A curricular key learning experience for me during my Junior year at the University of Washington was being in the GWSS 451 Latinx Cultural Production Class. This Diversity course helped fulfill the Arts/Cultural section for my Diversity minor. This class involved the exploration of expressive culture that Chicana/Mexican American/Latina women in the United States. Moreover, this course examined literature, music, film, spoken word, performing and visual arts of Chicana/Mexican American/Latina women all over the world. By looking at these works of art, we were able to discuss on issues involving gender and racialized identities. In addition, the most important assignment in this class was the collective altar/ofrenda the class created for the 14th annual Dia de los Muertos Celebration at El Centro de la Raza. Learning about latinx cultural production and the process of the collective altar/ofrenda was valuable to me because it taught me about personal values, group development, creating change, and diversity.

My participation in the GWSS 451 Latinx Cultural Production course is significant to me because it has made me a more inclusive and open-minded individual. Ever since the first Diversity course I have taken at the University of Washington, I became hungry and eager to take more Diversity courses. Diversity has always been an intriguing topic to me because it allows me to learn about the different cultures our beautiful world is comprised of. In addition, I grew up with parents who aren’t very open-minded and struggled with conflicting perspectives due to my parents trying to influence me to look at particular cultures in their light. Therefore, I knew that I should educate myself because this would help me develop my own perspectives and help me become more inclusive. As a result, this course has helped me learn more about a culture that I was never an expert on. After taking this course I am still not an expert on the latinx culture, but I am more aware of the societal issues that the latinx culture faces which gets me closer to being more accepting of the different cultures that I come across in life.

• Completed assigned readings and watched supplementary videos for each lecture
• Participated in class facilitated discussions
• Wrote essays, reflections, and short discussion forums to increase the sharing of knowledge
• Built an altar/ofrenda with the entire GWSS 451 class
• Explored latinx cultural production in literature, art, spoken word, media, and music

Personal Values

This course dealt with learning about different latinx women. An important identity of mine that I am very proud of is being female. One of the assignments for this class was to do a flash presentation that was related to the reading of that day. I remember that most of the class chose to do their flash presentations on different latinx women. These flash presentations ranged from a latinx individual doing slam poetry about their hair, a latinx individual being a director of a film that addressed domestic abuse, and more. Learning about all of these powerful latinx women made me feel empowered. It’s always inspiring to see someone that shares an identity with you be able to express themselves to the world.

Group Development

The most important project of this class was the class altar/ofrenda for the Dia de Los Muertos Celebration at El Centro de la Raza. Prior to this assignment, each individual in the class did a research project on a latinx issue or person they felt exemplified the theme for the celebration “Long Live the Struggle, the Resistance and Hope.” With all of our individual topics, we had to incorporate them into our collective altar/ofrenda. The entire class had a shared purpose to build an amazing altar/ofrenda that represented the theme. Through this purpose I could tell that the whole class was committed and we all worked efficiently by splitting up who would get certain supplies to make the altar/ofrenda. Despite having different individual topics, the entire class was able to make a cohesive altar/ofrenda.

Creating Change

Our group altar/ofrenda was a way for the class to create change during the Dia de los Muertos Celebration at El Centro de la Raza. In this setting, there were different groups from the Seattle community who also made altars/ofrendas in honor of the Dia de Los Muertos Celebration. Our collective altar/ofrenda was unique because of how we combined everyone’s individual research topics into one piece. Our class did not follow the traditional way to make an altar/ofrenda which is how we created change. We were still respectful of the celebration because we incorporated the elements of a traditional altar/ofrenda, but the combining of everyone’s work was different. The combination of everyone’s work still resulted in a cohesive altar/ofrenda and our message of highlighting latinx Women Who Rock was our way of creating a change on the societal level.

Excellence

This course involved a lot of participation and writing. As a STEM major I have noticed that these courses do not really require a lot of participation or writing. As a result, I knew that my participation and writing skills were not very strong. However, this was not going to stop me from putting one hundred percent of my best effort in all of the assignments for this class. Due to finding the topics of this class very interesting, I was passionate about the readings and all of the written assignments we had to write. I think my passion increased the excellence I put into the work because I received full credit for all of my written assignments. Thus, this class has taught me that I am capable of putting my best effort in everything that I do.

Diversity

This class taught me about diversity because I exposed myself to the background of the latinx culture. Prior to this class I did not have a lot of knowledge about the latinx culture and thus, everything that was discussed in the class was new to me. For instance, I learned about afro-latinas and their struggle with not being recognized as being from latina/latino descent. Furthermore, at the Dia de los Muertos Celebration at El Centro de la Raza, many different groups from the Seattle community showcased their altars/ofrendas. Each altar/ofrenda that I saw was different and did not showcase the same topic. There was an altar/ofrenda dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr. and one dedicated to transgender victims.

My experience with the GWSS 451 Latinx Cultural Production course at the University of Washington has contributed to making me a more inclusive and open-minded individual. I have used my leadership competencies of personal values, excellence and diversity to help fuel my drive in my other leadership roles. Moreover, my realizing my personal value of being a female has ignited a new passion of mine to encourage females to be in the STEM field because we are the minority. Thus, in regards to the future, I think that the lessons that I have learned from this experience will help me be better at empowering females to achieve their dreams and work with all kinds of people that come from different backgrounds.