capturing memorable moments

I've always like to look into other cultures. I find interesting that all of them have their differences. That's why I chose to read the essay Fish Cheeks by Amy Tan. Ive read the Joy luck club and immediately like the way she wrote.I think she really captures many feelings people feel when they are from a different background and they are the first generation in the U.S. In this essay she explains how embarrassed she was when her crush the ministers son and his family came for Xmas dinner to her Chinese home.She explains some of the customs and food that her family usually prepared and how she wanted to disappear.I especially liked what her mother told her when she gave her the skirt "But inside, you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you different. You only shame is be ashamed."those are powerful wise words.I also believe that even though you are born i the U.S. you must love and embrace your roots and the culture that your family has.

Since I am Mexican I uploaded this still from a DVD called the spirit of Mexico which is a mariachi playing his violin.  He looks like he loves what he does.That DVD is all about mariachis and their passion for the Mexican music, many of them were not even born in Mexico but they appreciate the music and the culture.

capturing memorable moments

This  picture I think is a very good example of "alone in the booth you forgo the behaviors and attitudes expected when a camera is forced upon you" this is a quote in Babbette Hines article Picture Perfect. She describes how she is fascinated by the self photography aspect of taking pictures in a photo-booth. She likes how truth or fiction can easily commingle,how these little photographs have no barriers you can take them alone or with friends or lovers.She also says she likes to imagine stories behind the little pictures that are not her own.

I like how she can relate to that picture and picture herself in their spot.Thats why I picked this picture that was taken some time in the 1960s in a photo-booth.  I found this picture in one of my moms old albums all I know of these pictures is that they were my moms relatives.I can easily picture this lady taken her son to watch a movie, tickets probably cost $2. Or maybe she wanted to capture the happiness of that moment.I find this art of self photography fun I especially like the older fashioned ones that have a curtain in the back, most of the modern ones are not the same and they dont print out the authentic ,old school photo-booth pictures. 

Projecting gender as a woman

     Photo still from Disney's Mulan

This picture is from the movie Mulan by Walt Disney pictures.I chose this still from the movie because I believe it fits with the fiction piece "GIRL" by Jamiaca Kincaid when Mulan has to go through this ritual to bring honor to her family as a young Chinese woman. In Jamaica's fictional piece she described in a way how it would be to be a young woman as though someone is dictating it to her.Like in her piece a quote that stood out to me was "on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent in becoming,"older women with older customs always put down young women and modernization. They don't believe in equality and always try to tell their young girls how to act.To me they are saying to put on a mask like Mulan is wearing with the makeup on this picture. They are telling you to hide who you are and to do the things they are expecting you to do,but I always think that there is nothing wrong with being different not all women like pink and want to be a house wife.

That's why I chose the Mulan picture and the part of the movie where  the older  women tell her that men want women that are thin with a little waist, that wear makeup and that are obedient and quiet.I really frown upon a lot of older customs that only humiliate women and don't show what women are capable of when not pressured to be a house wife.In Jamaica's piece it was all about how to be the perfect woman for  a man to even consider marring you and make you their house wife, and how it would be a disgrace to be something other than that.

Projecting gender

Photo by: Ana Chavez

This "zoot suit bato" was inspired by the BATO CON KHAKIS by Jacinto Jesus Cardona.His poem describes what being a Chicano growing up in south Texas was in those times. They couldn't show that they wanted to better themselves with education they needed to only be street smart and protect their reps.They wore these khakis and vests to create this identity themselves as true batos.

Cardona portrays the khakis as a costume for these guys something they needed to wear sort of speak to be Chicano men in south Texas.The batos which means guys in slang needed to hide behind this disguise to act tuff and to not be book smart. "Could I be a bookish bato?" Cardona asks implying if you can be smart and tough with out someone calling you out for it.

This poem inspired me to put this picture of of a guy in a disguise pretending to be a zoot suit wearing bato.He clearly is posing to look tough but would he look tough if he was wearing casual clothes, maybe not. That doesn't necessarily mean he isn't as tough as others it just means he doesn't dress the part.He doesn't fit the stereo type of a tough bato.But with that pose, suit and a clenched fist he could have anybody fooled.