A WORK IN PROGRESS
These images are from a sculpture in progress, which I have been working on in my studio at the Alameda Artworks in San Jose. It is about bilingualism and the birth of my learning Spanish. Growing up in San Jose, Spanish was talked but I was not encouraged to learn it. My parents grew up in the 1930's in Del Rio, Texas and they were subjected to corporal punishment when they spoke Spanish in school. My parents did not want their children to suffer like they did. Their shame of their first language forced us all to assimilate and lose something precious.
My image is of a person giving birth, representing the birth of my desire, my labor of finding this language within me. This birthing tongue will come out of a second tongue. This second tongue will represent English and the pain of what my parents had to endure for being Mexican in Texas.
The story of the piece is taking a while to put together because I am literally in process with dealing with this pain. Living in San Jose, I'm coping with others’ prejudice because I look Mexican but can’t speak Spanish fluently. I have often felt the reverse shame of what my parents had endured. A positive experience has been practicing and learning the language with encouragement from my art students at San Jose High School.
Creating this piece is freeing me from my pain as well as my parents' pain—it’s a healing piece.
My image is of a person giving birth, representing the birth of my desire, my labor of finding this language within me. This birthing tongue will come out of a second tongue. This second tongue will represent English and the pain of what my parents had to endure for being Mexican in Texas.
The story of the piece is taking a while to put together because I am literally in process with dealing with this pain. Living in San Jose, I'm coping with others’ prejudice because I look Mexican but can’t speak Spanish fluently. I have often felt the reverse shame of what my parents had endured. A positive experience has been practicing and learning the language with encouragement from my art students at San Jose High School.
Creating this piece is freeing me from my pain as well as my parents' pain—it’s a healing piece.
YOLANDA GUERRA is a visual artist from San Jose, California. Her most recent work has been with textiles and woodblock prints. Find her online at http://yolandaguerra.com or follow her on Facebook.
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