Read:

-Gálvez, “I won’t tell my story”
–Eclipse of Dreams, pick 2 of the stories to read and comment on in the discussion forum. Marco will be our 5th speaker in the guest lecture series (and was the “star” of Infiltrators).

Read:

How I stopped worrying and learned to love design thinking, by Christina Wodtke, Medium 2017

Begin to work on interview assignment (see details in the forum at the Academic Commons)

Write:

Pick 2 of the following 4 questions to respond to in a substantive discussion forum post.

1. What do you think of the decision of some undocumented activists to no longer tell their stories on social media. Do “we”(the public, the media, etc) have a “right” to stories? How can we think about immigrant rights without stories? Are stories a good pathway to rights? Why or why not?
2. After reading at least two of the stories in Eclipse of Dreams, how do you make sense of them? What programs/policies helped or harmed the migrants in these stories? What did they do in response? How typical or atypical do you think their experience is?
3. In the “Design Thinking as Expertise Thinking” section of the Medium piece, the authors explain how we can think of mundane tasks with expertise. What are the techniques, or steps, you take to perform mundane tasks throughout the day, like brushing your teeth or preparing a snack?
4. Drawing from the title of the presentation and the design topics we have discussed, what do you think next week’s lecture will be about?

Read:

-Gálvez, “I won’t tell my story”
–Eclipse of Dreams, pick 2 of the stories to read and comment on in the discussion forum. Marco will be our 5th speaker in the guest lecture series (and was the “star” of Infiltrators).

Read:

How I stopped worrying and learned to love design thinking, by Christina Wodtke, Medium 2017

Begin to work on interview assignment (see details in the forum at the Academic Commons)

Write:

Pick 2 of the following 4 questions to respond to in a substantive discussion forum post.

1. What do you think of the decision of some undocumented activists to no longer tell their stories on social media. Do “we”(the public, the media, etc) have a “right” to stories? How can we think about immigrant rights without stories? Are stories a good pathway to rights? Why or why not?
2. After reading at least two of the stories in Eclipse of Dreams, how do you make sense of them? What programs/policies helped or harmed the migrants in these stories? What did they do in response? How typical or atypical do you think their experience is?
3. In the “Design Thinking as Expertise Thinking” section of the Medium piece, the authors explain how we can think of mundane tasks with expertise. What are the techniques, or steps, you take to perform mundane tasks throughout the day, like brushing your teeth or preparing a snack?
4. Drawing from the title of the presentation and the design topics we have discussed, what do you think next week’s lecture will be about?

[KEVIN FELICIANO (he)]

LTS 360

Professor Galvez/ Professor Silva

Kevin Feliciano

Kevinfeliciano29@yahoo.com

 

Week # 5

 

1. What do you think of the decision of some undocumented activists to no longer tell their stories on social media. Do “we” (the public, the media, etc.) have a “right” to stories? How can we think about immigrants’ rights without stories? Are stories a good pathway to rights? Why or why not?

– The decision to no longer tell stories on social media was risky and at the same time brave. It is hard to imagine what it is like to be an undocumented immigrant and to put ourselves in their shoes when it comes to fair treatment and being marginalized by policies and regulations that are not humanitarian.  Do we as a public have “rights” to their stories, I don’t necessarily think that we do. Because, stories are an individual possession of the person, it is theirs to decide whether to tell their story or not. But as a community, we need to be aware of these stories to be able to act upon them and try to make a change for the better, uncover the people that are doing things for other reasons like monetary or/and political reasons.

The other reason they decided to stop telling their stories was because the stories were not being told by themselves or were either coached to tell their story with a specific approach, and in return nothing was changed, a resolution was never accomplished making them feel powerless and used by the media for other purposes.

Stories are an excellent way of showing the people what is really going on outside/inside the community. Without their stories they would be way mor in the dark and would be even more difficult to fight back and create change. Stories can change the perspective of a lot of people who have no idea of how really is and might have a wrong impression of what the situation is and how wrong the person might be thinking and therefore voting for certain policies or regulation that affects progress, just because the individual is not aware or well informed.

