Citizen Art Exhibit

I personally am a huge fan of art galleries but not the ones with just random art pieces that do not make sense to me. I like art that is eye opening, shocking, and can be interpreted in many ways. When I heard about the art gallery right on campus I knew I had to check it out. The book, Citizen, by Claudia Rankine was something I have read in class last semester. The book itself was interesting so I wanted to see how the art gallery would represent it.

There was so much to this art gallery that was intriguing. Starting with the first eye opening piece as soon as you walk in as seen below.

It was too delicate and pretty to be seen as something that holds a grueling meaning. The reasoning behind it was that as a person of color carrying even a fake gun or as the sculpture shows a gesture of a gun is seen as a threat to others.

The pieces in the art gallery were simplistic yet detailed. There were figurines made from random broken items, a concept I personally love, recycled art representing power colored figures in society.

Beyond that were very vivid and often glittering paintings of five black men who had been falsely accused of raping a white women. They were poised in the frames very casually yet boldly. Their was so much power in these pictures from their stances to the vivid colors.

The gallery visualized the book very well. Each piece had a quotation written under or above with it’s own meaning. Their was so much to see and feel in each piece. The gallery was a great experience to me and I definitely recommend everyone to go ASAP.

Seminar with Aja Martinez

Going into Aja Martinez’s seminar I was not sure what to expect. My professor from another class, seminar on Junot Diaz, had also advised our class to go and the topic sounded interesting to me so I went. Martinez herself was so poised and confident in everything she said it drew the audience to her. A few things stood out to me during the seminar. Firstly, the atmosphere of the room was welcoming compared to other seminars I have been to. It felt like I was attending a actual class with everyone willing to participate and Martinez setting up all her topics in a orderly fashion.

More into the topics itself that were brought up. One being the incident her father and her had gotten into at the security gate. The question of “are you a citizen” is such a simple question with so much underlying depth to it. For instance what even makes you a citizen because according to this security guard it was looks.

Then was the video of Peter Pan and how Disney portrayed the Native Americans. The most mind blowing concept was when Martinez pointed out how Tiger Lily was characterized dancing on a elevated table for boys. Re-watching a classic scene from my childhood, but with more understanding of the world we live in, was a cringing moment. It also portrayed a whole race as savages or beastly almost not even natural. Once again Martinez opened my eyes to how such small incidents are overlooked but carry so much fault in them.

Lastly what was important to me was the concept of making schoolwork more personal. In her own classes she has a way of asking her students to either make a reaction video reacting to something or a blog post. I honestly have never even noticed how much our education system makes everything not personal and conveys it as wrong. Her teaching technique of a reaction video was something I was not expecting and it was so nice to see a different approach to learning. Personal reactions are the most accurate because to each its own and it was nice to see that someone was embracing it in their classrooms.

 

Pie on Taco Bell

Americans always try to see the money benefits in everything even if it is something they have no rights. Taco Bell’s founder Glen Bell, who also comes from poverty, in simple terms took from someone else’s culture just to make money. The immigrants who come to a new land with nothing make themselves money by cooking and selling the food they know best; their own food. However Glen Bell just saw opportunity in someone else’s culture and decided to try and alter it and make money. As said by Gustavo Arellano in, Taco Usa, 

“I figured if Mexican food was successful, potential competition would write it off to my location and assume the idea wouldn’t sell anywhere else…no one would copy what I was doing, and that would give me time to perfect it…I didn’t invent the taco , Bell boasted, but I believe I improved it” (Arellano62).

Bell is worrying about someone “copying” his attempt to copy Mexican food is pure irony. He writes about trying to “perfect” the taco when he himself does not know what a taco is supposed to consist of or the history of it.  He is trying to perfect something he himself does not how to make perfectly. Then he writes about ‘improving” the taco when all he did was make it less authentic to make more money quickly. I thought the irony of this quote was unbelievable and that he was proud of taking away from someone else’s culture.

Chapter 3 PIE Post

The start to introducing Mexican food by Mexicans themselves was a long process because the people had to start from scratch. Immigrants from Mexico had to provide for themselves in a foreign land selling a part of their culture to tourists who had no appreciation for them other than that. Tamale wagons were hard work but still critiqued by the surrounding business owners. As said by Gustavo Arellano in the book, Taco Usa,

“Strangers coming to Los Angeles, reported the Times in 1901, remark at the presence of so many outdoor restaurant owners, and marvel at the system which permits men …to set up places of business in the public streets…and competing with businessmen who pay high rents for rooms in which to serve the public with food”

People are bewildered at the customers the tamale trucks are attracting and the competition they have with people who have actual whole stores to sell their food. However, not once is it mentioned the struggle these people are going through and how they are doing this to make a living and earn some type of respect they would otherwise not receive. The term tamales is not even mentioned or even Mexican food which is obviously what is attracting customers so the disrespect is still there. People are still unfamiliar with Mexican food but still choose to critique it. They “marvel at the system” but do not think twice how hard these immigrants have to work outside to attract tourists to eat their food. Also noticeable is how the street vendors are referred to as just “men” and people who can afford a restaurant and have the advantages these immigrants do not have are called “business men”. They completely disregard that these tamale truck owners are businessmen no matter what their legal status may be.

