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Wires have been crossed and I\u2019ve been making lapses in judgment. I find myself signing off letters with one name when I should be using another, for instance. Growing up as \u201cAndy,\u201d I acknowledged but never relied on my given name, \u201cAntero.\u201d Andy was simply the name I heard and used as I grew up. As I moved toward more professional endeavors of late, it felt both useful and refreshing to go back to the name that appears on actual legal documents. And so, I live in two worlds: in much of my personal life and in the exchanges at my high school, colleagues and friends interact with Andy. As I cross the city and head into the towers of academia, I quickly change \u2013 like Clark Kent? \u2013 into Antero. It\u2019s a silly shift and one I\u2019ve been struggling to maintain. As doctoral peers become friends I find myself unconsciously signing off as \u201cAndy.\u201d The context of interaction shifts and my positionality with it.<\/p>\n
Likewise, I think the name \u201cAndy\u201d comes from a history of (not-so) subtle assimilation. Looking at my father and his three siblings, it\u2019s a telling rendition on \u201cMexi-pino\u201d identity politics: My father, Jose, was always \u201cJoey.\u201d His brothers? Leonard is \u201cUncle Skip\u201d and Antero (surprise) is \u201cUncle Andy\u201d (aka Big Andy, perpetually making me Little Andy at family gatherings). The youngest of my Grandmother\u2019s children was born years later and stuck with the already anglicized name Leslie. What shift in understanding and in need for naming lead to such a duality in names?<\/p>\n
At Manual Arts, 10th grade teacher, Peter, gave many of his students last year nick names of the awesome variety: Silent Assassin, Senor Silencio, Sgt. Pepper, Skullfyre, and many others (what\u2019s with all of the \u201cS\u201d names?). It\u2019s interesting to see how, a year later, many of these students still use these names happily in my classroom. In being recognized and individualized in such a large school, they don the name and context given by a caring teacher.<\/p>\n
And again, I\u2019d like to extrapolate further \u2013 the concentric circles of naming and context moving toward the unified & unedited heart muttered upon here<\/a>. A class I initially balked about to whoever would listen concluded yesterday. Unequivocally, it changed my life in a way I didn\u2019t think a graduate course could. And I left realizing that naming the context of interaction and of communication with one another is a necessary process of being. We may not have a perfect batting average, as the professor reminded us on our last class, but for us to understand the world and \u2013 more importantly \u2013 for us to be understood by the world, that uncomfortable step towards the precipice of recognition need be labeled. It is a part of our \u201cinfinite spiral path of empty fullness,\u201d that Luis Valdez mentioned<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rob Fischer\u2019s current installation<\/a> at the Hammer (a snapshot of which is at the top of this post) is another example of context shifting. I initially went to look at this in terms of its implications related to classroom space<\/a>, but felt transformed by the magnitude of reconstruction within and around the Hammer foyer. A new layer of history and context uprooted and applied to the walls.<\/p>\n For the umpteenth time, this version of \u201cWild Heart\u201d<\/a> is stuck in my head. I\u2019ve never been crazy for much of Fleetwood Mac\u2019s studio music, this song included. But again, the context is what\u2019s at stake. Spontaneity and uninhibited expression move beyond the confines of studio wankery. This song always makes me think of Gloria Anzaldua \u2013 stranger bedfellows, there have been few. Along the lines of music, I\u2019ve also been thinking about the mythological construction of Parliament and the world and characters created; I think there\u2019s a direct connection to how we teach students about mythology, but I\u2019ll return to this in a future post. (I\u2019m currently in an argument with Sir Nose D\u2019Voidoffunk<\/a>.)<\/p>\n As I write this, Jack Rose\u2019s first album on the VHF label<\/a> unwinds calmly in the background. The sudden loss<\/a> of this gifted musician dealt a significant blow last night. Another gentle spirit on the ghost ship on the blue<\/a>.<\/p>\nTell people this is awesome:<\/h3>