 

2. In the “Design Thinking as Expertise Thinking” section of the Medium piece, the authors explain how we can think of mundane tasks with expertise. What are the techniques, or steps you take to perform mundane tasks throughout the day, like brushing your teeth or preparing a snack?

–  The first step to perform some tasks using this type of design theory is to identify the problem you have in hand, or a goal you are trying to accomplish. Once you identify the problem, you need to identify your own set of skills that you can use to solve that problem. The readings use being chef as an example which is perfect for me, I like working in restaurants, and you use this style of thinking in that type of work. You need to know where everything is in the kitchen, utensils, food, cleaning equipment, what are the safety procedures for food handling, know the menu, what items sell more than others to be well prepared beforehand. You need to talk to your team and be well organized, everything needs to work as a well-oiled machine, in a flow state.

For example, for breakfast preparation I need to plan ahead if I want to either prepare breakfast at home, or buy breakfast outside, or to prepare something the night before and save time. Let’s say I decided that I want to prepare breakfast in the morning, before going to work. I must buy the food the day prior so that I don’t have to go out in the morning. Make sure that I have the pots, gas working (stove), plates and others. Now, be careful, you might be thinking too much on all this and forgetting one very important thing, set your alarm earlier than usual so that you have time to do all this before going to work. All these steps are part of the steps for using “Expertise Thinking”.

 

 

 

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[Rosalina Santana (she/her)]

<li style=”font-weight: 400;” aria-level=”1″>What do you think of the decision of some undocumented activists to no longer tell their stories on social media. Do “we”(the public, the media, etc) have a “right” to stories? How can we think about immigrant rights without stories? Are stories a good pathway to rights? Why or why not?

The undocumented activists’ decision to stop telling their stories on social media was unfair to me. It was unfair. After all, they had the right to tell their stories and not be silent because, in my opinion, they stopped using social networks to tell their story. It was mostly out of fear, not because they wanted to stop doing it. Being afraid to say what they thought, their ideas, their stories, and that others would find out what they were going through, fearful of what could happen due to their immigration status.

I think not the right of “us” to know their stories, but it is their right to tell them and not be unfairly silenced for their immigration status. For me, they must have the right to describe what happens to them or what happened to them, the right to express their opinions when they decide. They think it is prudent to do so; also, the most important thing is that they know feel safe to do it, and if it is your decision not to do it out of fear or for any other reason, you must respect your decision. In one part a part of the article “I won’t tell my story”: Narrative Capital and Refusal Among Undocumented Activists in the Trump Era by Prof. Alyshia Gálvez says “the right to have rights” (1973). The most important thing is that undocumented activities have their voice and are heard and not silenced. The most important right is to have a free voice without being silenced by anything or anyone.

Although the stories are not told, we know that there are a story and rights that must be protected, although immigrants do not mean what happened to them. It is crucial to protect the rights of those whose rights are often violated. That even if there is no voice how speaks from his/her own experience, it is essential to maintain the fight for the immigrants’ rights, and what if they can have a voice, keep the battle to care for and protect those who cannot do it for themselves. Of course, stories are a good form of rights. The stories are the essential way to know what is hidden behind the silence and darkness. They are an indispensable way for people who are not aware of what is happening with those who often do not have the right to be heard and often remain silent for fear of speaking. They must talk and tell everything that happens in silence; it is also essential that they lose the fear of speaking so that more people can tell what they have happened and, in this way to understand this issue better.

<li style=”font-weight: 400;” aria-level=”1″>In the “Design Thinking as Expertise Thinking” section of the Medium piece, the authors explain how we can think of mundane tasks with expertise. What are the techniques, or steps, you take to perform mundane tasks throughout the day, like brushing your teeth or preparing a snack?

In the article, he talks about cooking techniques and how to use Chef Thinking. But the important thing is to identify the problem and the goal you want to achieve. It is not a technique that works for me very much because I wouldn’t say I like cooking very much because I am a literal danger. But in my day to day the technique I use to identify what I will do for breakfast before classes. 

