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CRSEA 2013
- 1. INTERACTIVE DIGITAL FOTONOVELAS: CREATING NEW MEDIA FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE Keynote Address LeighAnna G. Hidalgo UCLA’s Cesar E. Chavez Department of Chicana/o Studies Critical Race Studies in Education Association – Vanderbilt, University Nashville, TN May 31st, 2013
- 2. 1.Where my story begins… Abuelos, Papa, y Tia, El Salvador, 1960s Papa y Mama, Guatemala, 1980s
- 3. Violent Repression and Resistance Guatemala Arizona Mirror s
- 4. Professional and Personal Experiences Undergraduate Researcher South Phoenix Research Collective Moments Before Engaging in Non-violent Civil Disobedience when SB 1070 passed
- 5. 2. What is a Fotonovela • In1940s, designed as tactile representations of correlated movies. • In Spain, Italy Portugal, Mexico, Latin America, and the Caribbean. • Photographs, text, and dialogue bubbles.
- 6. History of Fotonovelas in Latin America • In 1960s, 23 movies were featured in fotonovelas, while 3 times that were based on original content • In 1980s, 70 million fotonovelas published in Mexico per month. • 3 types emerge: • Novelas rosas • Novelas suaves • Novelas verdes
- 7. Contemporary Fotonovelas in the US Scholars have noted potential of fotonovelas for: Public health interventions • Familiar to Spanish-speaking immigrants Literacy and research • Accessible to populations with low literacy levels Liberatory social interventions
- 8. 3. Interactive Digital Fotonovelas (IDF) Bringing the fotonovela into the digital age: • Video ethnographies • Increasing access • Multi-modal-online and print • Augmented reality and smartphones
- 9. 4. Theoretical Lens and Methodology Critical Race Fotonovelas Critical Race Theory (Counter-storytelling) Visual Anthropology (New Media Ethnography) Critical Race Spatial Analysis (GIS) Chicana Feminist Epistemology (Cultural Intuition) Chicana/o Studies (Rasquachismo, Arte Publico)
- 10. 5. Video Demonstration of IDF
- 13. 7. Concluding Remarks Our fotonovelas will be different because we have different stories and come from different communities. The point is to be the authors in our own stories You can use more accessible tools to create a fotonovela disposable camera pen paper To me its about the process and the content that goes into the fotonovela. Fotonovelas are about centering the role of race and counterstorytelling in ways that are visually accessible to multiple audiences. These visual stories are a way of democratizing our research, democratizing who tells the stories, and for whom? How do you see yourself using this as a tool in your own work?
Editor's Notes
- I am the daughter of an El Salvadoran refugee and American missionary mother I grew up in Guatemala from 1986 – 1994, traveling often to El Salvador to visit our family members. My political consciousness was formed in the midst of a “silent genocide” and a bloody civil war.
- Photos: The Guatemalan Genocide Lasted for 36 years and an estimated 200,000 people were killed by the Guatemalan soldiers-this does not include the disappeared who are still unaccounted for. This image demonstrates how during violent repression people resist—these are Mayan protestors with signs that read "Yes, there was Genocide" protest outside Guatemala Constitutional Court These images are from my time in Arizona where I lived and studied from 2003 to 2010. These images mirror the images from Central America. You see the militarized Phoenix police force getting ready to confront non-violent protestors during the passage of SB 1070. , I saw the Latino immigrant community lose one civil right after another, as skin color, language, and race became further criminalized with each passing year. This image is when SB 1070 goes into effect and community members chain themselves to the sheriffs entrance to prevent detainees and sheriffs from entering the building. 70 people were arrested that day and many more since… These injustices are familiar to me, they bring me back to my childhood, as the state sponsored disappearances in Guatemala and El Salvador, are replicated in the US as the state continues to sponsor the disappearances of our loved ones through detainment and deportation.
