all the way to the principal's office. I was new and d
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Border Crosser: What borders do you cross I'm a non-traditional student at the age of 40 I am mixed race; Mexican-American I am unable to bear children and I want to adopt I am an only child with one living parent and no extended family within 600 miles I am a licensed small business owner, changing careers due to the pandemic I am a licensed volunteer football (coach) with plans to coach collegiately in DI-III or NAIA I am an aspiring educator I have a brain tumor
(Re)building, (Re)searching, (Re)gain, (Re)flect, (Re)spond In chapter 5 of the book “Light in the Dark” by Gloria Anzaldua, she states “Your goal is to cultivate an acute awareness of processes at work in your own psyche and to create symbols and patterns of its operations” (Anzaldua, & Keating, A.). In 2020, being aware & accepting that I needed a career change after 15 years was my process. It was something that I reflected on for a full year before making the switch. As an aspiring teacher, it is my hope that my students, the athletes that I coach, will leave my classroom or the football (soccer) pitch empowered and prepared enough to challenge the status quo if they want to be a business owner like myself while everyone is telling them to look elsewhere. I hope they have the ganas to create their own path & explore their own passions as I did & continue to do. And I hope they learn something new, feel inspired, whether it is a new skill or technique or something
J. Lo & Kahlo: How do you see this play out? What are your thoughts about yesterday and today's readings? Can these things be viewed as empowerment? I think anyone taking a WGS course would agree that representation matters. It matters in the workforce, schools, elected officials, etc. It should be said that as a community, the Latino (insert your preferred term here), is still to this day being short-changed for our contributions in the U.S. (and the world). I hardly feel as though Jennifer Lopez represents me. I say this as someone who purchased or was gifted her first handful of CD's. I still enjoy her music. Most of it is upbeat and I have good memories of road-tripping with friends in my 20's with her music as the soundtrack. Someone lifted her up at a time when there was a lack of POC on basic television. She was a background dancer on In Living Color. She is not a major award winning actress but I think she could be. She is uplifted now in her 50's becaus
Testimonios Through Creative Acts Sandra Fernandez, Cruzado (Settled In) 2015 Redlining was my first thought when I looked at this piece. Some might think that 2020 ushered in mayhem that highlighted every crack in our country's foundation but I disagree. We were already there. In the middle of COVID, the weight of social justice inequalities weighed heavily and everything came to a head when George Floyd was killed. And Breonna Taylor. And Elijah McClain. And Adam Toledo. Redlining is a discriminatory practice in which services are withheld from potential customers who reside in neighborhoods classified as 'hazardous' to investment; these neighborhoods have significant numbers of racial and ethnic minorities, and low-income residents. There are so many perspectives and ways in which to discuss systemic inequalities. In this post, I will only discuss redlining as it relates to what is happening in Dallas County, approximately one hour away from where I live. Dallas Co
Read, reflect, process, read, create and connect to class theorizing and lived experiences, witnessing of the world. The poem Tlatelolco reminds me of the all to familiar story within my own family. My grandparents were adamant that their eight children (my mom & her siblings) graduate from high school. They also implored their children to go to college or a technical school. All but one went to college. The boys registered for the draft and went to war but when they returned, two of the three went to college and graduated. The other earned a technical degree. Four of the five girls all went to college and graduated. The one that didn't struggled in school and dropped out after a semester. My grandfather especially was insistent on his girls getting a college education. He saw his own sisters, all of his family born in the U.S., struggling without higher education degrees. My mom and her sisters that did go to college all went to and graduated from Texas Woman's University
Reflect on each author’s passages and reflect on three questions that come up for you. Share these. You are not seeking answers you are processing, reflecting in any way you feel necessary. Q: How can we as a (U.S.) society end cultural appropriation specifically in RTVF? Social media? What role can professional athletes & their employers play in changing the narrative? Q: What can millennials and younger generations do right now/tomorrow to change the narrative around our culture and history? What can we do as the next generation so that the correct history isn't lost and so that the next generation and the one after that don't fall into being white-washed from school textbooks? What about the school library books? There is a war on books in schools in Texas as they relate to the LGBTQ+ community. Who's next? Q: In art/artifacts/collections, what determines the value? My grandma and mom always told/tell me "this will have value one day". It might be a book o