I don’t use specific steps for my daily activities, but I use specific steps and techniques to do my homework. For example, since I have five classes, I always see first what assignments I have to do, then I put on headphones and play music because it is the easiest way to concentrate. Then I check which task is due first. When I have to read an article or a book chapter, I always use different colored highlighters to take notes. In this way, I know why I use highlighter color, and my class notes have drawings or faces to make it easier for me to remember.

[Josmairy frias]

LTS 360

week 5

<li style=”font-weight: 400;” aria-level=”1″>What do you think of the decision of some undocumented activists to no longer tell their stories on social media. Do “we”(the public, the media, etc) have a “right” to stories? How can we think about immigrant rights without stories? Are stories a good pathway to rights? Why or why not?

I feel that we do not have the right to have their stories, each one is the protagonist of their life, in this case it is their stories as immigrants and therefore it is their right to share it or not. but we can’t hide the truth that in the sometimes-loud debate about the role of immigrants in the United States, immigrants themselves often don’t have a voice. It is important for society to be able to know all the work or sacrifices that many immigrants face when making the decision to have a better future in the United States. To be able to imagine the hope that propelled them to America in the first place, the apprehensions of arriving in a new land, their struggles to adapt in a fast-paced and dynamic society, of their ability to shape a new life for themselves once here. 

According to the article the reason why the immigrants decided not to tell their story is “ If stories do not compel change, then why tell them?”  Also the article mention “ Rather than double down on the model immigrant myth, the notion that “immigrants get the job done,”4that immigrants deserve rights because of their contributions in the form of labor, and more, undocumented activists say, “Immigrants deserve rights.” Full stop. This is the notion that immigrants do not deserve rights because they contribute, or because they have family values, or because they’ve been here a long time, or because they are assimilated or assimilable, or because they share “American values.” They deserve rights. Punto. This is a politics of refusal that opens space for other kinds of imagined frames for rights and belonging” . Being honest now after analyzing the article well, I think that stories are a good way to convey feelings and also to feel  identified with some of them but in something the article is right because immigrants have been telling their stories for many years, expressing why they deserve equality in this country, and in reality nothing has changed. and in the first place as the article says, why they have to demonstrate that they need to be treated like the others, we all need to be treated the same without having to tell why. 

 

In the “Design Thinking as Expertise Thinking” section of the Medium piece, the authors explain how we can think of mundane tasks with expertise. What are the techniques, or steps, you take to perform mundane tasks throughout the day, like brushing your teeth or preparing a snack?

 

In the article, They talk about how the chef works and how to use Chef Thinking. Chefs have a class of problems and chefs need skills to combine into a set of solutions to achieve your goals. Personally, I always have to plan ahead of time the things to do in the day, but my main focus is in the mornings since I have to make my breakfast, take my dog out, and leave the house clean before I go to work. Sometimes I leave everything that I will need for my breakfast ready in the kitchen so that I can save time with the other stuff. I also leave my puppy’s leash near the door so that it is much easier to prepare him to go out.

 

[Misael Calderon (He/him/his)]

3. In the “Design Thinking as Expertise Thinking” section of the Medium piece, the authors explain how we can think of mundane tasks with expertise. What are the techniques, or steps, you take to perform mundane tasks throughout the day, like brushing your teeth or preparing a snack?

Techniques that are mundane require little effort to them even though they are routine to every day life. I wake up with or without an alarm and the first thing I do is brush my teeth every day its just that simple. I think expertise thinking goes more in depth when it comes to hobbies or passions. Upon reading the section I found that I myself do many of the things the author mentions. I am an artist and I like to post or showcase my art . I notice now that my routine of writing down any idea I have for an artwork, asking friends and peers for their thoughts on the sketch before finishing it, and routinely repeating and refining the process was all part of the expertise thinking mentioned in the section. I was unknowingly doing it all along.

 

4. Drawing from the title of the presentation and the design topics we have discussed, what do you think next week’s lecture will be about?

Based on the presentation being titled “Roll With the Punches”, and the readings on this weeks forum, I think that the lecture will be about how Marco knows of his status in the US and uses it to further increase awareness of undocumented immigrants? Its just an inference based on what rolling with the punches means which is sort of like taking the hand you’re dealt with and using it to your advantage.

