El Sueño - Collective Achievements

For my midterm, I wrote about the power of art in a resilient and educational fashion through altars. I brought in evidence of altars used in resilience after traumatic experiences, such as Ofelia Esparza's altar she made after 9/11. My altar addressed Asian-American hate crimes, specifically the death of Vincent Chin, because current narratives of hate crimes in our communities are focused on hate following the pandemic. Mullikan's workshop, similarly, addressed resilience against harmful narratives such as the "American Dream" through avenues such as art. Each flower at the exhibit represented the privileged experiences first generation individuals have experienced through the fruits of immigrant parents' labor. Mullikan identifies resilience through educating viewers in her art that this American Dream never existed for non-white populations, and that it any accomplishments come through the collective, generational effort of many people. I took a photo of another classmate pinning her paper flower. The flowers have hopes and dreams for future generations written on them, meant to encourage the idea that we pass down our accomplishments to the youth. On her flower, she wrote "I hope you never shy away from the beauty of your culture". I picked this picture because it demonstrated our theme of "La Cultura Cura" by honoring the collective labor of achievements by disrupting the American Dream narrative. Indeed it is a falsity to depict achievements as an individual achievement, especially as members of non-white communities.  

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Renee Guan 

she/her

Law, Societies, & Justice, Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies

University of Washington, Seattle 

Class of 2022 

reguan@uw.edu