- As an undergrad, I had the opportunity to work as a bilingual student researcher in South Mountain Village as part of the South Phoenix Collaborative. Seeing all the fringe financial services in South Mountain hit a nerve because when I was in high school, I remember the pressure my family experienced when we lost the only vehicle my family of six owned as a result of utilizing the services of the auto title outlet. With no formal Geographic Information Systems training, I began mapping the type of financial services people of color in South Phoenix were exposed to. I wrote a research report, but I felt I needed to do more and I carried that frustration with me as I moved and began my masters program in Applied Anthropology at California State University. CSULB offered a visual anthropology course called “new media research methods” and I began working on making the research report I wrote visual. I had an “ajaaaa” moment when I came across the new media method of comic book making,. I knew the historical importance of comicos in Latin America. My own father had confided that much of his first exposure to socialismo began with comics. Jose Guadalupe Posada is the founding father of political cartoons. Posada used graphic art with text as a form of political activism to educate and inform the everyday people of Mexico. The purpose of Posada’s work was to “condemn injustice” and describe “the struggles of popular heroes” (Stavans 1990:56). Posada inspired generations of Mexican and Chicano public art muralists and my goal was to pay them homage by creating a fotonovela with a purpose that is part activism and part pedagogy.
- Photo: Where did the Fotonovela come from? After the advent of film in the 1940s, fotonovelas were designed as “tactile representations of the movie with which they correlated” (Carillo, 1983). This image is of a Brazilian fotonovela What is a Fotonovela? Traditional print medium in Spain, Italy Portugal, Mexico, Latin America, and the Carribean. Photo-based comic books made up of sequential photographs, written text, and dialogue bubbles.
- Where did the Fotonovela come from? In Latin America, fotonovelas began addressing original content gradually diverging from films. For example, during the 1960s 23 movies were featured in fotonovelas, while 3 times that were based on original content and circulating through Mexico, Central and South America (Carrillo and Thomas, 1983 from RWHP). In the late 1980s, each month Mexico published an estimated 70 million fotonovelas, as such the social importance and commercial success of the fotonovela can not be underestimated (Herner, 1979 from RWHP) During this period three types of fotonovelas emerged: Novelas rosas, centered on true love, marriage and family, Novelas suaves, describing middle-class life and its challenges, and Novelas verdes, emphasizing sex and violence (Flora, 1980 from RWHP).
- Organizations like the Rural Women’s Health Project (RWHP), have used fotonovelas as an educational tool for 20 years for public health interventions because of the familiarity of the fotonovela and its ability to address health issues among Spanish-speaking immigrant populations with low literacy skills. Los Angeles-based Chicano Artist Harry Gamboa uses the fotonovela medium to “blend identity, politics, relationships and philosophy in a sort of photo-graphic poetry” (Emme, Kirova, Cambre, 2006). The fotonovela has been recognized by educators for it’s potential to serve as a “mechanism for innovations in literacy and research”, and a “vehicle for liberatory social interventions” that answer Paolo Freire’s call for “liberatory interventions to be guided by the people rather than the pedagogues” (Emme, Kirova, Cambre, 2006).
- Brings the Fotonovela into the digital age. IDF fuses the following visual tools: archival photographs, commissioned photographs, and videotaped ethnographic interviews. Videotaped interviews gives community members a space for self-representation. I began contemplating ways I could make my research accessible and meaningful to multiple audiences: young and old, Latino and White, Spanish and English speakers. The largest challenge I faced is in making the fotonovela accessible to Latino immigrant families without access to the Internet. During my community research in Phoenix, I noted that while many families lacked access to a computer, many of them had access to smart phones with Internet capabilities. I set out to create a fotonovela that could be multi-modal—existing on the Internet and in print. Using augmented reality cellphone applications, I discovered that those without Internet access could still engage with the videos in the print version if they had a smart phone.
- Visual Anthropology (New Media Ethnography) (Wilson, 2010): IDF fotonovelas In accordance with the principles of new media, the digital fotonovela allows for greater interactivity on the part of audiences. Can produce applied or goal-oriented projects, i.e. raising consciousness about predatory financial services Draws on input and creative collaboration with community members, artists, and activists CRT (Counterstorytelling): IDF fotonovelas tell the stories of my family and my community and the social issues that have affected us. Often, our stories have been erased and silenced and the fotonovela provides a space to voice our concerns and educate others about our experiences (Solorzano and Yosso 2002, Yosso 2005). Critical Race Spatial Analysis (GIS): I use maps to identify erased histories and untold stories. I locate spaces through time uncovering the “legacies of inequality” (Sampson, 2012) where communities of color were systematically disinvested in, exposed to hazardous chemicals, untreated sewage and toady are currently exposed to hazardous financial services and increased immigration sweeps that target people of color in South Phoenix. CFE (Cultural Intuition): Grounded in my “cultural intuition” i.e. activism, research, and personal and professional experiences within the community and topics are selected based on my personal experiences as a Central American Chicana Loss of family vehicle to auto-title lenders Witnessing my community under seige by anti-immigrant policies that target communities of color and witnessing friends and family members being stopped, detained, and deported (Delgado Bernal, 1998;Calderon, Delgado Bernal, Perez-Huber, Malagón, and Velez, 2012). Chicana/o Studies (Rasquachismo): IDF comes from the Chicano tradition of rasquachismo, relying on resourcefulness to learn “just enough, but not too much” GIS & Final Cut Pro and repurposing and reinventing western technologies like Youtube and Calameo from their original intent or function into a creative improvisation (Mesa-Bains, 1996). I am inserting the political into the fotonovela medium and following the Chicano arte publico/public art.
