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Journal 3, NALAC

For my media selection I chose to look at NALAC’s (The National Association of Latino Arts and Culture). The subject of this website is Latino Arts and Culture and I decided to use this organization because for the other two Tumblr blogs I focused on Latino shows and movies and thought that this would be a great addition to my research and learning, as well as to showcase on my posts. 

The NALAC is an organization that focuses on stabilizing and rewriting programs that focus on US Latino culture and arts through leadership training, funding, research, and advocacy. Their community is multi-generational, multi-ethnic, and includes thousands of artists in both rural and urban communities. Focusing and valuing the art of Latino artists. I think it speaks to their organization and what they’re focus is when they are accepting and focusing on not only their own culture and arts but accepting and valuing artists of multiple different ethnic backgrounds rather than pushing them out for not being exactly the same as they are. By investing time, money, and resources into artists that fosters the growth in multiple different areas of life like belonging and work/career development that helps break the intergenerational stigmas and ways to break down walls and barriers set up in our minds. NALAC also focuses on intergenerational dialogues to help create and facilitate ways to break down those walls and promote expression and truly understanding and changing the narrative. They are fostering talented and accomplished leaders in the Latino arts community. Throughout class this semester we’ve been talking about breaking down barriers when it comes to race, gender, and sexuality and I think that NALAC is really working towards that fight. They are doing real work and pushing for equality and fighting for what really matters. 

NALAC shows the importance of community and establishing a place where creativity can thrive. In addition to the funding and creating a place where creativity and arts can thrive they support funding and research to continue their growth and community. Their website is https://www.nalac.org/

Below I have included a video from NALAC’s YouTube that features Dr. Tomás Ybarra-Frausto who is an independent Chicano art scholar and he shares his experience about the NALAC leadership institute. I have also included a picture from their website that features artists and musicians. And the third image shows an event of theirs. 

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Journal 2, Encanto

For my movie selection I chose Encanto. Encanto is a Disney movie based on “The Family Madrigal” and how each child gets a different magical power to help their village, the powers are provided by a magic candle that never stops burning. On the youngest son’s birthday and the day he gets his gift the Madrigal house starts cracking which is ultimately putting their whole family and candle in danger. With impending doom upon the family, Mirabel (our protagonist) goes to the estranged Bruno’s room to try and find him because he could predict the future. Mirabel helps her siblings find themselves and heal from the cracks in the foundation. Afraid of disappointing her family, Mirabel goes to Alma (Abuela) and confesses about the crack and causes an argument that shakes up the whole village and cracks the earth's core and destroys the Madrigal’s house and the candle extinguishes leaving them without powers. Mirabel and Alma reconnect and they bond and heal, then Mirabel fixes the home and rebuilds and puts on a new door and restores the family's gifts. 

Encanto shows the importance of family through community contribution, resilience through trauma, and Latin-Family values through a close-knit connection. Their magic gifts and candle represent and show the love and support of their family but when the candle and home show cracks and faults this puts their gifts  and connection on the line, without their resolve of the conflicts and trauma they are at risk of losing their gifts. This relates to the course material because we talked and read about how different cultures have different family values and connections. In Latin families it is traditionally seen that families have high standards and look over trauma and problems until it blows up. We see that represented in Encanto through the cracks and candle. Encanto also provides an example of a Hispanic household and what it is like to be in an immigrant family. Showing that society is made up of different cultures and people is another large impact of the film. 

I chose a clip (YouTube) of Mirabel and Abuela fighting, showcasing the high and unrealistic standards that Abuela has for Mirabel and how she projected and making her feel like she will never be good enough. I think this spotlights the “cracks” that the Madrigal family has in the movie and is an important clip of the movie of the house cracking and the candle coming out. 

Picture Credit:

Left: Word on Fire; Disney's “Encanto” Offers a Fresh Kind of Magic

Right: NBC; Encanto' is thriving on TikTok weeks after its theatrical release.

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Journal Entry 1; Gente-Fied

Gente-fied follows a Mexican-American family as they grow into their identity, community, and dreams. Right away the relation to this course and the materials is apparent. The large emphasis on on finding their truth and discovering who they are within this new community and how that relates to their heritage can be seen throughout the whole course so far, and how different cultures and communities have had to morph and figure out what their lives look like in America and how bias and history has affected their lives and how they have to figure things out when they are in a system where they are set up to fail.  Adjusting to life and helping “Pop” (the grandfather) with his taco shop, their rent is doubled. Forcing all of the cousins to come together and help Pop and the shop survive. We see them try different ways of helping the shop, between working harder and leaning into the gentrification to make enough money for rent. To lean into the gentrification that means they could potentially sacrifice their heritage and culture, we see this so often (and throughout the course material) where to make ends meat people have to sacrifice their heritage and what matters to them because they have been put in a system where they are set up to fail almost. Another large issue that is presented in Gente-fied is that granddaughter, Ana, has been having problems where she has to decide if she wants to put her art career over her community when white benefactors see her work. This shows for a tough decision because the white benefactors know that they have power over her because she doesn’t have the money and she has to make a decision that will affect her conscious and her community. To try and help the taco shop the cousins create an ad that plays into stereotypes to create talk about it, but this is going against their culture and identities and it makes a struggle for them to understand who they are, when they are playing into what other people think they are, which we’ve also been talking about this semester. Pop is an illegal immigrant, and we see him being taken by ICE, after fighting to stay safe all season. I think that this whole show does play into stereotypes of what we usually see in the media about immigrants and trying to make ends meet. This whole story remind me about the musical In The Heights. It kind of has the same story but a little different. I think that these are important stories to share through T.V. and live theater because we can reach such a large audience on a scale that oral storytelling doesn’t. The fight to find identity and also grow with your community is a universal fight and storyline that lots of people can relate to, and Gente-fied truly shows that and exemplifies what we’ve been talking about in class this semester. 

Picture Credit: Netflix and TIME Magazine

Picture 1: Pops, and cousins

Picture 2: Showing the community, typical picture at the corner showing shops and coffee in hand

Picture 3: Ana and her girlfriend