Month: April 2012

Xicana Tweets

Cherríe Moraga, A Xicana Codex of Changing Consciousness (1-77)

Xicana Codex (1)

Reading assignment for Friday April 13, 2012. Your reply (under Comments) is due before class. Your response should demonstrate you’ve done and thought about both of the readings. Be sure to check and make sure your response posts.

Cherríe Moraga, A Xicana Codex of Changing Consciousness (1-77)

Moraga spends a good deal of her forward and first essay defining both terminology and her place in it. How does her positioning compare to others you’ve read? What terms would you use to define yourself?

In an earlier work, The Last Generation, Moraga wrote “An art that subscribes to integration into mainstream Amerika is not Chicano art.” How are these essays informed by, expand or under cut this theory?

How does Moraga conceive of generations in her writing? How does she connect her parent’s generation to her own? To her children’s? What is your reaction to her agreement with Sherman Alexie’s quote about his wife and children? To her discussions of grief and anger?

What are Moraga’s issues with feminism? What does she take from it? How does it inform her as a mother, a daughter, an artist? What does she call / name the “weapons of the weak”?

Social Media is My New Best Friend

SmallBiz technology
Image from the article Young Women: The Power Users of Social Media

The Academic year is almost coming to an end and so is my junior year. However, my senior year will be filled with memorable moments followed by big decisions to take and more changes in my life. My time at Loyola Marymount University is progressing at a very fast pace but I’m truly enjoying every single moment inside and outside the classroom. Classes are very intimate and students never feel that they are just a number to the professor because they want and hope to get to know every single student by the end of the semester either on a professional or personal level.  However, it always depends on the student and how much they want to invest in the class but also in creating relationships with professors who are always open to students. Further my double major, Spanish and Women’s Studies, has given me a lot of flexibility to take a diverse number of classes but still be able to meet the requirements for the department without having to sacrifice creativity and my own interests.

Reflecting upon my experience in Latina Feminist Traditions, the course I am currently enrolled in and consistently contributing to the blog, has been a very unique and invigorating experience. I’ve never had a class incorporate social media or use it as a teaching tool.  In my opinion, it is a very innovative method and probably predicts what future classes will look like.  Today about the majority of college students own a personal laptop and engage with social media, e.g., Facebook, Twitter, blogs, on a regular basis. I am always on the computer either surfing newspaper columns, on Facebook or reading magazines but prior to the class I had no experience with Twitter or blogs, which were a requirement for the course. When I was informed about it, I was very nervous because it sounded very new and unorthodox. I could not wrap my mind around the idea that school and using the Web could somehow interconnect but in addition be conducive to the learning process. Thinking about it, I was already familiar with technology and possessed the basic skills therefore, doing it would not be an obstacle. Although I did notice the Internet has a language of it’s own and a culture, it’s very learnable especially for college students who were raised around it.

The benefits of using the Internet are that it makes our work more visible, accessible and open to the public. Also it can be disseminated a lot quicker unlike print media that also requires funding and circulation is limited. The word free resonates among college students who are constantly saving or living on a budget. Reading things online are in fact free and don’t require a subscription which most people appreciate. Readers are also free to visit pages on their own without the obligation therefore, making it more enticing for people because they get to choose what they want to read. Plus the Internet makes it possible to build an online community between students and professors, to create more global connections, and to make students feel a sense of ownership about what they are writing or creating. Since students comprehend that their work is out in the open, they become more aware of the audience they are writing to and conscious about their writing. Subsequently, it improves overall reading, writing, and analytical skills, which are crucial for any field of study or profession. On the other hand, like anything else there are some drawbacks to using social media such as being vulnerable to unwanted or offensive comments, privacy issues, etc., because when you put yourself on the Web you create a persona that is subjected to criticism. Also information can be misconstrued by readers, which can cause stress and other related problems. Sometimes it can be very challenging but negative feedback can help the blogger improve their argument and work on their weaknesses because it’s a reality about life that not everyone will share the same views, values, and ideology. However, being part of the online community and our freedom of speech is protected by the 1st amendment therefore, we should utilize the Web responsibly, for a good cause and with good intent.