PIE Post: Taco USA

With the rise of Mexican restaurants and the increasing consumers discovering Mexican food often times these restaurants are run by people who have no personal connection to Mexico. Mexicans are not given the credit they deserve for introducing America to something they have never tasted before. However when taking a deeper look at how Mexican food impacted America financially Mexicans are not just foreigners who Americans degrade as this passage says. According to Gustavo Arellano in Taco USA, 

“Sometimes it’s Mexicans who run these restaurants; many times it’s American expats. Sometimes the locals dine there, but it’s often American tourists who patronize the places, seeking a taste of home. It’s too easy to say Mexican food is an all-American food: to say as much is to ignore the tortured relationship between Mexicans and their adopted country. But Mexican food is as much of an ambassador for the United States as the hot dog, whether either country wants to admit it or not” (5).

Arellano gives Mexicans a strong title being that their food is so popular in the USA and globally. He refers to the food as and “ambassador” which according to Google means “…an accredited diplomat sent by a country as its official representative to a foreign country.” Rather being seen as weak for not always being credited for their food Mexico is described as something powerful. Also, expats, or “alien, foreigner” are words usually used to describe Mexican people but in this passage it is given to the Americans instead. The passage is empowering and optimistic.

Tacombi Fonda Nolita

This past weekend I went out to explore a Mexican restaurant i had seen on Instagram and heard about from other friends. The main attraction of the place, Tacombi Fonda Nolita, was the fact that the Soho location served food straight from a taco van . Of course we have all seen or heard about taco trucks but a van in a restaurant was a strange concept to me.

The interior of the restaurant

The door of the restaurant was rickety and had a vintage look to it with colorful blankets spread on the walls of the entrance once when you enter. The space is very open and most of the people eating were not Hispanics. As my friend and I walked up to the van to order we could already overhear the mostly Caucasian customers commenting on the food. They sounded very excited and and a common word i could hear was flavor. We asked the person taking our order what she recommended we get and she said their fried fish tacos was a popular buy. My friend is a fan of fish so she went ahead and ordered it and I stuck with chicken. Personally to me I feel like the tacos tasted a bit dry because their was not enough salsa on top.

The atmosphere of the restaurant implemented a lot of art which I personally enjoyed. Their was a sink basin embellished with drawings to wash your hands. The chairs were rusty and colorful.  Each table had a assortment of Mexican spices to out on top of the tacos for more flavor. Their was a recycled glass bottle also with water in it. I enjoyed the experience of it. Feel free to look through their website for more details on  how they became famous.

Their website

PIE response from class

Chili con carne, now plain ol’ chili, was the harbinger of things to come for Mexican food. It was a Mexican dish, made by Mexicans for Mexicans, but it was whites who made the dish a national sensation, who pushed it far beyond its ancestral lands, who adapted it to their tastes, who created companies for large-scale production, and who ultimately became its largest consumer to the point that the only thing Mexican about it was the mongrelized Spanish in its name. The Mexicans, meanwhile, shrugged their shoulders and continued cooking and eating their own foods, all the while ostracized by Anglos who nevertheless tore through whatever Mexicans put in front of them. (37)

The quote stuck out to me because of the long sentence with phrases that tell a story, about what happens to Mexican food in the USA as it becomes transformed into American fast food. There are also some aspects of race that important, especially what is meant by “mongrelization.”

Based on this quote, students each left responses below, which gave their interpretations to the quote.

 

I have ate chili only once before and that was in Burger King which is definitely not a Mexican restaurant and i had not known that chile was even Mexican.The word mongrelized also stood out to me because it sounded vicious but it actually means “to mix in”. I thought it was interesting when it said Mexicans just shrugged it off as if they did not care much.

Free Write

In the video interviewing the worker at Los Tacos No.1 I took to notice the idea of being dehumanized just because he is a immigrant. Also the sadness in his eyes when he talks about being uneducated because he does not have the resources or money for it. He can not get the opportunity for himself nor can he bring his family the same. People judge a book by its cover in a sense, they only see the good side; the food, the flavor, not the labor behind it. They do not see the sacrifices of these workers making the food. He can not return to his family because he has to work and he is always given the odd hours. However he is still optimistic about his job while educated people here are bitter about immigrants and do not consider all they opportunities that they take for granted. He said he works in all types of positions from grilling, to cutting and preparing vegetables, and serving which shows he is multi-talented but his skills are unappreciated because of his legal status. He also said their are jobs for everyone but he has to take the jobs others would not want so it is all about being open to everything. He did not say he hated the food from working there every day but rather seemed very nationalistic. He even said long live Mexico.

In the article, When Chef’s Become Famous Cooking other Culture’s Food, by Maria Godoy and Kat Chow it was hard for me to agree with just one side at first but I lean more towards the fact they should not be praised so much.  I agree with the chef saying he had explored Mexico and done enough research on the food for him to become a chef for Mexican food. It gives him credibility because that is effort and experience. Yet once again he is privileged because he has the opportunities and resources to travel to Mexico without any fear and of course he stands out for being white and skilled hence catching the attention of media. Thinking back on the interview in Los Tacos No.1 if that man had access to travel back and forth and perfect his skills he probably still would not catch any fame because it seems like he should be doing just that. It is almost like saying “of course he would know how to make his cultural food good” rather than being praised for his excellent cooking skills. Basically when someone makes food from their own culture it is considered a norm and nothing to praise while someone else doing it is instantly acclaimed.