Marie Dillivan - Reflection 2

           

            This semester in Latina Oral Histories, I have learned about many different topics that somehow all related together in the Chicana por mi Raza project. To sort through everything that we’ve done this semester, I’m going to start with the beginning. The most important thing that I learned at the beginning of this course was about archives which had been something that I had previously never really thought about. Archives are a part of the history that we learn that is almost invisible to students throughout most of their education, but the important thing that I learned about archives is that they are not unbiased or untouched representations of history. What goes into an archive is chosen and it is chosen from a specific set of people. Therefore, many important parts of our history are not included in an archive and this is where public projects to collect oral histories like CPMR come into the picture. What I learned about oral histories is that they have the potential to provide a picture of a part of history that has not been sorted through or edited by an archivist, but rather this picture is provided by an individual who participated in the history. Although this picture is still biased and based on the experience of one person, the oral history gives that one person the authority to tell their history in their own way, which I think is something that cannot be achieved through most conventional history-telling methods. Finally, what I learned about “History” is that it is chosen and it is chosen by those in a position of power to reflect what they wish to show about history. I have thought about this before, but I hadn’t thought about it very much in regards to the histories of social movements.

            Next in this class, I learned so much about Chicana feminism, and feminism in general which was one of my hopes for this class since I have never taken another women’s studies class. One of the most important things that I learned from our discussions of history and Chicana feminism is that it is barely present in the literature and materials about mainstream feminism. Before this class, I could have watched the Maker’s documentary from PBS and not thought too much about the question, “Where are the women of color?” because the documentary does briefly address the activities of colored women related to the movement. The fact that the documentary addresses women of color in the way that it does may lead a viewer to believe that that’s the whole story; that’s all there is to women of color feminism. However, we know that this is not true, and histories told in this way erase the activities of Chicana feminism. I enjoyed learning about the Chicana feminists in our class and how they sought to carve out a position for themselves when a space didn’t exist for them in the Chicano movement or in the mainstream feminist movement. I also enjoyed looking at how these women related to one another as they dealt with challenges from the men in their culture, the women in the mainstream movement, and the rest of the oppressive forces as well. I particularly enjoyed learning about Carmen Tafolla in her oral history interview and from her archive. She was an amazing young and she is still amazing today. She is someone that I will always remember as working hard and finding success while fighting against the forces that tried to hold her back.

            Another important part of this class that I enjoyed was the working with the woman who we interviewed, Ana Luisa Cardona, and her materials. The experience of going to Ana’s house and interviewing her was very special and I think that I learned a lot about what truly goes into an oral history and how to conduct one. It was a truly enjoyable experience, and I’m really happy with how her oral history turned out and her archive on Medici is looking great. This also makes me excited to keep working with her materials next semester and keep adding to her archive. This experience provides real life examples to the things that you always hear: that everything doesn’t go as planned and you have to be flexible.

            This class also made me think about and be more critical of all types of histories and made me appreciate the work that goes into trying to remedy the errors of “History”. There is an incredible amount of work that could be done in this area with many types of people and groups that are traditionally left out of history, and I think that any work toward allowing those people to tell their history is valuable. The experience of collecting a history and incorporating it into a space that can make it accessible to others is very unusual since we don’t usually think of history as happening in this way. When we grow up we don’t think of ourselves as being a part of history or a part of forming history, but we can do that. That’s the importance of the process of this project. We can be a part of it, and it is important work. To me, one of the most important parts of this project in general is just expanding the potential for access to those who are interested to learn about these women and this movement that is not well documented in traditional “History” sources. It is important to me that someday young people could look up “chicana feminists” and they could find this website where they can see all of these women and their accomplishments and contributions in a way that they otherwise may have not been able to.

            About myself, I have learned that I should always be more critical and that I’m interested in the potential of projects like Chicana por mi Raza both in regards to the product that they create and its value for others but also for the experience that students can get from this type of project, which I know is an important component. I’m interested in increasing access to stories like these which doesn’t surprise me but what surprised me was that I feel that this somehow relates to my one of my other serious interests which is increasing health equity and access to health care for Latinos and other groups. Increasing access to a group’s history I feel is an important component for overall wellbeing. For groups that have been historically marginalized, being able to see their history told in this way could be a very important positive influence. I see an important relationship here, and that is a very important thing that I learned through this experience.