I have overcome many fears about publishing materials online but I realized I love the autonomy and being part of a movement that’s occurring worldwide. Also it gives me the opportunity to use my voice and to share my story. I get to be the narrator of my own experiences which can possibly help someone who needs it and to build solidarity with others especially with other women. Furthermore my generation depends a lot on the Web thus, using it can only further enhance skills. If used correctly and wisely, social media can be revolutionary in anything that one is trying to achieve. Also it can be useful in creating a space or platform for anyone’s personal causes because as a Women’s Studies major I always want to know what is happening to women in the world and what I can do to reach them. It is a very powerful tool and rather than fearing it I am embracing it as a resource. Maintaining a healthy relationship with the Web is very important because it can be addicting at times. Without a doubt Chicana Feminists could have greatly benefited from using social media, but each generation has its own style and tools of empowerment.

 

 

 

 

Feminism through Surrealism

This week, I went to the LA County Museum of Art to see In Wonderland, an exhibit featuring surrealist art by women.  The exhibit focused on the surrealist art of women from the United States and Mexico, and much of it came from the mid-20th century.  Great social movements often happen in art before they happen on the ground, and feminism was no different.  These women were posing questions about and exploring the complexities of their gender and its powers through art oftentimes before there were mass political and social feminist uprisings.  Even in these early days, the differences in the feminisms between usually white American female artists and their contemporaries in Mexico were apparent.

The Mexican female surrealist whose paintings were most widely shown in the exhibit were of course those of Frida Kahlo, a women who hardly needs an introduction.  She is revered and remembered for her art as well as her life (and for the recent biopic film about her starring the subject of my previous post, Salma Hayek).  Among many other things Frida Kahlo was a Mexican surrealist painter and a feminist, and three quarters of a century ago she was challenging many of the same notions that would be challenged by the contributors to This Bridge Called My Back and This Bridge We Call Home so many years later.

Unlike many of the white American female surrealists in the exhibit, Frida’s work nearly always involved some sort of visual dialogue between her womanhood and her ethnicity and culture.   In one famous painting, The Two Fridas, she creates a self-portrait by portraying two versions of herself.  As one Frida, she is in a wedding dress.  As they other Frida, she is in traditional clothing.  The two are connected by the heart and by the hand, though they do not look at each other and they do not express any happiness.  She seems to be acknowledging her role as wife and her role as Mexicana as important parts of herself, but also admitting that she is not entirely anything and that she is not entirely fulfilled in being these things.  

Much is known about her inability to conceive a child because of a destroyed reproductive system, and as a Mexican woman (and really all women of that time period), your femininity is often reliant on your ability to procreate.  This obviously jarred her definitions of traditional womanhood, as did her bisexuality.

In a lot of ways, she reminds me of Gloria Anzaldua and her ideas about los intersticios.  Frida was very much a woman and embraced her femininity, but one who could not conceive and who occasionally enjoyed sexual intimacy with other women, both of which otherize her from the hegemonic ideal of what it means to be a proper woman.  She loved her husband, but she did not occupy the ideal of a faithful wife.  She was loyal to her culture but could not accept its strict definitions of women and its celebration of the machisimo that made her husband a violent man.  Stuck between many worlds, she channelled her unique viewpoints into art to make personal statements that could be accessed by many.  Many of these statements are mirrored still today in Women of Color Feminism, and the women making these statements should call Frida Kahlo one of their foremothers.

What race are you?

The writing piece by Evelyn Alsultany called, “ Los Intersticios: Recasting Moving Selves” from this bridge we call home is a writing that gives great insight into the
 mind and emotions of a person with a mixed racial background. There seems to be a misconception among those who don’t have mixed racial background, that those that do have mixed racial backgrounds aren’t discriminated against.It may appear advantageous that those who are of two or more races have the luxury to side with which ever race they choose, if their skin is light enough or dark enough. What appears to be an “advantage” of race maneuverability to people who appear to be “clearly” one race to others, can actually turn out to be a constant hassle when you are constantly being asked “what race are you?”.

 

Alsultany takes the reader into her mixed racial world from her perspective to give us an understanding of the constant racial struggles she must deal with from others in the world who are curious as to what race she is. When Alsultany is in class, one of her white classmates wants to know her race, so she ask Alsultany where she is from,when she answers she was born and raised in New York City,the converstation continues to proceed as,  “Oh…well, how about your parents?”. Alsultanys’ internal response to this is, “( I feel her trying to map onto her narrow cartography; New York is not a sufficent answer. She analyzes me according to binary axes of sameness and difference. She detects only difference from first glance, and seeks to pigeonhole me. In her framework, my body is marked, excluded, not from this country. A seemingly “friendly” question turns into a claim to land and belonging.)”. Alsultany then answers, ” My father is Iraqi and my mother Cuban,”. Her classmate answered, ” How interesting. Are you a U.S. citizen?”. The questions asked to Alsultany by her classmate about her racial background seemed be done  so her classmate could confirm in her own mind that she was different from Alsultany since Alsultany apparently didn’t fit her description of an American, despite the fact that Alsultany told her she was born and raised in America like her. Alsultanys’ classmates questioning of her U.S. citizenship after she was given the information that Alsultany was born and raised in New York City, only strengthens  my belief that her classmate preconcluded that  Alsultany was foreign to her.