- This fotonovela has been shared with the civil rights and advocacy organization Arizona Hispanic Community Forum and requested by ASU’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy. I have used the fotonovela as a teaching tool in 3 workshops and in 4 undergraduate classrooms at ASU and CSULB. This project is not complete, I am working towards the goal of applying for funding to hire community members in Arizona to help me develop this fotonovela in Spanish and add audio-capabilities for non-literate populations.
- 1) L@s Desaparecid@s Reframes the lens of U.S. immigrant deportations to that of state sponsored disappearances common in Central American Civil Wars. The goal of this fotonovela is to intervene in the immigration debate with 5 compelling visual counterstories that present the reality of many Latino immigrants experiencing family separations. I use maps to identify the growth of immigration detainment centers over the last 50 years and to reveal which countries proportionally deport the most people annually. We advocate for halting deportations and ICE and local law enforcement partnerships. 2) Strategies of Sobresaliendo (overcoming) Photographic narrative of my grandmother, father, and I as we explore income alternative strategies during wartimes, such as my grandmother who worked in El Salvador as an in-home housekeeper, marketplace vendedora, turned bible book store owner. And my father, during exile, working in the US as a janitor, a CD salesmen, and a newspaper deliverer. The purpose is to show the community cultural wealth and resilient strategies developed during war and exile that are transmitted to the next generaton by looking at one Central American multi-generational families. This story is about how como familia sobresalimos, we overcome, we thrive.
- 1) L@s Desaparecid@s Reframes the lens of U.S. immigrant deportations to that of state sponsored disappearances common in Central American Civil Wars. The goal of this fotonovela is to intervene in the immigration debate with 5 compelling visual counterstories that present the reality of many Latino immigrants experiencing family separations. I use maps to identify the growth of immigration detainment centers over the last 50 years and to reveal which countries proportionally deport the most people annually. We advocate for halting deportations and ICE and local law enforcement partnerships. 2) Strategies of Sobresaliendo (overcoming) Photographic narrative of my grandmother, father, and I as we explore income alternative strategies during wartimes, such as my grandmother who worked in El Salvador as an in-home housekeeper, marketplace vendedora, turned bible book store owner. And my father, during exile, working in the US as a janitor, a CD salesmen, and a newspaper deliverer. The purpose is to show the community cultural wealth and resilient strategies developed during war and exile that are transmitted to the next generaton by looking at one Central American multi-generational families. This story is about how como familia sobresalimos, we overcome, we thrive.
- I made fotonovelas digital and political, but I want to note that the way I am conceptualizing this CRT tool is for scholars and community members to use this medium based on their own experiences and purposes. Your fotonovelas may be less political, less research driven, and more educational for instance. Our fotonovelas will be different because we have different stories and come from different communities. The point is to be the authors in our own stories instead of allowing others to come into our communities and to write reports about us To me its about the process and the content. I repurpose and reappropriate digital technologies, but IDF is not about aesthetiques, rather it is about the process, the theories, and methods we use and why we use them. So if the digital aesthetique is not for you or the people you work with, you can use more accessible tools to create a fotonovela, like a disposable camera, pen, and paper. You may abandon photos all together and use the zine aesthetique. Fotonovelas are about centering the role of race along with other forms of subordination and counterstorytelling in ways that are visually accessible to multiple audiences. These visual stories are a way of democratizing our research and democratizing who tells the stories, and for whom?