This semester I had the privilege of taking Chicano Studies: a course offered at my high school studying the Latino/a community’s contributions to the political, social, economic, and cultural development of the United States. Over the course of the semester, I got to learn about significant historical Latino/a figures ranging from artists to musicians, analyzed literature written by Latino/a authors, and critiqued paintings/murals by Latino/a artists. Some projects we did throughout the semester were: reading and analyzing Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, present on local murals painted by Latin American painters, learn about single stories, and create our own piece of artwork. As a class, we even got to take a trip to San Francisco where we ate Latin American food, attended the Dia De Los Muertos parade, and got to see the Pan American Unity Mural by Diego Rivera. Next semester, we will be painting our own mural in Downtown Napa. I really liked the discussion style setup of this class and how engaging it was. It did not seem boring nor did it seem to drag on as a lot of my other classes seem to, and I definitely learned something new every day. I especially enjoyed watching the films: La Familia and La Bamba. Prior to learning more about the historical struggles of the Latin American community in America, after watching these two films and through discussions in class, I became more aware of the hardships and struggles the Latino/a community had faced. It was not something I had been aware of before. There was also a few other things which surprised me. We had an artist, Arlene Valencia, come and speak to us about her struggles as an undocumented immigrant in Napa. The challenges she overcame were tremendous and came as a shock to me––I had never realized how privileged I was to have a social security number and how I had taken that for granted. She also went over a few of her paintings and some other artwork she has completed, which greatly interested me. Overall, this class has definitely been one of my favorite this semester and I’m so glad I decided to take it.
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AuthorHibah Shafi is a Senior at New Technology High School. Archives
May 2019
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