 

There are constant preconceived notions that Alsultany has to deal with when people interact with her, because of her mixed racial background. Since Alsultany is Muslim, when a man she meets on the subway finds out about this, he instantly assumes she is comfortable with having an arranged marriage because of her Arab and Muslim background( her Cubanness is forgotten by the man). When Alsultany is asked by a Arab Muslim man if she too is Arab Muslim, when she tells him partly on her Dad’s side and that her name is Evelyn, the man accusses her of not truly being Muslim since she doesn’t have a Muslim name. The man even chastises Evelyn for her American influenced way of dress, not seeing it fit as legitimate Arab Muslim attire. Both men Evelyn ran into didn’t factor into their thought process that she was American born or that she was also part Cuban. Evelyn shows how she views herself when a man on a plane ask her if she is “more Arab, Latina, or American”, she answered ” all of the above”. When different people see Evelyn and find out her racial background, they instantly seperate her into categories that they can identify her as. While they seperate her into these categories and start to judge or analze her, according to her anecdotes, they always seem to forget a race that is included in her that adds to the defining of who she is.Eventhoughit might not be as simple for others to accept, Evelyn is Arab, Latina, and Cuban, all in one. These different things make her the one person she is, and if one of these is left out in considering her, you won’t be able to completely understand her.

 

Sources:

  • Evelyn Alsultany, “Los Intersticios: Recasting Moving Selves” (From this bridge we call home 106-110)
  • This bridge we call home : radical visions for transformation / edited by Gloria E. Anzaldúa and AnaLouise Keating.New York : Routledge, 2002.

this bridge we call home (2)

This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation, Gloria Anzaldua & AnaLouise Keating (Editors), Routledge, 2002.

Reading assignment for Wednesday April 11, 2012.  Your reply (under Comments) is due before class. Your response should demonstrate you’ve done and thought about both of the readings. Be sure to check and make sure your response posts.

AnaLouise Keating, “Forging El Mundo Zurdo: Changing Ourselves, Changing the World” (From this bridge we call home 519-530), Gloria Anzaldúa,”Now Let Us Shift…the Path of Conocimiento…Inner Work, Public Acts” (From this bridge we call home 540-576)

Is Chicana equality abnormal?

Is the want of Chicana women to be treated as equal their men absurd or an abnormal expectations? Based on their Native American background culture, equality between men and women was the norm for some indigenous tribes.It was understood in most Native cultures that men and women’s work was seen as complimentary to each other. While the men hunted game, the women would prepare the game that the men caught.The women had knowledge of plant life around them, they knew how to preserve food,and they also knew how to use plants for cures, just to list a few of their attributes. The objective of the men and women of the tribes were to work together for the betterment of the band.  There wasn’t the sense among such tribes that the man was greater than the woman, or vice versa, because the they both needed each others skills to successful survive. Women  even were able to give their opinion in political matters, and their opinions were all valued. There was an understanding between the men and women of these tribes that one did not function well without the other. To show the amount of respect and power that were given to these women of the tribes,many societies, including the Iroquois, Cherokee and Navajo were matriarchal and some were matrilocal.

After the Spanish colonizing of the Native Americans, the equality  men and women shared start to change for the Chicanos and Chicanas.In Latin America, which was the area of the indigenous people where the Spanish colonized, the role of women started to get restricted.  Women  for centuries started being treated by their fathers, brothers and husbands with discrimination.  In Latin America, including Mexico , women were seen as only child-bearers, homemakers and caregivers.  Womens expectation by men was restricted  to watching their children, performing household chores, and cooking for their husbands. Many men did not consider women to be capable of working outside the home, which is part of the reason why the term “weaker sex” was coined for women.

