Final Reflection – Sherla Zhagnay
Since the beginning of the course we were told to start thinking about our final projects and to be creative with it as the semester progressed. There were many topics that were discussed within the course, but some that specifically stood out to me were the topics of immigration and documentation status, the way people leave their home countries to start a new life, the American Dream. I believe that the reason this topic stood out to me the most was because of my parents, and how they immigrated to the United States, and how they started a new life but also struggling to preserve their culture. When sharing with peers about their experiences with immigration, and talking about their families experiences I realized that they were not all so different, that a lot of us have shared experiences that we were able to learn from each other through vulnerability. This brings me to what I personally submitted for this final. The dish I brought was cuy, but in my family we call it cuysito, a more endearing way to address this dish. Culture and Power was our theme for this final, and I think that cuy is a very dominant part of my culture specifically and I think that’s what makes this dish so powerful. I asked my parents about their thoughts on this dish for my final around the start of the semester, and they said no, that people wouldn’t understand its significance.
I think the word significance stood out to me from this conversation with my parents but also from all the conversations I had with my peers throughout this semester. For example the Immigration debate we had, more specifically what type of policy should be followed for this sort of issue? Should it be more open? More rules based? Or rules based with exceptions? This sparked a heated debate, but why is this significant? Yes it showed our personal opinions on border control, but in terms of significance we all understood how unfair and how flawed the system really is. This brings us back to the theme of our exhibit: Cultura Y Poder. Everyone’s culture is different but it’s significant because it creates a sense of power. Back to my example of cuy, although my parents said no, I still did it. Why? It was mainly to make a power move on my part, because I wanted people to understand my culture. Yes cuy is roasted guinea pig, and yes it’s commonly eaten, but why? According to my parents it’s because cuy is fully domesticated in Ecuador, and in very impoverished areas it’s more commonly eaten because of how cheap it is to raise a large abundance of cuy and how easy it is to cook. It’s meant to be eaten with family, and that’s why I eat it with mine, and why I brought it to cornell. Through all the shared experiences we shared as peers, and the vulnerability, we became an indirect family through culture and that makes everyone of us powerful.