National Hispanic Cultural Center - Gianna Ramirez, Week 4

With my fourth week at the National Hispanic Cultural Center coming to an end, I have officially finished my internship. Knowing that this was my last week, I knew I had much to close out before leaving on Friday. To start this week, I began drafting new descriptions for a few images within the Torreón building fresco. My supervisor had also spent some time gathering research on Francisco de Vitoria and his ideas on just war, which I then used to make some updates to the older descriptions on him and other content. Since I had done a lot of research in the past few weeks, I was able to just focus on writing new content this week. This process of writing the descriptions is similar to that of creating a museum art label; you want short and clear text that is also informational enough to spark visitor's interest. Being that you are balancing keeping things concise while also providing enough information to get your mains points across, it can make the writing process a bit challenging and more time consuming than one may think.

The NHCC's Torreón building

As the week continued, I also worked on some final organizational things for the Torreón project. Since I will be leaving and eventually, all of the work I did will be shared and used by the Ideum software team to create the digital board for the Torreón, it's important that everything is organized. I began by making sure each document that my supervisor and I had made had some sort of description on the top so that others know what the document is for. I then made some more edits to descriptions, finalized documents, and made sure every image in the Torreón had a place within the Ideum project outline. 

Last day editing and working in my beautiful office space

In the midst of my editing and final research, my supervisor had asked me to write a paper reflecting on my internship experience. This was an opportunity for me to reflect on this four week experience, talk about what I learned, but also highlight what things I wish I could've gotten done. 

In summary, the Torreón project has been such an interesting but challenging project to be a part of. I am thankful for the opportunity to be apart of the early planning stages of the project because it has pushed me to expand my researching, writing, organizational, and critical thinking skills. When planning for the creation of a digital screen relating to an art piece that has such complex and important subject matter, there are a lot of things to consider and be really thoughtful about. Due to the nature of this project, the personal growth outcomes felt very holsitic; all of my skills and abilities within research, writing, historical knowledge, and creativity had to be utilized and expanded on together to be successful. The Torreón project has been the perfect art history conundrum; allowing me to explore the job of a curator, historian, researcher, and scholar all in one experience. 

Aside from the logistics of the Torreón project, my internship experience has provided me with so much more than I could have hoped for. The fresco is telling the story of mestizaje, meaning that I was constantly learning new things about history and a history that is directly related to my own identity. In many ways, I felt the research I was doing not only supported my work capabilities for the project, but also helped me to learn more about myself. As I explored other research topics like the Aztec Calendar Stone, I was simply intrigued and feel lucky that I was given the opportunity to learn more about interesting historical topics.

Being at the NHCC has also allowed for me to learn about new resources. I plan to come back and spend time at the Hispanic Genealogy Research Center in search of more information about my familial history. I also know that I can look through archival materials or the NHCC library when doing research.

The front of the History and Literary Arts (HLA) building

HLA's mini library

The window inside my office space

Appreciation for the NHCC's gorgeous campus

Overall, this internship experience has been incredible. Providing me with the space to explore and learn has helped me to feel better equipped for the college journey I am about to begin and I am more confident in my capabilities not only as a student, but as a young professional too. I am thankful for this internship opportunity as I have learned new information and developed my skills in ways that I wouldn't be able to in usual educational spaces. The NHCC team and my supervisor, Jesus "Cheche" Silveyra, have all been so supportive. I also want to express my sincerest gratitude to the NMAL team as the opportunity to be a Young Ambassador has truly changed my life in the best ways possible. The love and intention poured into D.C week was incredible and only continued as I completed my four week internship here in Albuquerque. Thank you NHCC and NMAL for investing in young people and providing us with the space to grow as young leaders!