Melanie Mendoza

Initially, I was anxious about participating in a zoom collaborative Summer Undergraduate Workshop Series during our COVID-19 global pandemic. I was worried whether my comments would hinder any of the conversations and interactions with my peers and established Latinx Studies scholars. However, as we progressed through the Sentimientos y Terrenos (Feelings and Terrains) workshop series facilitated by Dr. Ana E. Rosas at the University of California, Irvine, I started to feel reassured by the conversations I was sharing via zoom with my team of undergraduate students and guest Latinx Studies scholars.

One specific conversation that impacted the way I thought of research and the workshop series experience via zoom and during a global pandemic was our discussion of Dr. Eddy Fransico Alvarez, Jr’s “Finding Sequins in the Rubble Stitching Together an Archive of Trans Latina Los Angeles” and the documentary film, I am the Queen. Discussing the range of questions and evidence that both treatments made accessible was extraordinarily engaging and restorative. Exploring the deeper meaning of sequins as an archival lens for queer and trans people was very insightful. Furthermore, it opened up a discussion about queer and trans-Latinx representation in U.S. mainstream media.

As a team of intellectually invested undergraduate students, we discussed how Latinx experiences aren’t one-dimensional; they’re diverse, interconnected, and kaleidoscopic. We weren’t able to have this discussion in person, but pursuing and sharing this conversation via zoom together was meaningful. It prevented me from feeling intellectually and socially isolated. Engaging in these types of conversations via zoom was vital towards reflecting introspectively, as well as to my remaining connected to students who are similarly invested in continuing to learn from each other and humane Latinx Studies scholars as a critical step to facing our global pandemic together.