Since I was little, I have always heard of female Latinas not finishing high school and ending up pregnant. I know that this is not expected of me from my family and friends, but this is what the media expects of me.
For an end of the year project at ZEUM we were asked to do some type of art work that refelcted on one of these topics: Family history and Memory, Conflict Resolution, Human Rights and Media and Self Image. I choose to reflect on Media and Self Image by doing an animation that portrays what the media expects of me to become and what I want to become.
As I mentioned before, growing up as a Latina, I have always had stereotypes follow me wherever I went. Starting in middle school, my 8th grade Principal has said it himself that "If [we] didn't graduate from high school, which was most likely to happen, there were a lot of jobs opening for us that paid enough to get by". Later in High School I began to notice that many of the girls that I went to school with had gotten pregnant and were forced to drop out of school. This really upset me because it was like they threw their lives away. From then on, I knew that I wanted to be more than another fact to fit another stereotype.
What I am now is a high school Latina who goes to a private school in the presidio and is getting ready to apply to college next year. I hope to finish college and move on to graduate school and become something other than what is expected of by the media.
I hope that this art work will show others that the media doesn't have to decide who you are to become, you are in control of choosing what YOU want to become.
* Peace *
GABY
3 comments:
sounds like it is going to be a great project! can't wait to see it and how it came out. i like how all the i's in the blog are pink too! =]
Gaby i can't wait til i see your final project. You're breaking down all the stereotypes. It's so hard seeing middle school classmates with so much potential loose and the worst thing is the media just expects it to happen. I cant believe Mr. Fell said that, still makes me mad
Never let anyone say what you are going to be. Your future is in your hands make life whatever you want it to be. There are no such thing of luck, just how much you work for it.
Keep it on and one day you will show the media that they are just full of it.
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