Updated Project Proposal-blog

1) What specific experience will you undertake the task of, and take responsibility for, expressing? What is the concrete historical context?

I will express the experience of a migrant farm workers child; what developmental issues poverty, absent parental figures, constantly being forced to move, living in areas with high crime rates, present..

Describe the experience first in objective terms, with as many traits/categories as you can:
both A) Historical Situation, Event, Issue (actual, not invented)

Although farming practices have made rapid improvements in the last few decades do to technology, technology has failed to account for a more efficient harvesting method than using people labor.  Recently, the US has seen soaring unemployment rates causing some to unknowledgably point the finger at our agricultural labor force as the culprits stealing American jobs.  In reality, these migrant workers are necessary to America’s agricultural sustainability, and themselves pay a tremendous toll for the privelege of living in America.

B) Identity
(entire “matrix”: race/ethnicity, sex/gender, sexuality, class, religion, age, etc.)

I will explore one 12 year old Hispanic (Mexican-American) boys seasonal journey (beginning with his parents being employed by a FL tomato farmer and ending in Traverse City, MI with the blue/blackberry harvest in July) (Migrant workers usuually try to work in the southern states in the fall and winter, then move north for the summer months to avoid extreme hot/cold conditions)  This narrative will be set in the mid-1990′s; the main character/subject/narrator is a 12 year old Hispanic boy (displays high degree of intelligence, allowing him to form his own opinions about his situation, his parents, his culture; this will also give me the freedom to use various pieces of pop-culture ie books, song lyrics, that he likes to act as a potential interface for me to describe his experience)  he will be constantly trying to reconcile his current position, his growing affinity for American culture, his families culutural beliefs, etc.

2) “Explanation” or “account” of this experience from a conventional view? What is the dominant understanding?
(belief/morality or reason/disciplinary discourse — foreground your point of contrast)
Source of objective account? (list one, even if you’ll research more later.)

The Hispanic workforce has several negative connotations associated with it; questions about legal citizenship, stealing American jobs, invading American’s school systems, unnecessary pressure placed on our health care system, and increasing immigration.  Federal legislation passed in the mid-1990′s (1996 Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (Immigration Reform Act), the 1996 Personal Responsibility & Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (Welfare Reform Legislation), and the Agricultural Worker Protection Act (AWPA), bolstered the negative perception many hold about our migrant farm workers.  I’m not sure there is a dominant understanding on this subject, it being a current hotly contested topic.  I think their are people who are more informed and less informed about how necessary this working class is to US agriculture, the latter often being more vocal and serving to alienate our migrant workers from society.

3) Personal resonance for you in the present?
(hint: testing whether this is your feeling/bias, or whether you are “attuned” to past experience of event.) Source and level of your familiarity? (i.e. extent of “expertise” or “curiosity”?)
note: not necessarily “easier” or “better” to undertake something extensively knowledgeable about; might actually be more challenging — what about an area of inquiry or “wondering,” within this same objective topic? see Q. 5)
Advantage and/or difficulty of this personal resonance for the project?

I am the fourth generation of my family to decide on a career in farming.  My family has always relied on these migrant workers as the main source of our labor pool, both today and in the past.  I feel my own experiences with these migrant workers (I worked in packing house for full year before coming to college-just me and 100 Hispanics) gives me faith in their value in our workforce.

4) One cultural narrative or image that is prominent in your memory (any media)?
(Or, what is one narrative that comes to mind by association, from any discourse? Use intuitive and associative logic…)

One style of literature that I really enjoy reading is historical fiction about old Florida.  I have a special appreciation for books written by historian Patrick Smith, author of the book Angel City.  Angel City recounts the journey of a (white) West Virginian family south after losing their farm to a hard winter.  They settle in a late 1960′s labor camp in South Florida where they are subject to great attrocities, enslavement, pitance wages, and all matter of other unfair treatment including the kidnapping of their children. (supposed to be very historically accurate)

When we talk about images that are prominent in my memory, am I talking about my own images of hopelesnesses, insecurity, or whatever I intuit my character experiences? (Such as Plath uses the Bell Jar as imagery for being stuck in depression)

I guess one image that stood/stands out in my mind that I get every now and again when I feel overwhelmed/hopeless/directionless is that of “paralyzation”.  I always invision myself on top of skyscraper, sitting in my bed, completely immobilized by fear.??????  Maybe Icould somehow tie this in if this is what you mean.