During the Chicano movement of the 1960’s, the Chicana women weren’t content with just doing secretarial jobs. When ever a Chicana women tried to voice her opinion for the Chicano movement, they were either shunned, ignored, or both. The Chicana women then started their own movement so their voices could be heard by creating autonomous woman-centered organizations that would facilitate their protest activities. In 1969, a group of Chicana university students started Las Hijas de Cuauhtemoc (Daughters of Cuauhtemoc), which served as a consciousness-raising organization,  and a basis for other feminist activities. The group started their own newspaper two years later and named the newspaper after their group.Other Chicano women groups were formed to give the women a voice to address their issues such as  The Comision Femenil Mexicana Nacional(CFMN, or National Mexican Women’s Commission), which was founded in 1970 as a result of a resolution written by a group of Chicanas at the National Chicano, and Concilio Mujeres (Women’s Council), a women’s support group based at San Francisco State University, formed by Dorinda Moreno just to name a few.

Even though the Chicano women roles became restricted after the Spanish colonizing of the Latin America areas, they naturally became who they were. It was not foreign for some Chicana women in their minds to think that they should have an equal voice and responsibility as men if they choose. The same way some indigenous women were viewed as equal to the men in their tribes and society is the same mindset that some of the women of the Chicana feminist movement believed they should also be perceived by men.

east la blowout in 1968

The East L.A. blowouts in 1968 was a huge step taken by the Chicano community to improve the school system. By the mid-1960s, many Mexican American students that were part  of the Los Angeles Unified School System had experienced social injustice and discrimination in their high schools.In order to address these discrimination issues in the high schools, David Sanchez, a teenage social activist, created an organization known as Young Citizens for Community Action (YCCA) in 1967. YCCA succeeded in helping to elect Julian Nava as the first Mexican American to the Los Angeles School Board. Sanchez changed YCCA into a more militant group known as the Brown Berets who took on a more militant approach to achieve their desired social change, since he wasn’t satisfied with the progress of YCCA.Throughout the early 1960s, Mexican American youth experienced inferior educational opportunities throughout the Southwest of the United States. It was common for Mexican American students to be punished for speaking Spanish at school, or to be channeled into shop and agricultural classes rather than college preparatory classes. In the four East Los Angeles high schools of Garfield, Roosevelt, Lincoln and Wilson, which had a high majority of Mexican American students, the drop out rate was as high as 60%.Chicano teachers and students along withe the two groups, the United Mexican American Students (UMAS) and the Brown Berets, developed thirty-six demands to bring to the Board of Education to improve the Chicano community schools.The goals were bilingual, bi cultural education, Latino teachers and administrators, smaller class sizes, better facilities and the revision of text books to include Mexican American history.

 

Since the board didn’t meet their demands,the plan was to stage a massive walk-out from the four schools on the same day and thereby cost the school system thousands of dollars in unearned stipends. The Chicano activist groups were aware that the city schools received a daily stipend for each student attending school, so they decided to hurt the school system financially. Although the plan was to be a coordinated walk-out from all four schools, on March 1, 1968, 300 hundred students at Wilson high school jumped the gun and stormed out of school to protest the canceling of a school play.

The walkouts still went successfully as planned with the other schools.On March 5, 1968, two thousand students walked out of Garfield High. They were met by policemen and an angry administration. The next day 2700 students walked out and students continued to walk out on the 7th and the 8th. Students from Roosevelt High School walked out next on March 6. Even though the principal locked the school gate to prevent them, the students climbed over the fence where police officers beat the students.On March 8, Belmont High students tried to walk out, but police invaded their school and arrested and beat students.After the week of protests, the LA Board of Education set a meeting for March 11. Chicano students, parents, professors, and community members formed the Educational Issues Coordinating Committee (EICC) as their representative voice for the Board meeting. At the meeting, the EICC asked for amnesty for all students involved in the walkouts as well as a community meeting to discuss the needed education reform. The Board agreed to the meeting and the students returned to school.

There were 1,200 people that attended the community meeting held at Lincoln High on March 28. The EICC presented the original 36 demands to the Board, which the board agreed to. The struggles that the Chicano activist had to deal with was similar to that of the Chicana feminist movement. It was assumed Mexican American students weren’t going to college ,so they weren’t put in college prep classes but steered towards shop and agricultural classes.Such low expectations were put on the women of the Chicano movement by the men. The men assumed the women couldn’t be group leaders or that their opinions and voices didn’t matter in the Chicano movement. However, the Chicana women did not let the ender estimation of the Chicano men stop them from proving they were capable of helping the Chicano movement. The Chicana women proceeded to form numerous Chicana groups  that effectively helped the Chicana and Chicano  movement.

