This project to me was learning about the struggles that the people of the Spanish culture go to through. Started out learning about the history of the Indians and the controversy that was Christopher Columbus back in the 1400's. We learned about his voyages and how he treated the Indians violently and how his full story is not well known to people. Then related the violence and behavior of that time to our time and what violence and tragedy the people of the Spanish culture are going through now. We started to learn about how tragic life is in Central America and parts in Mexico. We learned about the Civil war that is happening in Central America and how government is very corrupted there. We also learned about how children are trying to survive through all of this, trying to not get kidnapped, murdered, into sex trafficking, raped, and how some are working everyday to provide for their family. These children ages range from 7-17 years old. We learn that many people go on a journey trying to get to the U.S. hoping to be free from violence and live the American dream. A lot of them end up dead from the long journey form lack of everyday needs such as water, food, substandard living. Even kids go on these journeys trying to be successful to help their family and it's very heartbreaking when you as a parent get told the your child passed away on a journey trying to provide and take care of their family. On top of that, men, women, and children face threats from gangs, corrupted police/army members, and just corrupted and violent people around them. We also learned about the U.S.'s involvement and how other countries and governments are playing a role in this situation. The purpose of learning about this is to learn about what struggles and devastations Spanish people are going through and trying to depict on how as people can help or spread awareness. For our exhibition we created art pieces and answered 5 different essential questions that relate to the situation that I explained above. This is how we chose to inform viewers at our exhibition.
The 5 essential questions:
1. Why do people immigrate to other countries?
2. What are the challenges they might face when entering a new country?
3. What is the difference between acculturation and assimilation?
4. What things are essential or necessary to achieve success in the US?
5. Is there an American dream? Is it for everyone?
On the left is a draft I did trying to represent why people try to immigrate to other countries. I showed a Mexican man surrounded by a gun, blood, tears, education, and money. The gun because he is trying to escape violence. The blood and tears is also what he is trying to escape. The education and money is obviously what he is trying to reach.
On the right is my final art piece, and it shows a child soldier in a pit of fire. This also represents why people try to immigrate to other countries because they do not want the future of our world and their own kids future ruined by becoming a soldier at such a young age. This can change and corrupt a kid's mind and life. |
About Exhibition
Exhibition for me went great! Being with my peers presenting our art pieces, artist statements, and informing our audience about what we learned about went really well! I feel like I presented my learning experience and work really clear and elaborately to all the viewers I spoke with. I am most proud of how I was very confident in explaining my work, I felt like the people I talked to left our exhibition really informed about our project and definitely learned something new.