This past weekend was one full of learning. Although I had to take my SAT’s Saturday morning and leave early that night, I still learned quite a bit about the equipment presented to us and how to use it. Furthermore, we made significant headway with our project and what steps we are going to take to further our progress. When we met, we created an action plan for how we are going to tackle this ever-growing project. During this group conference, we designed a Google Doc which contains all of the information we need to organize our interviews. As this list grew longer and longer, it provided us with more structure of how to continue working. I found this quite useful because we have started to plan for our interviews, although some may be too close to schedule right now (For example, Boston’s Consul General to Mexico, although a trip to Boston is in the works) we have begun preparing for the future ones. Also Jason’s talk yesterday was enlightening, and it intrigued me all of the thought that goes into shooting an interview; nonetheless a whole documentary. While I was planning on learning how to film interviews, I don’t think I could have done it without the useful insight from Jason.

In the next few month, I see myself trying to set up lots of interviews and beginning my integration into the community of activists and farmworkers themselves. I will be attending the mobile consul visit next Saturday along with the talk being given by Police Chief Hanley and Consul General Rabasa Friday night. Through both of these events, I am hoping to generate connections and further delve into my topic. Moreover, Julia Doucet of the Open Door Clinic has asked me to volunteer and translate next spring and hopefully over the summer. Although this project will be complete by next summer, I can grow relations with potential stakeholders which will help me with the “Gone Public” stage. One new addition to people who I would like to get in touch with is a family friend named Charlie. Charlie lives in Vail, Colorado, attends Sierra Nevada College and is also Mexican. During Thanksgiving break, Charlie went to his other house in Cancun to visit with some friends. Upon his return he was detained by authorities in the US, stripped, thrown into jail where he spent the night, and finally handcuffed, put on a plane and sent back to Mexico. Charlie is a student in the US but his college messed up his student visa and as a result, Charlie was physically and verbally abused.

All in all, this weekend was very educational for me and we made great strides to accomplishing our long-term goal. (Sorry for the rushed end I ran out of time)

Featured photo by Gr8effect