The Woman in the Zoot

The author’s primary goal is to highlight the agency and influence of young Mexican American women who were engaging with subculture during WWII, and their involvement in reconceptualizing restrictive notions of Americanness. She embarks on this endeavor in using both interviews and archival research to carve out a space for Mexican American women in the zoot suit narrative. In doing so, Ramirez situates the voices of these women against the social context that historical archives provide and argues that their choices regarding fashion and lifestyle are forward-thinking in terms of gender politics. This focus on Pachuca women affirms their agency in their construction of alternative gender identities during this time. They weren't merely the counterparts to the young zoot suit men, but rather, they were making conscious choices about how they chose to represent their bodies in the face of ethnic discrimination during WWII. They were fearlessly navigating the streets and wearing gender-transgressive clothing that affronted conventional notions of femininity.

Calisphere

It’s quite evident that Calisphere is meant to serve as a digital resource that brings the archives to the people. Its aim is to reach as broad an audience as possible, which shows in the language being used and the way structure of the site. On the main page, there is a large emphasis on “Educators”, one of the site’s target audiences, as well as “lesson plans” that accompany the themed collections.

Speaking more directly to the “Hispanic American” collection, the “Overview” section gives a generalized narrative of Hispanic Americans’ place in California history, and mentions a few “key” topics that include immigration, labor, and the Chicano movement. In this way, the site makers are providing guidelines or lenses through which viewers can synthesize the images presented in this particular exhibit. It’s quite evident that Calisphere is meant to serve as a digital resource that brings the archives to the people. Its aim is to reach as broad an audience as possible, which shows in the language being used and the way structure of the site. On the main page, there is a large emphasis on “Educators”, one of the site’s target audiences, as well as “lesson plans” that accompany the themed collections.

There is clearly a narrative that we must also be critical of as we navigate through the exhibit, however. In the way that the site is formated, the informational text is accentuated over the photographs provided, which appear as small thumbnails on the right side of the page. This propels the viewer/reader to consider the historical narration within the text before looking at the images. To me, this mode of presenting history is not only lacking in creativity, but also imposes an interpretation of the images that is unsettling. As I focus on the way that women are represented in this collection, I am dissatisfied with the way that Pachuca women in particular are talked about in this exhibit (see last sentence of paragraph 4 under "Overview").

Besides this point about the how certain women are framed on this site (gang vs pachucas), I would recommend a change in the format so that it is more interactive, colorful, and dynamic. Web design holds the potential to allow viewers to engage with images in a more exciting way, and should allow viewers to interpret the images without being forced to contend with the boring, long text that takes center stage on the web page.

Tumblr

The most exciting aspect of Tumblr as an informative tool is its potentiality for bloggers to become truly subservient historians. These women effectively use Tumblr’s self-constructive qualities to tell their own, de-institutionalized histories in a bold, unapologetic manner.

We can discern implicit and explicit arguments from the ways that the images relate to each other aesthetically and thematically as they create visual arguments about Chicanismo and culture.

The format of the juxtaposed images also allows more freedom for viewers to choose how they will engage with the content. Upon clicking on a particular image, readers can explore the text(s) attached to each image in greater detail, for example. While each author clearly holds a political viewpoint in the images that she chooses to display on her Tumblr blog, it also allows for a conversation to take place, as viewers can comment, like, or ask direct questions while they engage with the content.