 

[Ashley (she/her/hers)]

1. A quote that stood out to me in this writing was “Refusal to tell stories is a means of asserting rights”. Meaning stories are not a necessary pathway for rights. Why must immigrants convince the government of how worthy they are of rights, something that they deserve without having to put up a fight. Not telling their stories is a way to show that while they are not talking on a higher scale, they are still there, them just existing is enough for them to have rights. They do not owe us their story to deem them worthy. Some individuals may want the story just to listen and relate but for the most part it is a way to convince others that they too deserve such rights because they work hard. In conclusion I agree with the thesis that the refusal to speak is a political act, a strong one that shows what’s wrong with the attitude towards immigrant rights.

2. I read both Marco’s story and the Unnamed Dreamer story. Marco’s story for me sent out the message that immigrants do not need to rely on programs and policies. A quote that suggested this is “Only the dreamer can abnegate the dream”, no policy or program can take away someone’s rights, only if we allow it. As individuals we have somewhat control over our actions, to make a stand and make a change to the system by ignoring its barricades. After all the American Dream is filled with broken promises such as the Dream Act with it’s many flaws. An example of the Dream Act’s flaws comes through in the second story “Unnamed Dreamer” where the author gets deported despite being in the states as a student due to not having a driver’s license. His home in Mexico is no longer home to him as he grew accustomed to his life in the United States. Sadly we live in a time where just one small mistake can cost us big time

[Robert Soren Roe (He)]

1. What do you think of the decision of some undocumented activists to no longer tell their stories on social media. Do “we”(the public, the media, etc) have a “right” to stories? How can we think about immigrant rights without stories? Are stories a good pathway to rights? Why or why not?

I think Stories are an important part of every rights movement. I personally think that people since the dawn of time have always tended to think in tribes. When I use the word “Tribe” I mean the group of people that you consider “normal” like you are. People who share the same traits one defines themselves as. When thinking of social, ethic or even economic groups that they don’t belong to many people tend to think of them in the abstract, considering them as a sort of not-quite-human thing. We build this sort of totem-like idea of what these people are and don’t afford them the same kind of realness that we think of ourselves and our peers with. Stories are a great way to break this illusion. They show that people in the other groups than us have just as complex and human lives as us, and that in many ways they aren’t different from ourselves. In the absence of the understanding stories provide, many people think of others as an abstract notion, and in the mind of many they cease to be treated like humans. I don’t think people have the “Right” to pry into somebody’s life against their will, but I think telling stories is the only way we’ll make any progress. A large number of people think of these issues abstractly, and therefore don’t care enough to take action. Only by seeing the struggles of individuals will people begin to care.

1. In the “Design Thinking as Expertise Thinking” section of the Medium piece, the authors explain how we can think of mundane tasks with expertise. What are the techniques, or steps, you take to perform mundane tasks throughout the day, like brushing your teeth or preparing a snack?

I suppose this isn’t exactly a mundane task but I do a lot of design thinking in my free time playing a videogame called From The Depths. It’s a naval strategy game where you build a fleet of ships from scratch, and then use them in a naval RTS campaign. The only real issue is it’s an endlessly complicated game, and just learning to properly build a ship can take weeks. You have to assemble it block by block like a lego set, except you’re designing every but of it. Every step of the way consider how each addition will affect the ship’s defenses, speed, weight, point of balance while floating. If you want to put cannons on your ship you need to first figure out how to build those, as they also have parts that must be fit together. You need room for those cannons to be mounted, and space in the hull to contain the ammunition for them, and since most of the moving parts in a ships cannon are actually under the turret sunk into the hull, you need a dedicated room in the hull for those parts to rotate in. Everybody who plays the game has a different way they go about designing a ship, and my personal modus operandi is this:
Make the outer hull of the ship, and then begin to build the maze rooms inside of it. The first floor of the ship is mostly storage rooms, and has few pockets of air to keep the center of gravity near the bottom so it doesn’t flip over. I also put the engine room down on this lower half of the ship’s hull, as cannons shots have difficulty going through water, and therefore the lower half of the ship is generally more protected. I then put a roof over all these rooms to work on the room comprising the upper half of the ship. I decide where I want turrets and build rooms accordingly under their spaces in the deck to house all the more delicate and explosive parts of them, such as the shells and autoloaders. Only the barrel will be exposed above deck when they’re built. The rest of the rooms on the second floor are made to house less important components, and lots of air pocket rooms. These both help the overall ship float and make it mostly buoyant on the upper part of the hull, preventing capsizing. I then build the upper deck and begin making cannons that fit the size of the rooms previously built. I’ll stop here, you get what I mean

