I decided to choose The music of Silvana Estrada a Mexican Spanish that sings against violence in Latin America and at the same time the superficial idea of love in the society that denigrates the respect for women and those who identify with it.
I believe I could find a lot of movements around the world, but this one connects with me, and millions of Latin American women, that have had to overcome trauma since childhood, social fear, violence, murder, stereotypes, and disrespect in all types of relations.
Is kind of difficult to completely introduce her idea because their songs are written in Spanish, but I am sure that even without knowing the language a good song could be appreciated.
“Si me Matan” is a song that speaks about the fear of women going out on the streets. This fear has been fed generation by generation, for grandmothers and mothers. They teach you that you shouldn’t get out showing any part of your skin, or something tight. You should walk far to the walls in case a man comes don’t corner you against it or the idea that a woman has to abide a disrespectful partner.
Without a doubt, I would like to share a little about what this fear is and how thousands of women and movements have risen up against it. In addition, shows, how Silvana Estrada creates a song of consolation and political call to the Mexican government on the incubation of illegal and violent acts against women.
her perspective about her music in society – https://www.elespanol.com/mujer/actualidad/20210706/silvana-estrada-enfermedad-siglo-liquido-cantar-desamor/594190932_0.html
For my unit 2 essay, I would like to write about Music in the American Civil Rights Movement. I love music and its a really big part of who I am. So any time I can pick a topic about music I get really excited. Its really hard to just pick one artist or just one song so I would like to focus on three artist. The artist I’m picking are well known artist that I would hope to believe people will reginigze when they hear there name but just like me didn’t know they wrote music for the Civil Rights Movement. My three artist are Aretha Franklin, Nat King Cole, and Stevie Wonder.
For more information I’m gonna watch Sound Track for a Revolution. A 2009 documentary made about music for the American Civil Rights Movement .
For my Unit 2 proposal, I will like to focus on one of the most infamous events to occur in Mexico, the disappearance of 43 Ayotzinapa Normal School students on September 26, 2014. This event has left many families angry at the Mexican government because as of today, they are still not found and are blaming the very government for being responsible for it. I remember the first time watching and hearing this on TV in 2014 and found it disturbing that such an event happened. My family comes from Mexico and feel that it is no surprise that the Mexican government chooses not to solve this action, given to possible corruption in the government.
As I was searching more information on this event, I came across images such as photos, paintings, and other form of arts like banners done by a group of Mexican artists. According to the short bog post, the banners are there to serve against ” a climate of fear surrounding protests in the wake of kidnapping”. There have been cases of protests against the government and the fear of retaliation. Some of the art also serves as a form of inspiration and hope that one day these students will reappear alive and well.
Terms to Research
Ayotzinapa
43 students
Fear of Protest
Police Violence
Mexican Artists Resurrect Ayotzinapa 43 in Protest Art
When traveling to Hungary, one of the few things one may notice upon arrival, besides the strange language and the pothole filled roads, are these rather densely placed billboards with usually blue backgrounds and white text causing the locals to either roll their eyes as hard as humanely possible or vehemently shake their heads in agreement.
The government started its aggressive propaganda projects in 2015, when a significant mass of migrants from the Middle East fled to Europe. Although most migrants only wanted to go through the country, heading towards Germany or Sweden, Hungary shut down its services and remained hostile about the idea of accepting migrants into the country, or the European Union for that matter.
Soros would immigrate millions of people from Africa and the Middle East. Issued by the Hungarian Government Source: XpatLoop.com
This led to building fences at Hungary’s borders and several manipulative billboard projects issued by the government to win the support of the country’s citizens. For example, the above billboard appeared after the European Parliament passed an action plan for the integration of already present immigrants in the EU. It does not talk about bringing more immigrants to the members of the union, yet the Hungarian government managed to turn it into its main weapon for its vendetta to awaken hate towards the European Union among Hungarian citizens. “Soros” refers to a Hungarian-Jewish businessman, György Soros who got himself involved in EU politics when the migration crisis started and who greatly supported the action plan, thus becoming the face of the enemy. The several propaganda billboard projects built just around the topic of migration thus left Hungary in a heightened anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic environment, which is still greatly present.
In my Unit 2 essay I would explore the billboard projects that have taken place in the country since 2015, examine their influences on the public’s opinions, showcase the responses of the opposing parties, while also touching on the history and effects of propaganda posters and billboards in different political eras in Hungary (mainly those between 1933 and 1999).
