Artist Statement

A Foto of Escuela
For my final project I wanted to focus on becoming a part of Escuela and the community since, for my first project, I focused on being welcomed. I tried capturing pictures that would relate to Escuela’s values and what they teach the students there. The pictures that I took for this project were taken over three weeks and I would ask the kids to pose for me or either take just candid shots of them.
The reason I chose the title “A Foto of Escuela” is because I felt that my project portrayed just a glimpse of Escuela. I also chose to use the Spanish version of “picture” because my project is all about the language barrier between students, teachers, volunteers, and parents. Throughout the video, I used a Spanish phrase to describe a picture and then switch to the English translation. This is how I experienced my time at Escuela. Since the woman I worked with didn’t speak a lot of English, I would ask the students to translate for me to find out what they were supposed to be doing. For example, the picture of the paper star was a team activity and each student made one point of the star. This was extremely difficult because the directions were only in Spanish and I had a hard time helping them. That day I learned a lot about patience and the intelligence of the students.
The biggest roadblock throughout making my project was my relationship with a volunteer I worked with every week, Ms. Valdivia. It took many weeks for me to break the ice with her, but when I finally did, I found out that she speaks mainly Spanish and was learning English. I started noticing in the later weeks that she was incorporating more English into her instructions for the kids which helped our relationship. The picture I have of her in my project says a great deal about her personality in that she is very mature for her age. In the end I feel like with more time, we could have bonded on a much higher level.
I decided to end my project with an open ended question because I feel that it lets my audience decide whether or not there is a solution to the language barrier. I personally felt alienated at times when the volunteers would only speak Spanish around me. I determined that is how the Hispanic community must feel around people who primarily speak English. I picked the song “One Tribe” by the Black Eyed Peas because I felt the message of the song related to the main theme in my project; although there is a language barrier, we still can communicate on some level with one another.
Ultimately, I feel that my project depicted my time spent at Escuela and the impact I made there. Not only did I make an impact, but the students made an impact on me and opened my eyes to “la communidad”.