Saturday, December 11, 2010

Latino Threat Lecture

Last week I spent several hours editing an hour and a half lecture I attended by Leo Chavez on immigration and then my computer crashed. Luckly, I had also saved the videos on my friend's computer so I was able to retrieve them. My computer is being repaired and I got a loaner but it doesn't have the programs required to make a video, not even Microsoft PowerPoint. I think this is very relevant to the issues we must deal with when working with technology. Today, having a plan B is really a necessity to be able to operate with technology, which actually makes us more responsible and strategic than we had to be before. I am very interested in the evolutionary changes we face as a species today. Constant change forces us to adapt and foresee hypothetical situations we didn't have to before.
I really want to show the importance of the points raised by Leo Chavez pertaining the racism embedded in the construction of the Latino image as invader through immigration. I was finally able to edit the clips from the lecture and produce a ten minute version of Dr. Chavez's lecture. I put the video on youtube and I hope that people who watch it go out and buy his book to learn more about this complex and controversial topic. A strength of Chavez's lecture (and book) is the ethics and moral issues pertaining to a population which has been part of this country for many years, even before this country was formed. This population has had numerous contributions to the status we enjoy, yet the xenophobia and racism persist and have been accentuated with the conditions of the economy. The production of a fear factory in which we operate are design to disguise the real reasons for the downfall of our economy and has resulted in the scapegoating of one of the hardest working population in this country.
Throughout this semester, I have learned that one of the best contributions of digital media is the ability to give voice to the voiceless and provide access to many various narratives.
This class has really changed my perspective on Digital Media and has taught me how to use my creativity to produce more. I have learned so much from all of you this semester, thank you and I hope we stay in touch.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Latino Immigration

As a final project, I decided to pull together all lectures and others sources of information I have been collecting. I'm excited to put them all together in a digital media format. Unlike the typical research paper which is the format I have been following for the past twelve years I have been devoting to my education, this project is not going to sit in a box in my garage collecting dust. This is what makes digital media unique, its accessibility and dynamic form. This project is one that can be shared with many and can take other forms as others digital users can take it and change it, whether to enrich it or manipulate it to their interpretation. The main point for me is that it allows for discourse on this topic to take place, digital story telling brings it alive!
Through this project I incorporated my own experience as an undocumented immigrant, as well as books I have read on this topic. In the past couple of years I conducted interviews of undocumented indigenous immigrants in Orange County, which helped me understand the universality of the experience of the immigrant, as well as the feeling of fear and alienation I had often experienced. This semester, I decided to complement my research by attending various lectures, like the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities annual conference, a lecture by UCI Professor Leo Chavez, and the film screening of 800 Mile Wall. By so doing, I reflected on the various myths versus facts provided by researchers on the controversy of immigration.
My hopes through this project is to provide the viewer with a different context on immigration. We often hear myths created by the fear factory which media tends to operate (mainly controlled by governmental powers and corporations) to increase xenophobia and racism against Latinos as illegal immigrants. I think it is necessary to offer a presentation based on academic research which is more objective and empirical in nature. Though by saying this I do not imply that this is biased-free as everything inevitably embedded with the author's biases. The main thing is to provide democratic outlet for expression.