To see a documentary on the East L.A. Blowout in 1968 look at the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NL4rQHKza9Y

Here is a copy of the 36 demands the Chicano groups and the East L.A. community presented to the board:

ACADEMIC

I. No student or teacher will be reprimanded or suspended for participating in any efforts which are executed for the purpose of improving or furthering the educational quality in our schools.

II. Bilingual–Bi-cultural education will be compulsory for Mexican-Americans in the Los Angeles City School System where there is a majority of Mexican-American students. This program will be open to all other students on a voluntary basis. A) in-service education programs will be instituted immediately for all staff in order to teach them the Spanish language and increase their understanding of the history, traditions, and contributions of the Mexican culture. B) All administrators in the elementary and secondary schools in these areas will become proficient in the Spanish language Participants are to be compensated during the training period at not less than $8.80 an hour and upon completion of the course will receive in addition to their salary not less than $100.00 a month. The monies for these programs will come from local funds, state funds and matching federal funds.

III. Administrators and teachers who show any form of prejudice toward Mexican or Mexican-American students, including failure to recognize, understand, and appreciate Mexican culture and heritage, will be removed from East Los Angeles schools. This will be decided by a Citizens Review Board selected by the Educational Issues Committee.

IV. Textbooks and curriculum will be developed to show Mexican and Mexican-American contribution to the U.S. society and to show the injustices that Mexicans have suffered as a culture of that society. Textbooks should concentrate on Mexican folklore rather than English folklore.

V. All administrators where schools have majority of Mexican-American descent shall be of Mexican-American descent. If necessary, training programs should be instituted to provide a cadre of Mexican-American administrators.

VI. Every teacher’s ratio of failure per students in his classroom shall be made available to community groups and students. Any teacher having a particularly high percentage of the total school dropouts in his classes shall be rated by the Citizens Review Board composed of the Educational Issues Committee.

ADMINISTRATIVE

I. Schools should have a manager to take care of paper work and maintenance supervision. Administrators will direct the Education standards of the School instead of being head janitors and office clerks as they are today.

II. School facilities should be made available for community activities under the supervision of Parents’ Councils (not PTA). Recreation programs for children will be developed.

III. No teacher will be dismissed or transferred because of his political views and/or philosophical disagreements with administrators.

IV. Community parents will be engaged as teacher’s aides. Orientation similar to in-service training, will be provided, and they will be given status as semi-professionals as in the new careers concept.

FACILITIES

I. The Industrial Arts program must be re-vitalized. Students need proper training to use the machinery of modern day industry. Up-to-date equipment and new operational techniques must replace the obsolescent machines and outmoded training methods currently being employed in this program. If this high standard cannot be met, the Industrial Arts program will be de-emphasized.

II. New high schools in the area must be immediately built. The new schools will be named by the community. At least two Senior High Schools and at least one Junior High School must be built. Marengo Street School must be reactivated to reduce the student-teacher load at Murchison Street School.

III. The master plans for Garfield High School and Roosevelt High School must go into effect immediately.

IV. Library facilities will be expanded in all East Los Angeles high schools. At present the libraries in these high schools do not meet the educational needs of the students. Sufficient library materials will be provided in Spanish.

V. Open-air student eating areas should be made into roofed eating malls. As an example, Los Angeles High School.

STUDENT RIGHTS

I. Corporal punishment will only be administrated according to State Law.

II. Teachers and administrators will be rated by the students at the end of each semester.

III. Students should have access to any type of literature and should be allowed to bring it on campus.

IV. Students who spend time helping teachers shall be given monetary and/or credit compensation.

V. Students will be allowed to have guest speakers to club meetings. The only regulation should be to inform the club sponsor.

VI. Dress and grooming standards will be determined by a group of a) students and b) parents.

VII. Student body offices shall be open to all students. A high grade point average shall not be considered as a pre-requisite to eligibility.

VIII. Entrances to all buildings and restrooms should be accessible to all students during schools hours. Security can be enforced by designated students.

IX. Student menus should be Mexican oriented. When Mexican food is served, mother from the barrios should come to the school and help supervise the preparation of the food. These mothers will meet the food handler requirements of Los Angeles City Schools and they will be compensated for their services.

