Brainstorm Week 7

The readings from this week focused on the strategies that undocuqueer artivitas have employed through their use of social media. Undocuqueer artivistas have been left out and ignored by mainstream American society for decades. While in a society that denies their existence in many forms, these artivistas utilize social media and technology to define their own narratives, embodying the idea of Chicanxfuturism. By denying the invisibility that society imposes on them, they have created new realities for themselves and developed a community. In Layers of Humanity, Salgado uses his art to “empower, dignify, and forge spaces for those who have been silenced” (303). The use of social media has created an artistic structure oppositional to the traditional media structure that denies the existence of his community, ultimately claiming spaces for undocuqueer people to come together and be mobilized into social movements. Social media provides an outlet for many individuals to be introduced to the ideas and motives behind the movement while also serving as an entrance into activism. This rejects the idea of “social death” by showing representation and unity within this community which translates to a greater societal acceptance of undocuqueer in America. This is a practice of resilience because against all odds that society has imposed to restrict them, undocuqueer people persist and don’t allow society to ignore them. They remain resilient against all obstacles to demonstrate their power, importance, and validity, ultimately extinguishing the notion that they are invisible.