Fotonovelas: Mini-interventions

This presentation consists of exhibiting five fotonovelas that are currently in production. A fotonovela is a photographically represented story with the aid of dialogue bubbles. Fotonovelas are similar to comic books, but... [ view full abstract ]

This presentation consists of exhibiting five fotonovelas that are currently in production. A fotonovela is a photographically represented story with the aid of dialogue bubbles. Fotonovelas are similar to comic books, but with photographs instead of illustrations. The fotonovelas will depict narratives of Latinas' lives and the coming out episode of one teenage boy. I am using a feminist analysis using Chicana and Latina women’s experiential knowledge as a framework to develop the fotonovelas. The fotonovelas themes will be on 1) Latina Girls’ Education, 2) Son Preference, 3) Disclosing Child Sexual Abuse, and 4) Coming Out to Your Family. Education for girls is presented because Latino parents commonly want a good marriage for their daughters as the ultimate goal for them, instead of looking toward higher education and self-sufficiency for their daughter’s future. Son preference is common in the Latino community, yet it is not necessarily identified as problematic, therefore, this should be addressed. When boys are favored over girls in families, this places a second-class status on girls. This fotonovela will elicit conversations on son preference. Child sexual abuse (csa) is seldom discussed and discussing csa needs to become as common and unencumbered as speaking about everyday topics. The last two fotonovelas depict two teenagers (a girl and a boy) coming out to their respective families. The purpose of these fotonovelas is not to stereotype Latino families, but to stimulate conversations among families in order to elicit positive and progressive reactions when confronted to the previously mentioned themes. While these themes are important to bring forth to the Latino community, they are not issues that are specific to Latinos, and the fotonovelas can benefit other populations as well. I would like to present the fotonovelas in poster exhibition format with each fotonovela printed and presented on a poster.
Through the use of fotonovelas I want to draw attention to how ideological systems keep Latinos divided and families at odds. The main ideas that I wish to disrupt are: marriage as the ultimate goal for girls, the mentality that boys are worth more than girls in some Latino families, the idea that girls are less valuable than boys and in a way expendable or disposable, and that child sexual abuse is just part of growing up Latina. Additionally, I consider that being raised in a biased society leads to the widespread ideology that heterosexuality is better than homosexuality, especially in Latino cultures. Our society is fooled into believing that if someone in our family identifies as LGBT, we should be ashamed and so should they. The time has come to disrupt this erroneous mentality that divides Latinos and educate families as well as our fellow community members that have been deceived into believing the homophobic fallacy. Sexual orientation, as well as gender identity, is up to each individual, and can even vary within a person’s life span and this is perfectly okay.