X. School janitorial services should be restricted to the employees hired for that purposes by the school board. Students will be punished by picking up paper or trash and keeping them out of class.

XI. Only area superintendents can suspend students.

Sources:

Salma Hayek for Milk: New Advertisement, Old Stereotypes

Salma Hayek’s Milk Mustache Ad

Perhaps one of the best known,  if not actually the best known, Mexican actresses in Hollywood of our time is Salma Hayek.  Though she is widely respected, even she cannot escape being used by the dominantly white, heterosexual, male media to perpetuate potentially harmful stereotypes about the women of her culture.  Though the advertisement is apparently meant to sell us milk, what it really sells us is the oppression of the Mexican woman.

As viewers, we are immediately tipped off to contextualize Hayek with Mexicanas by the advertisers use of background music that is culturally recognizable as Mexican music.  We are also asked immediately to sexualize her, for the first shots of her are running around her kitchen in a revealing little black dress and makeup.  She opens her refrigerator and pulls out an empty milk bottle.  The next scene shows her searching frantically for more milk in an empty store refrigerator as she is ogled shamelessly by the white male cashier.

Soon, still on her desperate milk search, she breaks one of her high heeled shoes.  High heeled shoes are an icon of femininity in our society.  As one breaks, we are reminded of her femaleness, and we are being led to view it as frivolous and weak.  She finally finds success in her venture when she flags down a milk truck she is driving next to.  The milk truck, of course, is being driven by a white male.  She begs him to stop and give her milk, prostrating herself and prominently displaying her cleavage.  Shocked and enraptured by her sexuality, he gives her a bottle of milk.

In the last and final scene, we see Salma Hayek again in the kitchen in the same skimpy dress, yet it is the morning after.  Next to her is her daughter who uses the milk for her cereal.  This reaffirms the hegemonic white heterosexual male view that women, especially Latin women, can be only two things: mothers and sexual objects.

Throughout the whole advertisement, Hayek’s gender and ethnicity are used as a gimmick.  In line with popular representation of Latinas in the media, Hayek is ruled by her passions.  She is seemingly incapable of getting what she needs on her own, and it is only when she uses her sexual pull that she can be helped.  In line with patriarchal paternalism, she is helped by a heterosexual white male, and only then can she achieve her ends.

Why was she portrayed in sexualized clothing, instead of the lounge clothes usually worn by people late at night and early in the morning?  Why is she portrayed as weak, helpless, and emotional? Why are we being reminded that she is a mother?  Because these are the things that the mainstream American media would like us to believe about Latin women.  Because if we believe that they are merely sexual objects, or mothers, or people who need help in simple tasks such as finding milk, then there can be justification for their oppression.

Nympha : a poem for my mom

Nympha

I think of nymphs
And wishes
And home-sewn skirts

Of Barons
And sharp tools
And bloody torn shirts

I think of dancing
And playing
And new made-up worlds

Of yelling
And punishments
And very sad girls

It’s the kingdom of the Precious, where everyone knows
It’s the baron that rules but the nymphs still grow…

This was a poem written for my mother in my senior year of high school. Originally, it was an assignment in my English literature class in which we had weekly poetry tasks for part of it. The assignment for that week was to write in the style of a sonnet.
Firstly, I have never considered myself much of a writer–especially not a poet. But like with any subject I face, I try to mold it to my preferences in some way. While most of the kids in the class were writing about themselves or anything simple to get through the assignment, I really cared about my poems, especially since it was the first time I really tried writing them and I wanted them to be decent. So I decided to take the metaphorical route.
Many of the Chicana poets we read about, for example Lorna Dee Cervantes’s poems, address the differences of generations. In her piece, Beneath the Shadow of the Freeway, Cervantes uses the images and common experiences she, her mother, and her grandmother have lived through, as a basis. I decided to write a poem about my mother’s childhood, but her childhood was worlds different from mine, thus there was not much to relate when it came to the types of struggles we faced or the people we dealt with. Therefore, the genre of fantasy fit best since it was a way for me to at least grasp at general ideas.
So I chose nymphs because my mother’s first name (which she replaces by using her middle name) is Nympha, and it also reminded me of the playful young girls my mom and her sisters once were (as she’s told me through stories). Her father was very strict, scary, and overprotective. He was also the one to carry the last name of Preciado, meaning “precious.” So all those pieces (and probably a few more) put together resulted in this poem.

Additional Sources: