![]() ![]() I wanted to do something to help her but there were many times that I could not do anything but cry and watch. It frightened me because it paralyzed me and made me physically inactive. At first, the most difficult part was understanding her silence. She has been battling the disease for ten years, losing (among other things) her ability to move, eat, or speak. The most mutable action has come to me after my mother’s terminal illness - she was diagnosed with dementia and Parkinsons. Action means maybe you are not making protest flyers, but allowing someone else to make her own. It means asking questions, without speaking. Action in its quiet moments means listening. I want to share my personal narratives through others’ personal narratives. Of course, as an artist, this means visually showing, interpreting, rendering, and transforming this knowledge. I have also been thinking about action as forming alternative ways of exchange and of dialogue. I am an artist because I want to educate myself. I don’t begin a project because I know everything about it, but instead, because I know very little or absolutely nothing. I start a project by assessing and learning what that group or community has to offer: What skills or knowledge do they have that they can build upon/contribute? Some of these are are the most valuable assets - things that those in authority, those with homogenous thinking or singular visions, will often tell you are wrong. Instead, I am passionate about discovery and how I can learn with and about others.Īcts happen with observation. Yet, I am very aware that my role as an artist is not going to change the world. There are still many young women in the world who are denied education. For example, getting a college education (I am the first in my family to do so) is a radical action. ![]() I have been thinking about action as education, and how it can involve the individual as much as a group of people. I have been thinking about the meaning of the word action not as a temporary act, but as a process. As a young immigrant child, growing up in both Mexico and Los Angeles, I bore witness to many injustices - exile, violence, poverty, and the power of government/institutions to take away basic human rights such as shelter, food and water. On the contrary, my actions are more focused, strategized, and intentional. Although I understand the necessity of these actions at times, I prefer what I call “quiet actions.” By this, I don’t mean to suggest that I have suppressed my passion and conviction I believe in political involvement and awareness. There is an erroneous belief that radical acts only involve protests and militant actions. But to me, it also means silence and stillness. The word action indicates movement and performance. ![]()
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