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Illustration for sketchbook #6. The “tie-snake” from Drowning in Fire.

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Sketchbook #6

1. Creek Nation- a federally recognized ad largest tribe of Creek Indian descendants that’s located in Oklahoma and include the Alabama, Hitchiti, Natchez, Shawnee, and Yuchi people.

Hitchiti- an indigenous tribe that was located in western Georgia on the east bank of the Chattahoochee River.

Creek Indian Relocation- After the Treaty of Cusseta, the Creek National Council ceded their lands east of the Mississippi and relocated to the Indian Territory during the Trail of Tears in 1834.

Indian Territory- land set aside by the U.S. Government for the relocation of indigenous people located in the land from the Louisiana Purchase.

Craig Womack- author and professor of Native American literature of Creek-Cherokee decent who wrote Drowning in Fire, 2001.

2. “He longed for the comfort of those stones. He wished he had collected all kinds of them—agate streaked with red lightening, hard quartz pounded into indissoluble rage, blood-red hematite formed around secrets, yellow amaranth rained down by tears. He would put all the rocks in his mouth and find his voice in their swirled streaks of sky, fire, water. But there were no such rocks and none of them contained secret messages and there was nobody to send them to even if they had” (28).

I found this passage to be beautiful to me for several reasons. Although it doesn’t necessarily reveal much about everyday life, it surely revealed a bit about Josh’s beliefs and perhaps the beliefs of the Creek Indians. Perhaps these stones that he had mentioned had symbolic meaning or power to the Creek people and were used as medicine stones. The idea of swallowing these rocks in search for words or strength is such an interesting concept to me. It might suggest the strong bond between the Creek and their environment, and how maybe they feel that they can spiritually draw strength or wisdom from nature. Josh’s inability to reach these precious stones may also communicate his feelings of isolation from his culture or support for his queer identity. Then again, it could very well just communicate his helplessness when he was drowning in the lake while his “friends” showed little concern for his absence.

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Sketchbook #5

1.Mariang Makiling

Sirenas and siyokoys

Medusa

Cassandra

2.Master narrative: “tells a tale of a woman who is sexually betrayed by her man, and, in what was either a fit of jealous rage or pure retaliation, she kills their children by drowning them in a river” (Moraga).

Counter-narrative: “well if betrayal was the reason, could infanticide then be retaliation against misogyny, an act of vengeance not against one man, but man in general for a betrayal much graver than sexual infidelity: the enslavement and deformation of our sex?” (Moraga 3)

A master narrative for Medusa’s myth was that she was seduced by Poseidon and they had sex in Athena’s temple. Athena then decided to punish Medusa by turning her hair into vipers and distorted her appearance to the extent that people would turn to stone upon looking at her terrible face. It constitutes as a master narrative, blaming Medusa’s punishment on her female fallibility and weakness while also pitting Athena and Medusa against each other. However, the counter-narrative paints Medusa and Athena in a different light. Medusa is portrayed as the victim that she is, a priestess who was raped by the God Poseidon. She had known and was committed to her role as a priestess and because of the power dynamic between priestess and a God, consent is absolutely dubious. And instead of Athena punishing Medusa, her gorgon appearance is bestowed upon her as a weapon and a shield. Her power to turn attackers to stone and her hair of vipers serves as protection to ensure that no man will ever be able to force himself upon her again.

3.     Philippines, 1521

Philippines, 1942-1945

Troy, 13th century BCE

New York, 1969

4.    

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Sketchbook #4

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1. Gila Internment Camp- a “relocation center” on the Gila River Indian Reservation that contained Japanese internees from all over California and from another closed camp in Arkansas—it was known for being on of the least oppressive camps.

Densho Project- a collection of accounts and memories from those who were unfairly detained during the Japanese internment period that aims to promote justice and preserve the testimonies of these groups.

Hapa- slang for someone who is mixed race with Japanese decent.

2. One deep structure that A.K. writes about in several of his stories is racism. His story “Yellow Creostote Blossoms, Piss-Stained Gaillardia” describes the poor sanitary and living conditions that the Japanese internees had to live in. This short story specifically talks about the crowded and revolting sewage system that was set up for these prisoners, and that these latrines were considered the most degrading aspect of life in the Gila camp. Not only did these people have to live in containment, crippling their autonomy, they were treated as second class citizens. In addition, they were treated as if any of them could be a traitor to the U.S. and a spy for the Japanese forces. They were afforded little privacy, and in the story when Ruthie Araki needed a private stall, they did nothing to accommodate her or any of the other citizens. Rather, they even tore down the community’s hard work and plans to rebuild because of their suspicion and paranoia. This type of destruction is very characteristic of systematic racism in that the oppressive race and class often try their best to crush the oppressed class’s attempts to create a better situation for themselves.

3. One character who stood out to me was Kane Araki from “Whiskey over the barbed wire”. He is a Japanese internee who managed to sprout a set of jet-black wings. Kane’s wings gave him the ability of flight, which was particularly helpful in flying out of the camp and smuggling supplies in. Eventually, he was even able to make a business of sorts and became someone who the internees relied on. His weakness, however, was trying to take on too much at a time. His obligation to supply goods to the people in addition to trying to manage his own goals was what ultimately led to his downfall. However, this may have been a story that the guards tried to circulate to cover up the truth—that they painted his wings white and made him a target to be shot down by other guards.

Margaret gently squeezed it by the abdomen, and set it upon her left ear.

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One panel comic from “Breath, Eyes, Memory”

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Sketchbook #3

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1. Tonton Macoute- it was a special operations unit created in1959 within the Hatian paramilitary that was nicknamed after a Creolemythological figure who abducts children using a gunnysack and eats them for breakfast.