Every step of the game’s building process takes consideration on how it will affect the future steps, and It’s made a fun hobby for the past year figuring out how to design a ship and improving my processes.

 

 

[Andrew Rivera (He/Him)]

1. What do you think of the decision of some undocumented activists to no longer tell their stories on social media. Do “we”(the public, the media, etc) have a “right” to stories? How can we think about immigrant rights without stories? Are stories a good pathway to rights? Why or why not?
The means of which we possess the stories is not the concern but how we obtain, progress and process said stories are what matters in the situations of say the public via social media as well as the publications of television and its portrayal of said issues and events, that being said the “right” to these stories as the public is the same as an author showing their product to the public and thus the public giving their own opinions and changes of said product, we are in no right to judge said protagonist of said story, but neither are we to pretend that the issues of said stories should go unheard, objectively it is debated as to whether the voices will be listened to, but when one can see and witness similar stories of harsh realities within the United States, then one can say the “right” to said stories is outweighed by more of the need. Stories can be a good medium, but only when it is done right, but stories themselves shouldn’t be the only means to let the message be known, just like with an author of fiction, everyone will have their own opinion and matters on how to change the issues and dare i say, some would ignore the story completely as they would deem the immigrants story not of importance, but the worst fate of all, that of indifference
2. After reading at least two of the stories in Eclipse of Dreams, how do you make sense of them? What programs/policies helped or harmed the migrants in these stories? What did they do in response? How typical or atypical do you think their experience is? Not only did the quote “Only the dreamer can abnegate the dream” came to mind once i had finished reading both stories, but another “the question is not who permits me, but who will stop me” only if we permit the laws and abhorrent behaviors that plague and already unjust system towards the immigrant as well as the migrant, soaked in the system of “if it isnt broken why bother fixing it” but the truth of the matter is this system is broken, and all those that come to this nation in the aspiring tale of the America Dream, must understand that it is good to dream, but we must eventually awaken from said dream and come to realization that it was build on the backs of broken promises and fueled by the crushes spirits of those that came and had their spirits sucked out leaving a husk of status quo left in the wake of the masses that will continue to agree with the familiar and forbade necessary change

[Juliana Hernandez (She/Her)]

1. Eclipse of Dreams
The stories from the migrants make sense since what most of them are trying to do is earn a living and get some education. Most of the migrants are children who find themselves in the situation due to their parents’ action. They all have goals that they would wish to achieve, making them decide that would lead to deportation. The migrants did not have equal rights as the citizens; hence the policies did not favor their stay. Being undocumented made them have struggles taking through with their education and proceeding after graduation. The demonstration was a way the migrants followed whenever they wanted their voices to get heard. Both university graduates and ongoing students went through harsh deporting policies, although they did not understand the reason they were in the state. I feel the experiences of the migrants were harsh, especially for the school going children since they never signed up for all the exposure they were in.

2. Undocumented Activists Stories
The migrants feeling that they cannot share their stories with the media is not right since people cannot help them fight for their rights if they do not know what they are going through. aI believe they have trauma with what they are going through, but I would highly recommend sharing their stories for the public’s support. The public and the media have a right to the stories by the undocumented activists’ stories since this is the only way they can mobilize for support. The media cannot call for support without evidence, and the evidence is through the stories the migrants bring forth. It is hard to evaluate the rights of the migrants without stories since there is no indication of what they are going through. Past experiences always come with solutions, and by sharing stories, It could be easier for the public to protest for the rights of the migrants. The only way to rights is by giving experiences, and the migrants should do away with the fear of talking out their stories.

[Alyshia Gálvez (she/her/hers)]

I love your thoughts on stories! So interesting.