PRLS Blogs: NY Latin Cultures and Digital Chicana

[emilydisanti]

Family Roots (poem)- Journal 3

They tell me I have my fathers eyes, ever changing color and always focused

Combined with my mothers smile, the ever so slightest tooth gap that fills the room with contagion of joy and presence

My presence is subtle, yet powerful, like the pink sky above a hot June day in New York City

Colorful like Italian ice, comforting like cafe con leche with soda crackers from the tin

I reside above the border of Brooklyn and Queens, it seems as though I always reside among multiple worlds

The sound of Hector Lavoe fills my kitchen, smells like the homeade batch of sofrito made this morning, green from all the peppers

Green like the hidden sanctuary garden my great grandma made in her Brooklyn backyard that resembles her Sicilian farmhouse

The rooster crows every morning, the M train off of Seneca is your alarm clock

They say Im a jack of all trades like my late abuelo, who sold piraguas in Patillas with a love for the ocean and Bruce Lee

Pisces like me, a natural musician

Social and witty like my Gemini grandpa, who took night classes to learn English as he worked full time to feed 6

They say I have an intimidating walk and look like my Scorpio nana, Brooklyn in her step, always ready to fight, vaseline in her pocket

Strong legs like my Italian uncles who can outrun a bus

My brain calculates every second like a competitive game of dominoes at a BBQ, always remembering like my grandmother who kept all of my childhood belongings

My hair as burnt orange as the the map of Sicily in her dining room she never threw out, my skin the fairest olive like the inside of a Christmas flan with a side of Coquito

Respectful like Bendiciones at the end of a phone call, loud like an Italian Sunday dinner 

I reside among two worlds, yet I often feel disconnected in a galaxy of space filled with my broken Nuyorican Spanish slang and lack of familiarity to the Amafi coast

Yet I am made among multiple roots of an old family tree

And that in fact, grounds me in everything I am 

[emilydisanti]

this is my new song, shapeshift! I wanted to share to this page because this project was done by a team of latina women including me, the photographer and director and the stylist. it was amazing to work with these talented women.

🇵🇷🇬🇹

shot and directed by tiffany galicia @premetiff

styled by kim munrayos @kimmunrayos

styled and song by me @emadee on all streaming platforms, enjoy! 🔮🔮🦋

[emilydisanti]

[emilydisanti]

[twixnmix]

Selena photographed by Blanca Charolet, 1994.

[emilydisanti]

Before Night Falls Midterm Assignment 2

Reinaldo Arena’s Before Night Falls tells the life story of him growing up during Cuba during the Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro’s rule and eventually getting AIDS. His words are narrative and descriptive, but are done never to purposefully invoke the reaction of the reader. Arena simply just tells the story of his life through his opinion and experience. The tone of the piece throughout the stages of life are always very mellow and reflect an inner sadness. The writer seems to be dealing with not only the political climate of his nation that directly impacts his social and financial status, but also his family life and his own health, mentally and physically. While reading, I found a few quotes which reflect the rough experiences and trauma that he endured. The first example is the way he meets his father, who is only mentioned once. Arena writes “"One day my mother and I were on our way to visit one of my aunts. As we walked down to the river, a man came toward us; he was good-looking, tall and dark. My mother fell into a sudden rage; she began picking up stones from the riverbank and throwing them at his head, while the man, in spite of the shower of rocks, kept coming toward us. When he was close to me, he put his hand into his pocket, pulled out two pesos and gave them to me. He then patted me on the head and ran away to avoid being hit by one of the stones. My mother cried all the way to my aunt's house, where I found out that the man was my father. I never saw him again, nor the two pesos; my aunt asked my mother to lend them to her and I do not know if she ever paid them back." (Arena, 2) He also mentions being an outlier of his family when saying “I always thought that my family, including my mother, saw me as a weird creature, useless, confused, or crazy; a being outside the framework of their lives. They were probably right.” (Arena, 3) He mentions a lot about Batista and Castro, and how he blames him for a lot of terrible things that have occurred in his life under dictatorship and communism in the Cuban Revolution. According to History.com, “The U.S. government had supported Batista, a former soldier and Cuban dictator from 1933 to 1944, who seized power for a second time in a 1952 coup. After Castro and a group of followers, including the South American revolutionary Che Guevara (1928-1967), landed in Cuba to unseat the dictator in December 1956, the U.S. continued to back Batista. Suspicious of what they believed to be Castro’s leftist ideology and worried that his ultimate goals might include attacks on the U.S.’s significant investments and property in Cuba, American officials were nearly unanimous in opposing his revolutionary movement.” ( https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/batista-forced-out-by-castro-led-revolution)He also writes about the dangers of communist Cuba and emphasizes noise being a part of Cuban culture. He says ““The difference between the communist and capitalist systems is that, although both give you a kick in the ass, in the communist system you have to applaud, while in the capitalist system you can scream. And I came here to scream.” (5) He also deals with another part of his Cuban identity by being gay. He talks a lot about machismo in the means of Cuban men culture and seperates these different topics: childhood and family matters, abuse and rape, homosexuality, communism, and social status in different writing chapters. However, between all of the subjects, there is a relation between dissedence, homosexuality and literature. Arenas uses dissedence throughout many areas of his life including his views on communism and dictatorship, his sexuality, the decisions he makes compared to his family. Literature reflects a big part of his life because it is the way he is able to get descriptive about the areas of his life and organize them into descriptive pieces of memory that we see history and rebellion in the process. The story he tells about his own life very much reflects current issues as well as an important part of Latin history.