Jean-Bertrand Aristide 2004 coup d’état- the removal of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his exile to the Central African Reblublic after weeks of conflict in Haiti; the process of his removal was claimed to have been an American facilitated abduction.

Haiti Earthquake 2010- A catastrophic magnitude 7 earthquake that devastated the country, killing between 100,000-160,000 people, crippling residential and commercial communities, contributing to the countries already high poverty-rate, and killing many political figures.

2. “One by one the men began to file out of their houses. Some carried plantains, others large Negro yams, which made your body itch if you touched them raw. There were no men in Tante Atie’s and my house so we carried the food ourselves to the yard where the children had been playing.

The women entered the yard with tins of steaming ginger tea and baskets of cassava bread. Tantie Atie and I sat near the gate, she behind the women and me behind the girls.

Monsieur Agustin and stacked some twigs with a rusty pitchfork and dropped his ripe plantains and husked corn on the pile. He lit a long match and dropped it on the top of the heap. The flame spread from twig to twig, until they all blended into a large smoky fire.

Monsieur Agustin’s wife began to pass around large cups of ginger tea. The men broke don into small groups and strolled down the garden path, smoking their pipes. Old tantes—aunties—and grandmothers swayed cooing babies on their laps. The teenage boys and girls drifted to dark corners, hidden by the shadows of rustling banana leaves” (Danticat 10-11).

I felt that this passage was very rich and full of detail, revealing a lot about Haitian culture. Here she is describing one of the frequent potlucks that her community has, where each household contributes their share of food or drink for the gathering. This passage illustrates that the Haitian people are a culture that values community and togetherness. Although they do split off into different groups during the meeting, there is still a strong sense of community. It all seems very homely, like this community functions as a large family—each sub group having their own role and place and of course their own secrets and tension between members. It shares similarities with typical American holiday gatherings, but it’s clear that American life is much more individual and nuclear family oriented with few occasions where this type of community gathering is expected.

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Sketchbook #2

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 December Draws

is a self-proclaimed artist, actor, director, writer, and pet enthusiast based in Southern California. Although she has dabbled in playwriting and specializes in writing play and TV show reviews, she has stated that her main passions and strengths lie within the visual and performing arts. Draws has undergone several years of training in the visual arts and has been an active thespian for over 5 years as well as received awards and high marks in several theatrical categorizes for her work. She is comfortable with both traditional and digital mediums and primarily uses painting programs like Photoshop and Paint Tool SAI for her art. In addition, she often contributes “fanart” to her favorite fandoms when she finds the time. She used to regularly attend conventions and has some experience with assembling cosplays and designing makeup. Some day she hopes to have her own booth at a convention to showcase and sell her artwork. Her dream is to work for an animation studio in hopes to pursue her love for storytelling and find way to promote diversity, awareness, positivity, and self-love to the public.

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Graphic Novel cover design for Cherrie Moraga’s play “The Hungry Woman”

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Sketchbook #1

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1. Cihuateteo- the honoredspirits of women who died during childbirth that became the Aztec moon spirit’sservants and descended to earth, lurking in the night stealing children andspreading illness.

Curendera- a healer or shaman who uses folk remedies and medicine.

Medea- a figure in Greek mythology who was the wife of Jason and slaughtered her children in vengeance after Jason leaves her to marry King Creon’s daughter.

Aztlan- The ancestral home of the Aztec people that is believed to encompass northwest Mexican and the southwest of America.

Coyolxauhqui- a figure of Aztec mythology who was responsible for attempting to kill her mother Coatlique before she birthed her son, the war god Huitzilopotchli, but was too late and was slain by her brother.

2. In her essay and play, Moraga writes about patriarchal oppression particularly in chicana culture. In her essay she notes that the patriarchy affects women’s everyday lives because it constructed the expectations and duties of womanhood and motherhood, and those who are directly affected by this definition never had authority over it. Rather than womanhood or motherhood being a celebration of female sexuality, spirituality, or wisdom, it instead functions as a cage with its rigid restrictions and expectations for females. If one dares to rebel and break out of this defined box of woman/motherhood, they are punished and labeled as betrayers of their sex rather than revolutionaries who want to claim what should be rightfully theirs.

3. In her essay, Moraga writes about women who wander the earth to find their “lost children”, or essentially their lost identity and autonomy. She specifically writes about La Llorona, the weeping woman in chicana folklore who drowned her children after her husband’s betrayal and was condemned to wander the earth for their souls. Moraga, however, has a more nuanced vision of this traditional tale that paints La Llorona as a victim of her circumstances and as a rebel to the patriarchal restrictions of motherhood.  In the face of this oppressive structure, La Llorona wanders in search for her sisters, mothers, and daughters, calling out to them to find their true identity and to subvert the structure that imprisons them. Her determination to help her fellow women is her strength, and she is motivated by her desire to prevent others from falling to her same fate. However, her weakness is both in body and in story. She exists as a legend, and unfortunately her true story is routinely filtered and watered down to a tale of mere insanity and female instability because of patriarchal influence.  

5. My sketch references the Cihuateteos and Medea’s identity as a Curendera. In order to help shape Medea’s appearance to shape her identity as a healer or shaman, I researched outfits that these healers generally wore and incorporated it into my depiction of Medea. My cover also includes the Cihuateteos skulking in the background of the piece. Although they are known to prowl the streets and wreak havoc, they were also the souls of mothers; therefore, I felt that they should be present in the picture lurking nearby but not presented as an antagonistic force to Medea and her son. In my research I looked up various depictions of these creatures and was heavily influenced by photos of them that had long feathers spouting from the top of their skull masks, so I adopted that into my piece.