How do you interpret conocimiento and autohistoria? Visually engage in any creative process you’d like to experiment with as you reflect on what this means to you. "The transformative acts of conocimiento and autohistoria-teoría encourage healing and integration of the self." This is single sentence that stood out to me most from today's assignment. As I continued to read, I noticed this paragraph: "Anzaldúa, through her theory of autohistoria-teoría facilitates a coming together of fragmented lived experiences with a holistic perspective including the arts; which resists the traditional notion of art inhabiting a hierarchal privileged world. Anzaldúa’s theories of autohistoria and conocimiento are an embodiment and theorizing in practice through everyday lived experiences. The transformative acts of the conocimiento process initiates conscious work—where the artist (educator, learner, curator, writer, performer, musician) embodies the creative acts (likened to a sh
Machismo? Stereotypes and assumptions — unpack these through a social construction analysis with one example from your local community, job, experience, etc. In Western society, machismo is seen/heard every day. In professional sports, male players are held in a high regard for their physical strength. They are paid in excess of what most people will make in a lifetime. No one needs $41 million dollars in one calendar year. This is the amount made public that LeBron James, LA Lakers, will take home in 2022. But why isn't his counterpart in the WNBA, Sue Bird of the Seattle Storm being paid the same amount? We have accepted this as the norm for years between the two leagues. Picture: NBA Player & WNBA Player Comparison At the start of this century, I worked for Toys R Us. At the time, business was booming and bankruptcy/going out of business was not in the forecast. Amazon did not exist and the seed for online shopping was just being planted. It was only used for major high en
Consider the topic of mestizaje, hybrid identities—reflect, share. Mestizaje (n.) of mixed race I don't need a book, podcast, or movie to tell me about being mixed race. Mixed race is how I identify. I have mentioned this in previous posts. Though I cannot control how others see me, I know that I am privileged. My skin tone says to others that I am privileged. It is something that I do not struggle with because I do not let other people's opinions or thoughts dictate my opinion of myself. That is not to say that I did not struggle when I was younger. "Are you adopted? Why didn't your real parents want you? Is she your nanny? Are you supposed to be with her? How do you know Spanish if you're white?" I heard it all growing up. And as I became an adult, the narrative didn't change, just what was said. "You'll never get it. You won't understand this, but...". And perhaps it is true. I won't have to deal with being racially profiled
Borderland theory: definitions? Imagery? Consider: Borders as permeable.....barriers, bridges: functionality of borders? Colonialism? Constructs? Political? Thoughts? Identities? Insurgency? Resistance? “A borderland is a vague and undetermined place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary. It is in a constant state of transition” (Anzaldúa). My grandfather, the one who marched with Cesar Chavez, was not an immigrant. He was born in Texas. His wife, my grandmother, was born in Mexico and crossed the border when she was a minor. There was no "border crossing" lined with American and Mexican flags. No one asked them what they had in their bags as they entered the U.S. They walked hundreds of miles through Mexico. They paid coyotes as they needed, to get them through some parts. They crossed the streets or bridges and that was that. In the U.S., she became a wife, mother, and for decades, she ran the only grocery store in my mom's hometown. I'll never
Consider your own knowledge and involvement with activist work, what has it looked like? What can be an activist? Define activism for yourself—share—examples of activism. Though I didn't know it until I was out of high school, my grandfather marched with Cesar Chavez. I briefly learned about Cesar Chavez in high school. Blink and you'd miss it. As I found my voice, my activism has centered around women's rights, educational opportunities, equal pay, and LGBTQ+ rights. I have been a member of a national nonprofit organization for the past 26 years and over the years, my activism has mostly been through the organization or through partners of the organization. For many years, I was heavily involved in the youth program as a sponsor. The organization I belong to is often thought to be a political organization, though it is nonprofit. As a member, I have registered new voters, marched for immigrant rights in DFW, rallied for teachers in Austin and stood with labor unions in S
Labeling Continued - The Genderbread Person
The first course I enrolled in at TTU was a WGS course. It was the only course I took that semester at TTU. I was enrolled at my community college for other courses. I remember clearly, the discussion and the curriculum about the Genderbread Person. I thought it to be very helpful in understanding more about the concept of gender and labeling. The link is below. The Genderbread Person
How have you been labeled? Label others? What are the advantages/disadvantages to labels? What are they for? Who uses them? Why? Everyone has been labeled from the day they were born. We are assigned a gender at birth. The assignment is a label. As we age, we are labeled based on our looks: skinny, athletic, overweight, curvy. Individuals are labeled based on their sexual orientation, gender expression, disability, etc. Women who either physically cannot or choose not to have children are labeled for not having children by a certain age. After a while, women are also labeled as having baggage if they are not married. People like me who are mixed-race might be labeled as "too much of one race". We might also be called bi-racial. I don't have a preference and use both of these terms interchangeably. As a Mexican-American woman, I do use certain terms to identify myself. Hispanic and Latina are the two terms that I use most. I do not identify with the word Chicana. It is