Cult of Personality: Art and Propaganda in the DPRKBy Angela La
For my Unit 2 thesis, I have chosen to dive into the world of graphics in the everyday life of the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or North Korea). I would like to explore how artists express themselves despite the strict rules, and where to draw the line between art and propaganda, if that is even possible in a country like the DPRK. These propaganda posters serve as one of the main ways to communicate to the masses where internet access is severely restricted. To the outside world, it’s easy to see them as overly militaristic and anti-American, but there can also be a more nuanced message through art in a reclusive state.
On this Essay I have chose to take a closer view on #stopasianhate. Stopasianhate was created to stop Asian violence due toCovid-19. Many Asian women were killed, hurt, and other cruel. How did they support that? Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya was a artist in New York that created ” I Still Believe In Our City “. Phingbodhipakkiya art”s were panels that had symbolic imagery, bright colors and even portraits for ASIAN in New York to stand their ground.She had her art everywhere including museums, galleries, conferences, classrooms, speakeasies, rallies, digital screens, and on buildings all over the world.
“I Still Believe in our city” https://www.istillbelieve.nyc/about
“I Still Believe in Our City” Public Art Campaign” https://www1.nyc.gov/site/cchr/media/pair-believe.page
For my unit 2 proposal, I’m diving into the movement “Stop Telling Women to Smile” by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh. It’s a street art project that refers to addressing the gender based street harassment that happens everyday over various places, happening to countless women. The Project started here in New York, primarily in Brooklyn in the fall of 2012. To this day its still considered an on-going project to raise awareness to this world wide conflict.
The project consists of various portraits made by Fazlalizadeh, that have displayed various women that she has sat down with and talked with about their own experiences with harassment and how it has affected them to this day. She uses many buildings and structures as her displays for her works of art to show all kinds of people the ongoing problem that happens within our society. She also is seen using not only English but Spanish as well on her portraits to hopefully reach people from other walks of life and to have her project reach more and more people.
Lambkin, Kelly and Cortland, Suny. “2 New York Artists Who Used Graffiti to Ignite Social Change.” 15 Nov. 2017.
I couldn’t start talking about language without telling first who I am, and that’s the reason is so difficult to explain which are my languages. Speak about it, is put my business in the street as James Baldwin explained in “If black English isn’t a language, then tell me, what is?”, and when that happens is impossible not to feel unsecured of others’ opinion. In addition is more difficult when you must speak in other’s languages.
To define my language and identity I will begin by saying that I am from Colombia, Bogota, I am 19 years old, and I grow up with my mother’s family (my mom, aunt, grandparents, and a cat). Based on this you can assume that my first language is Spanish and how special it is for me.
Dipping a little bit more in my language, something that catches my attention is the way that we spoke with our loved ones. “Mi niña”(my girl)- would say my mother, “mi chiquitina”(my little girl)- my boyfriend, “tesorito”(my little treasure)- my grandma, “cucu”(cucu)- my aunt and for my cat I would use “chonchito” (chubby )to call him. Those are some nicknames that we use, another word that I used a lot of is “cosita” (little thing) to name everything that I think is cute. This language makes me feel so comfortable and understood, but now I feel sad, because I am no longer with my family, and I have just moved to North America looking to continue my education and learn a new language. This new language, English, challenge me to communicate with other words and intentions, leaving back my accent and my own expressions. Getting adapted is being so difficult and more when Covid-19 circumstances make it hard to socialize and practice this new language.
The difficulties of learning a new language make you wonder about your identity and see how others classify you as “Hispanic” (a world that I never thought I will use to identify myself), and it gets worst when the stereotype of Hispanic is the first impression that people have from you. A lot of questions come to my mind: why I couldn’t get the same opportunities with my language? Why I must be different to make my dreams come true, how your own dreams could become true without your loved ones? Has any sense been here? I lose my time, my energy, and my life wondering all of this until I just resigned to wake up every day as one more day away from home.
I have been experiencing homesickness, willing to come back home and just be with my family again, but at the same time willing to know more about this country, learn more from new experiences, and see the world from another perspective. It pushes me to keep trying until English became part of my identity, as a lot of people must do as well.
Recently I heard a beautiful short history from National Geography about Naghmeh Farzaneh’s immigration and she mentioned her mother’s words when she worked in her garden “when you move a plant from one place to another you have to give it some time before to grow new leaves” to explain how long takes for a person accustomed to other ground, another language and food.
I feel I must give some time to myself to accommodate this new world and love the language and person that I am becoming to be.
Baldwin, James. “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?”
