Final Artist Statment

For my final project I wanted to do something that would be different from everyone else. I wanted to cover the history of the Latino culture on the south side. At first I had trouble finding anything about how the Latino community started there, until my professor suggested a book entitled, Latinos in Milwaukee. This book provided me with a great source of history, also this book was written by a professor I had a couple semesters earlier!
With this newly found information I was able to construct a chronological order starting with the first Latino to come to Milwaukee in 1884 then working my way through their culture and other facts finally ending with the children that I did my service learning with today. I thought this showed how the children and their parents have kept their culture and how far they have come to be here today. Another element that I added was the text that I use in the movie. When I am talking about the past I used not only black and white pictures but an old “typewriter” font to give it an old feel to the video. When I transitioned into pictures of my service learning I not only used color pictures but I used a more “modern” font to bring us back to the present.
After I presented my final video to the class, the professor suggested that I have an interview or video from the internet about how the current immigration bill has affected this community and it would also show that the struggle still continues.
Through doing the service learning and also researching for this project I have learned that the Latino culture is rich in culture and tradition. I had a great time with the service learning part of the class. The children taught me so much about their culture and about how important patience is when dealing with kids! Hopefully I can see these kids more this summer, because I have applied to be a summer school teacher!

Summer

Before I started this service learning part of the class I had no idea what I could possibly be doing. Through doing this volunteering work at the Vieau School, I had been offered an interview for the summer teaching position at the school and I am very excited! I hope that I am able to get the teaching position, because the children that I have worked with have been very smart and cooperative.
When I was younger I went through a phase where I wanted to be a teacher. When I have been working with the kids this semester I have had the same feeling, I want to teach. My favorite feeling is when I explain something they had trouble with and they now understand it! I hope I get the opportunity to teach, I had a great time this semester and would like to do more this summer!

Final Presentation

New Immigration Law

I decided to use my last journal post to write about the new immigration law that was signed into law in the state of Arizona, here is a link to more info - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/us/politics/24immig.html . I believe that this immigration law is the wrong thing to do. As soon as this bill was signed into law by Arizona's Governor Jan Brewer, political heavyweights including President Obama voiced their opposition of the bill. I feel that these illegal immigrants haven't done anything wrong, if I was in their situation I would also cross the boarder and try to earn a better living than staying in Mexico. I could not imagine the struggles that illegal immigrants go through already and I do not want them to go through more struggling with the passing of this bill. Arizona is not only hurting themselves they are also hurting the very foundation that this country was founded on, freedom.

Multimedia Essay Presentation

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Artist Statement

This semester I have had the privilege to work with the Vieau Elementary School in Walker’s Point on Milwaukee’s south side. With this multimedia essay we were asked to tell a story using pictures and as few words as possible.
To start the multimedia essay I wanted to talk about the history of Walker’s Point where the elementary school is located. In 1834 George Walker established a fur trading post and later in the 1920s this attracted the first Latin American immigrants to work in tanneries. This industry settled one of Wisconsin’s first Latin-American populations where it is still a very Latin community today.
I then described the city bus ride from the eastside down to the south side and the differences I encountered. I currently live on the east side of Milwaukee where there is a high population of white college students, then going down to the south side where there is a high population of Hispanics and African Americans. The school itself has a 97% Hispanic population giving the area and the school a completely new environment for me coming from a school with over 90% being white.
The school itself is also very different compared to the elementary school that I attended. Like I stated earlier the school has a 97% Hispanic population but more than that, a majority of the children in the school are bilingual, speaking both Spanish and English. I was not exposed to other languages until I was in seventh grade when our school offered different languages. I also had preconceived ideas about the attitude of the children and whether they would listen to me. After the first day working with the kids I knew this semester of service learning would be really fun because the kids would be easy to work with.
For this project I found it really hard to take the “right” picture that I could use to tell a story. I found it difficult because it was hard to include everything that I wanted to include in a picture and get different things in focus to improve the artistic view. Most of the pictures I did take turned out good but the low-light pictures I took did not turn out as well as I wanted to.
I feel incredibly lucky to be able to work with these kids this semester. For this semester I think I will learn a lot not only about myself with how well I can teach/help someone but I will also learn about other cultures.

Second Journal Reflection

Yesterday I just finished my second Service Learning visit and the first thing they had me do was help a kid with his homework. His name was Alfonso and he needed help with his Math and English. Alfonso seemed really smart for his age and caught on to both subjects really well. He finished his homework really fast which made me remember my own homework when I was his age and how I struggled to get it done.
After I was done helping Alfonso with his homework they asked me to help out with Ms. Her, the science teacher. Since the weather was so nice outside we decided to go out onto the playground. I was really mad at myself because I had forgot my camera for the project that is due after the break, but remembered that I will be back the next day and will be able to take some pictures. I also forgot how fast little kids move in the open. As I was watching some of the kids and making sure that they didn't get hurt, I saw out of the corner of my eye a soccer game! Needless to say I had to join! It reminded me of my days on the school playground playing our interpretation of soccer, because for some reason we were able to use our hands. Needless to say I had a blast playing soccer and did not want to leave but 6:00 came too fast and had to catch the bus home.
I am excited to come back for Friday and hopefully play some more soccer!