5) One “forgotten” (or overlooked, neglected) aspect or element? (remember: Lêthê…)
Speculate a “blindspot” of historical discourse: what is conventionally forgotten or excluded about this experience?
(Or, what is “filtered” out by reason, and possibly by reductive binary logic?)
Why is it important to actively “recall” (resonate) and inscribe this into writing and into present/future memory? (”socio-historical significance,” humanities perspective)

In an age of high tolerance and generally humane treatment of others, I would like to suggest migrant workers are regarded and treated differently from almost all other classes of our society.  Simalarly to the racism and unfair treatment black people experienced prior to the 1960′s, migrant workers today are also treated as a class of people deserving something less than normal citizenship.  Binary logic (ie stealing American jobs, invading American’s school systems, unnecessary pressure placed on our health care system, and increasing immigration) contributes to this perception, and causes less protection/unequal perception for migrant workers under the law.

Maybe I will specifically address some wrong committed against migrant workers, and show how they didn’t recieve what others would consider normal recourse.

Migrant workers are a subgroup that has one of the greatest difficulties breaking out of the bondage of poverty.  Other traditionally “lower class” groups do at least have access to public schooling and the potential for setting themselves apart as higher achievers.  But migrant families have little chance to save, to use credit to leverage a higher standard of living, or to have a consistant education.  Their lifestyle also does not lend to good, preventative health care (physical maintenace: dental, wellness checkups, etc) so they probably face greater physical challenges as they age.

6) In what specific way, “impossible” to express? (Literally speaking.)
As for project, what practical obstacles do you foresee at present?

I have never experienced, nor will I ever experience being I minority in the US.  I am unable to verify the level of unfair treatment that they recieve.

7) One lesson (abstract) and one technqiue (specific) from one of our relay novels, that you will implement? (”Analogy” in CATTt)
If able, list the key poetics that seem promising for the project, so far.
Reviewing our novels, how many narratives seem to be an adequate/effective number to include in the assemblage? (i.e. estimate minimum and maximum)

I would like to take a lesson and a technique from our relay novel Ceremony, by Silko.  The lesson I would like to implement is fully describing the family, living environment, relationship, cultural traditions of Mexican American family.  Similarly to Tayo, my character will be trying to make sence between two very different worlds.  I would also like to use pieces of pop culture (really why I have framed child as higher intelligence) like quotes, song lyrics, biblical quotes, to bring American Culture and Mexican-American culture together and to help articulate what I intuit his experience to be.  I would also like to use Vonneguts technique of non-linear narratives to help my own narrative come alive for the reader.

One thing I am really struggling with right now is finding a multi-modal narrative (I guess narrative to work parallel to the narrative I am creating)??

I think that I will have my main narrative (what happens to the migrant family) and a multi-modal narrative that I have yet to decide on (possibly a book he is reading for school that kind of relates to his experience in some way; reads before going to sleep)??

8 ) A potential interface? and A potential figure (expressive)?
(from any level of discourse: personal, cultural, disciplinary — perhaps “discovered” through this week’s “mining” exercise; if not, need more reflexive contemplation…)

This is probably the most confusing aspect of this assignment for me.  The way I am currently interpreting “interface” is a means to interpret or understand something that is incomprehensible to us.  To me, this means connecting my narrative and my multi-modal narrative together through the use of “interface”.  I was literally going to use song lyrics, quotes, etc. as my interface to describe what I intuit my protagonist “feels”. (I don’t know necessarily what this is going to be yet)

I’ve noticed that both Jessica and Laura (I heard you approved theirs, so I’ve been trying to model mine after theirs) are using “cultural” interfaces; I just don’t really think I’m clear what a cultural interface is.