[vhspositive]

[kaoui-deactivated20230103]

maria isabel

[thomaspatrickyes]

Visit Original Link

Childish Gambino - Telegraph Ave / Sober (Cover) | Daniela Andrade 

[equatorjournal]

[samhorine]

ridgewood queens - summer 17

[ericsorenson]

Ridgewood, Queens

[ericsorenson]

Ridgewood, Queens

(Yashica Electro 35 GS Kodak MAX 400)

[daveyadesida]

Ph. Davey Adesida

[mere-gossamer]

my mom holds her accent like a shotgun, with two good hands. her tongue, all brass knuckle slipping in between her lips her hips, all laughter and wind clap. she speaks a sanchocho of spanish and english, pushing up and against one another, in rapid fire there is no telling my mama to be “quiet,” she don’t know “quiet.” her voice is one size better fit all and you best not tell her to hush, she waited too many years for her voice to arrive to be told it needed house keeping. English sits in her mouth remixed so “strawberry” becomes “eh-strawbeddy” and “cookie” becomes “eh-cookie” and kitchen, key chain, and chicken all sound the same. my mama doesn’t say “yes” she says, “ah ha” and suddenly the sky in her mouth becomes Hector Lavoe song. her tongue can’t lay itself down flat enough for the English language, it got too much hip too much bone too much conga too much cuatro to two step got too many piano keys in between her teeth, it got too much clave too much hand clap got too much salsa to sit still it be an anxious child wanting to make Play-Doh out of concrete English be too neat for her kind of wonderful. her words spill in conversation between women whose hands are all they got sometimes our hands are all we got and accents remind us that we are still bomba, still plena say “wepa” and a stranger becomes your hermano, say “dale” and a crowd becomes a family reunion. my mama’s tongue is a telegram from her mother decorated with the coqui’s of el campo so even though her lips can barely stretch themselves around english, her accent is a stubborn compass always pointing her towards home.

Denice Frohman, Accents (via mere-gossamer)

[emilydisanti]

