Altar - Nick Roberts

My altar is titled "Those Lost on the Path to Understanding, my theme was remembering those who were lost when fighting for equality and understanding. On the bottom, I have an image of the border wall on my laptop. The border wall is meant to represent the earth as it is made of the earth and was created to divide sections of the earth apart from itself. It is on the lowest level because this idea of a thing made of the earth to divide the earth is almost nonsensical and I tried to show that by it being on the lowest level which is representative of it being the least 'enlightened' tier. On the second tier, I have a bowl of rainwater, my phone, and an image of a boy playing the drums. The painting represents someone finding their identity by trying the many different types of drums until they find the one that they can best identify themselves with. I included this as a reference to the many types of movements in the Chicanx community where they are still fighting the labels of Hispanic or Latinx to find their true identity and a way to identify themselves as such. The phone with social media on it represents fire and chicanafuturism movement. Through chicanafuturism we learned that social media can be either helpful or hurtful depending on how it is used which is the same of fire that can either burn you or warm you. The bowl of rainwater represents water and the life-giving properties it has as it is rained down from the sky. Finally, the final tier has a fan and flowers and candles. The candles are there to represent lost family members or remembrance for those who have passed on. The fan represents air and a connection to the location where many Chicanx people have their roots, the southwest. This area is very hot during the summer and so the fan is meant to show a kind of communal experience to connect it to a group of people and a region. Lastly, the flowers are purple and white which represent royalty and purity which shows how the highest tier in my altar is the most enlightened or spiritual. The royalty represents the wisdom of the spirits and the white represents the purity of the spirits.