This artifact is a picture I took while on a field trip to the art museum on campus. This was a part of the many field trips we took, and the purpose of this one was about oral history. At the museum we had to partner up with people and talk about our experience with art. The main point of this trip was to pave the way of collecting information.

I chose the museum since that’s where this art piece is located so it made the most sense to just have its place pointed out on the map.

This and another one of my artifacts were the main influences on my definition of “Borderlands”. The way I interpreted this piece of art was how people view flowers and how it has a certain effect on people. Which ties into my definition. Borderlands are a place or thing that affects people either physically with a wall or mentally.

Speaking of borderlands, this class overall has taught me the multiple borderlands everywhere from academia to my own home. What was a common occurrence is there are a lot of mental barriers in academia. 

Being able to identify all these borderlands in academia was very important since I know later down the line some professors will try and get under my skin to make a wall. This is something that is an occurrence in engineering classes. So being able to identify these borderlands in academia.

This activity really gave me the sense of belonging. When I first came to the UA in the fall I wanted to drop out. After going through this class and others I really started to find my sense of belonging.

This assignment is about picking a place that had a borderlands effect on a person physically or mentally. It was also to help us be able to obtain information about places and people by interview. It was something that was very influential.

I chose this place because it was mentioned a lot in this assignment. This was because I decided to dedicate this project to my mom and her life. So, it was only right to pin this place for where this artifact lies.

So, the way I conducted research for this assignment was by interviewing my mom and hearing about her life growing up. I asked her a week before to put some time aside but life happens so when I interviewed her it was very last minute but that was what made it authentic. I also gathered pictures myself and that were in the drawer along with all the other ones from I think the eighties to current time.

Some conventions I used for this project were for sure logos and pathos. I really wanted to connect people to this story by using emotions and statistics. Doing this really made me realize how convections really bring the reader in.

Overall, this was one of my favorite assignments since I had a place to talk about my family. I have never done that before since I was never given the opportunity but after being introduced to this assignment, I quickly realized how fun it would be for me. I think one of my challenges was getting all the pictures needed but I managed to do it which really brought this project alive.

The synthesis essay was an essay about different borderland pieces and correlating them to each other and seeing the similarities and differences. This was done with three different sources, two which we got to pick and one everyone did.

For the two I got to choose I decided to go with a poem and a short story. The reason I decided to choose these two was because of how they caught my interest. The poem was interesting since it talked about migration which really related to my family. The second source I had already read in high school so being able to read it again was something. Overall, these two sources were really fun to read and analyze. Finally, was the film which really related to my family.

During this assignment I also learned what rhetorical analysis was and why it is so important when writing. At first, I didn’t understand it that well but after analyzing these sources and breaking them down it really made sense to me especially since I was their target audience. 

Overall, I think this was the best essay I have written in the past couple of years since I really enjoyed what I was writing about and how much it meant to me.

The reflexivity statement is a statement about us and who you are. This is important to this call because it is what relates you to the idea of borderlands and why it means something to you.

The reason I picked Tucson was because to me that's where my Mexican blood on American soil comes from.

I created my reflexivity statement a day or two after it was assigned. It was just something that I really thought was interesting, when do you get to connect your background to class. I started it the same but the middle paragraphs I always re-did because I didn’t like it the first couple of times.

When initially writing I thought that my draft was good initially but then when doing the essay portion of this unit I had to include my reflexivity statement. It didn’t connect to my essay whatsoever so then again; I had to revise it and really make sure the connection was there.

Overall, I really enjoyed this assignment because of the correlation between myself and this project.