Journal 2

My grandma sent me old film pictures the other day of her, my mom and aunt in the 80′s and 90′s growing up in Bushwick. I started thinking over how my personal aesthetic and thoughts of beauty is influenced by them, and overall being a New York Latina. The trends that were started in New York that have influenced the style of so many celebrities and been the center of editorial magazines and I feel so honored to have seen the same look in my own family members 20 years prior. As a kid I went into my aunt’s old room and admired her high school graduation photo. Curly black hair, eyeliner, perfectly arched brows and a brown lip with a hint of blush. The perfect camera smize, off the shoulder black shirt with a red rose in hand. She looked like Selena. My grandma had taught me everything about makeup when I wanted to change my look from growing up very minimal and tomboy. She pulled out all of her makeup, while still emphasizing natural beauty and taking care of your skin. There was something so magical about makeup, something so empowering, the way you can transform yourself. The same with clothes. The pictures she sent showed my aunt in brown courdoroy low rise jeans with platforms. My mom had customized her own prom dress, off the shoulder red with an updo. There was always a statement to an outfit, whether it be color, a bold accessory (hoops of course), or a fun jacket and purse to complete the look. My mom is first generation and they didn’t grow up with a lot of money to buy designer clothes, so one of her favorite things to do was study magazines and then go to beauty supply stores and seamstresses to make her own look. I became fascinated as a teenager, and since then have graduated beauty school, have a job as a stylist, started freelancing makeup and photography, and am about to graduate Brooklyn College for media. I want to give everyone that feeling when getting their makeup done or photographed that seeing my family members pull off their best versions of themselves did, or me when I discovered makeup for the first time. I hope to make working in beauty and fashion full time a part of my career. When I was really young, I never saw these outfits or makeup styles represented in big magazines, runways, and other medias along with people who also looked like my family members. But social media has changed our dynamic in only studying one type of fashion, one type of beauty. I am starting to see more people, more styles, more faces, more identities, sexualities, and races being represented and it makes me really happy. Unknowingly, I own very similar pieces in my closet, and a red or brown lip is always by number 1 choice. I love to rock my curly hair and wear an accessory that changes the look completely. I wonder if their interpretation of beauty has rubbed off on me. 

[schrodingers--slut]

i would like to send as much love and support as i can to fka twigs in the coming weeks. the unbelievable amount of strength and bravery she displayed in coming forward and speaking out against the violence and abuse she faced cannot go unnoticed. issues of gender based violence have always and continue to disproportionately affect people of color. she will undoubtedly face backlash and victim blaming, and she deserves all the support in the world right now.

additionally, i send support and strength to those who are currently facing, or have faced relationship violence of any sort. below are links to a variety of support resources and organizations to donate to. i by no means know everything about all of these resources, and i’m sure there are many more that i missed, feel free to let me know or add.

most of all, you are not alone, you are loved, you are always and will always be worthy of respect, love, care, and time. please take care of yourself 💛💛💛

https://www.thehotline.org/: National Domestic Violence Hotline: free, confidential, 24/7 call or text lines, recursos en español

https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/: National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: confidential, free, 24/7 call and chat lines, hard of hearing and deaf specific resouces, recursos en español

https://www.loveisrespect.org/: Love Is Respect: good for education, 24/7 call or text lines, free and confidential, recursos en español

https://www.rainn.org/: RAINN: free, confidential, 24/7 call and chat lines, recursos en español

https://casadeesperanza.org/: Casa de Esperanza: 24/7 bilingual helpline and services (recursos en español), lots of advocacy and outreach work

http://www.nnirr.org/drupal/: National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights: advocates for migrant rights, border justice and legislative change, recursos en español

https://www.dviforwomen.org/: The Initiative: call line available 9am-5pm M-F, advocates specific support for victim/survivors with disabilities, provides direct service, education, and outreach

https://deafdawn.org/services: DAWN: provides advocacy specifically for deaf or hard of hearing victim/survivors, call and text lines

https://wocninc.org/projects/: Women of Color Network: provides a variety of support and educative advocacy for women of color

https://www.niwrc.org/: National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center: native led nonprofit, links to many resources and hotlines, lots of advocacy and outreach work

https://www.api-gbv.org/: Asian-Pacific Institute of Gender Based Violence: provides a variety of different culturally specific advocacy services including translation and immigration support

https://alp.org/: The Audre Lorde Project: provides advocacy and support specifically for LQBTQ+ people of color, lots of education, outreach, and community support programs

https://translifeline.org/: Trans Lifeline: hotline is free, anonymous, and confidential, all calls are answered by trans/GNC advocates, many many resources and links, recursos en español

https://www.bwjp.org/: Battered Women’s Justice Project: provides a variety of legal advocacy and support services, does lots of outreach and training programs

https://youth.gov/youth-topics/teen-dating-violence/resources: Youth.Gov: a centralized set of resources and educative info for teenagers/younger folks dealing with/learning about relationship violence