Cultural Identity

Above is my charm bracelet. It was given to me when I was 15. In the Hispanic heritage, turning 15 signifies a turning point for a girl's life. In celebration for the transition from being a girl to a young woman, there is traditionally a Quinceanera party. However, since lavish girly dresses aren't necessary my thing, I decided to opt out of the tradition and commemorate my coming of age with a this bracelet and have added charms throughout the years to symbolize major aspects of my life.


I don't come from a large family. In fact, the only people I consider family are my mother and older sister. Because of this lack of close relatives, I haven't been as exposed to my "cultural roots" as say your average Mexican America girl. However, I still strongly identify as a Xhicana, and joined a latin community service sorority with the motto "Latinas Helping Others"- Sigma Lambda Alpha. Below is mask I used during my showcase.

Over the summer I got the opportunity to study abroad in the UK at the University of Oxford. There I took a Shakespeare's class and a medieval course. Traveling is something that I've always dreamed of but unfortunately because of my family background and our lack of financial resources, I never thought I'd step foot outside of the US. Fortunately after some encouraging words,  I took the initiative to break that barrier and received a generous scholarship to make my trip plausible.  As a self proclaimed Xhicana, I value both American culture and Mexican culture. Here is a reminder to myself that I can expand from my horizons and appreciate yet another culture.

In addition to identifying a Latina, I also identify as queer.  The queer community is hands down part of my culture. This is an aspect of my life and I'm on a mission to integrate LGBTQ  oppression with other minority struggles because it is my belief that taking an intersectionality lens is  key to alleviate oppression.

 

 Here is a poem by Adelina Anthony entitled "Tragic Bitches: An Experiment in Queer Xicana &Xicano Performance Poetry". It is very blunt and can be seen as vulgar but I really like it because of just that.  I think there is a distinction between those who identify as Mexican America and Xican@.

Introductions

Hey guys! I'm Jessica, but I go by Jess. My major is psychology and I'm a senior this year. I came into UT as a social work major but then switch to anthropology and then finally settled on psychology. However, after going a few semester without taking any more social work classes, I came to regret my decision to change majors and wished I would have continued as a social work major. Because it's too late in the game to go back to social work, I'm currently just minoring in it. I really enjoyed and see the value in community service. I was raised in a single parent household from a low socioeconomic background. My school system was one of the worse in the country (I'm originally from Compton, California) and I really enjoyed working with kids that attend inner city schools. I currently have about 200 hours at the boys and girls club in south Austin. I've done a few hours elsewhere but the major of hours of community service I've performed have involved children. I enrolled in this class because it seemed like a great opportunity to expand my experiences in other communities. I'm looking forward to this class and promise, the learning method is great!