My name is Antonya Velo and I am a student at UMKC. We were asked to interview someone different than us; someone who has experienced some sort of discrimination. Whether it was because of their gender, sex, race, ethnicity, or sexuality, it didn’t matter.
I interviewed a friend of mine named is Adrian Cisneros. He is discriminated against because he is Hispanic and identifies as genderfluid and gay. During our interview, I learned a lot more about him and the struggles he faces. There were two things he said during our interview that really stuck out to me. When I asked him what his biggest challenge today was, his response was
“If I don’t express who I really am, I lose myself.”
Adrian Cisneros (08:20)
When I asked if there was ever a time he wished he could change who he was, he said that there have been many times he wished he could change. But the main reason why is because of how others look at him.
“They see someone who I don’t see as myself.”
Adrian C. (05:24)
If he puts on this “heteronormative” mask he’s not being himself. This opened my eyes. We all have masks. We have different personas we put out for the world to see. We only let people see what we want them to see.
Although I am a Psych Major, I have always enjoyed art. Creating art is a way to express how you are feeling without using words. I was inspired to create a piece that would summarize what I got out of the interview. I decided to make a piece that would showcase how you should be yourself. Once you do this, the world is so much brighter. I call this piece “unmasked.”
For further explanation, I titled this “unmasked” because the idea of wearing a mask, or hiding who you truly are, was a repetitive topic during Adrian’s interview. On the right side of the piece, I sketched a simple face without any color or dimension to signify how “bland” or “unhappy” life would be while wearing these masks and hiding who you are. On the left side of the piece, I used acrylic paint to create a fun, messy, carefree rainbow to represent how free life can be if you take off these masks and just be you. I chose to paint a rainbow because it symbolizes being part of the LGBT+ community.
As stated before, I chose to interview my friend Adrian because I know he struggles everyday with discrimination. It’s not physical discrimination, but it is verbal and passive. What I mean by this is that people give him strange looks and whisper to one another. He also explained that he never knows how people will react towards him (06:46). All he wants is to be himself, without people judging him. This reminded me of the graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman. The characters in this graphic novel wanted to hide their identities to keep themselves safe. They need to hide, or wear masks, in order not to lose themselves. However, Adrian wants his identities to be seen. Adrian needs to show himself, or take off that “heteronormative” mask, in order not to lose himself.
Overall, this was an eye opening experience. Today’s society has become more open minded and accepting. However, there is still so much more work that needs to be done for true equality.