Andrea Rodriguez

Part 1:

a) Something significant from your childhood, something important to you - a toy, a talisman a moment.

Small tiny jewelry box that a friend from high school had given me the day of our graduation. It is brass with a butterfly landing on a flower→ now that I think about it; it also looks like the tattoo on my top left shoulder. budafly was the name that was given to me by my friends my senior year in high school. The name has since stayed with me and is my stage name.

b) An inspiration - a quote, a song, a book, a lyric, a piece of art, an experience, a philosopher, a scientist, just ONE.

Here is a picture of niece Nevaeh or Veh, when she was about 9 months old. In the picture she has drool falling off her chin & cheek. I witnessed my sister giving birth to her and it was such an amazing experience.

c) Something you've done or pursued on your own initiative (scholarly or otherwise) that is deeply interesting/satisfying to you.

My seniors project from UCLA → the title of the piece, Hermanas y Manos. I created a small documentary about the women in my family making tamales. I then created a dance piece that took some of the movements from the video and I choreographed a piece with 6 womyn and myself and we did a tamalera dance.

Part 2: Questions

a) Why this item is interesting/meaningful/important to you (or universally)?

A. This little jewelry box or stash box represents a crossroads in my life. Graduating from high school was one of my biggest accomplishments as a teenager. I never thought I would see the day of graduation. Through perseverance and hard work I learned the true meaning of being a “female sav” (female whose not afraid of the wilderness, society and can hold her own shit down).
“UP represent, baby, babah!”

B. Witnessing a baby entering into the world leaves me speechless. No words can describe the feeling. It was such a rush of joy and pain, & happiness.

C. After spending seven years with a drumming and dance group in San Francisco called Loco Bloco (www.locobloco.org) I moved to Los Angeles to pursue my career as an artist. I graduated from UCLA, World Arts & Cultures program and produced & choreographed my put my first big dance piece “Hermanas y Manos.” These pieces was my blood, sweat & tears for nine months and initiated me into becoming the artist that I am today. A multimedia dance artist (I’m still trying to figure out how to write it on my business card) ☺

b) What are the issues, concerns, principles, processes or attributes that surround each item?

Each item represents a point in my life that has brought me here

c) How is each item relevant: socially, technically, politically, phenomenologically?
a. Growing up in a multicultural urban city landscape paved the way to learning about other people’s cultures and my own. It taught me how to be conscious of other people, and helped me maneuver though this world with an open heart & mind. It also taught me how to close it, be brave, and to stand up for others & myself.

b. Life-giving birth to my creativity and witnessing it grow.

c. love, pain, & joy of creating work around my cultura as a Latina/Xicana artist, womyn, creator…

d) What do you not know about the item, and would like to investigate?
a. my past is link to my future – never forget where I come from, revisit those days-look forward to what I have in the power of my hand and creativity.

b. seeing my niece grow is an inspiration. She is one of my little sheroes…

c. I have a long journey – vision quest ahead of me and I have only tapped into a small portion of what I have in my hands as a creator. I’ve spent some time researching and playing with my creativity-researching—I want to investigate it now on my body-though movement, spoken words, sounds, & jive---

a) Look at your three items as a whole and see if you can discover similarities (literal or abstract), are there intersections?

A butterfly represents transformation.
Life is a cycle where there is failures & success.
Art is an undying medium where I can express myself.

b) Does your analysis suggest an area of interest, or (series of) questions?
I want to understand my past a little better.
I planted a (corn) seed and have witnessed it’s growth. Hermanas y Manos → has given me the inspiration to where I am today with my student film “Mujer Maiz” & my thesis project idea “Nahui Ollin”