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National Hispanic Cultural Center - Gianna Ramirez, Week 1 and 2

 As my internship experience at the National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC), in Albuquerque, New Mexico has officially commenced, I have spent these first weeks diving straight into project research! During my Senior year of High School, I was fortunate enough to be an intern with the NHCC Visual Arts team, working in their museum as part of a class. The NHCC holds a special place in my heart, so I am excited to be working with the History and Literary Arts Department during this internship!  

My new workspace! The HLA offices are in a beautiful adobe building.

Due to scheduling conflicts, my internship will technically run over the course of 5 weeks. On July 1st and the first day of my internship, I met my Supervisor, Jesus "Cheche" Silveyra, the History and Literary Arts Program Manager. He explained the main project I will be working on which is creating content for an Ideum board for the Torreón building on the NHCC campus. The Ideum board is a digital interactive used by a lot of museums for different spaces. In the case of the Torreon building, there is a Fresco painting on the inner dome of building. The Ideum board will be specifically for this space and guest interaction with the fresco titled "Mundos de Mestizaje."

A portion of the fresco "Mundos de Mestizaje" created by artist Frederico Vigil

On this first day, I was able to visit the Ideum offices, which are based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Ideum team creates all their boards by hand, doing everything from the hardwiring of the screens, to the digital design and visual function. This was a really intriguing experience, as I got get inspiration/ideas for what the NHCC board could be like, but also got to learn more about how these Ideum boards are created.

When I returned back to the NHCC, I got a short tour of the NHCC archives, which house various mediums of information and documents. One of which was a set of books recording the familial crests of families within New Mexico. 

This is my "Ramirez" familial crest page

The rest of this first week was spent familiarizing myself with the Torreón and the content and iconography of the fresco itself. I began reading through education materials on the Torreon and doing research on mestizaje as a whole. My evolvement in this project includes providing insight and doing research on what or who is missing within the larger conversation of what "mestizaje" and its history is, how we can use the Ideum board best, and what is interesting me as a young person. 

This first week definitely included me diving right into the projects and happenings of the NHCC. While being super busy, it was an amazing first week!

Week 2: July 8th - July 12th:

For my second week at the NHCC, I continued my research while also diving deeper into the important narratives (and problematic ones) within the topic of mestizaje. After reading the booklet that is in the Torreon, which gives descriptions on each of the images included in the fresco, I began making notes on the things that I noticed; problematic descriptions, inequities of representation, and things that are missing but still important to mestizaje.

In the midst of this research, I also read bits of two different books. The HLA department of the NHCC wants to do a mini exhibit on the Aztec Calendar Stone, which has thus allowed me to learn more about it!  It's not only super interesting, but something I had seen all my life and not known much about.

Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs by Camilla Townsend

The Aztec Calendar Stone by Khristaan D. Villela and Mary Ellen Miller

As the week continued, I created various documents, keeping track of my opinions and ideas for the Ideum board and the content more generally. I have also had various meetings with my supervisor, Cheche, where we have brainstormed and discussed the complexities and issues that come with the topic of mestizaje. 

With this week coming to an end, I am excited for all that's to come with this project! While being a big task to tackle, it has allowed me the opportunity to be thoughtful in my research and learn lots of new information! Yay to my first 2 weeks back at the NHCC! I hope everyone is enjoying the start to their internship experiences!

- Gianna Ramirez


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