EATING FROM THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE: THE IMPACT OF VISUAL CULTURE ON THE PERCEPTION AND CONSTRUCTION OF ETHNIC, SEXUAL, AND GENDER IDENTITY Andrés Peralta, B.S., M.A. Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS December 2010 APPROVED: Rina Kundu, Major Professor Christina Bain, Committee Member Nadine Kalin, Committee Member Denise A. Baxter, Interim Chair of the Department Art Education and Art History Robert W. Milnes, Dean of the College of Visual Arts and Design James D. Meernik, Acting Dean of the Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies Peralta, Andrés. Eating from the tree of knowledge: The impact of visual culture on the perception and construction of ethnic, sexual, and gender identity. Doctor of Philosophy (Art Education), December 2010, 309 pp., 4 illustrations, reference list, 179 titles. This study explores the way that visual culture and identity creates understanding about how the women in my family interact and teach each other. In the study issues of identity, liminality, border culture, are explored. The study examines how underrepresented groups, such as those represented by Latinas, can enter into and add to the discourses of art education because the women who participated have learned to maneuver through the world, passing what they have learned to one another, from one generation to the next. Furthermore, the study investigates ways in which visual cues offer a way for the women in my family to negotiate their identity. In the study the women see themselves in signs, magazines, television, dolls, clothing patterns, advertisements, and use these to find ways in which to negotiate the borderlands of the places in which they live. Although the education that occurred was informal, its importance is in creating a portal through which to self reflect on the cultural work of educating. Copyright 2010 by Andrés Peralta ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES...................................................................................................................... vii Chapters 1. MORNING ............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Introduction .......................................................................................... 1 1.2 Traditions and Memory ........................................................................ 3 1.3. Ethnicity and Culture ........................................................................... 6 1.4 Informal Education and Narratives ....................................................... 9 1.5 We Too Are Storytellers—Analysis of Data ....................................... 11 1.6 Participants ........................................................................................ 20 1.6.1 The First Sign ....................................................................... 20 1.6.2 The Water-Bearer ................................................................ 21 1.6.3 The Archer ........................................................................... 22 1.6.4 Castor and Pollux ................................................................. 23 1.6. 5 It Is Her Nature .................................................................... 24 1.7 Dissertation as Literature ................................................................... 25 1.8 Purpose Statement and Research Questions .................................... 26 1.9 Narrative Inquiry and Critical Ethnography as Design ....................... 27 2. WHERE ALL THINGS BEGIN .......................................................................... 29 2.1 Mother is the Name for God ............................................................... 29 2.2 History ................................................................................................ 31 2.3 Elemental ........................................................................................... 37 2.4 Water My Blood ................................................................................ 39 2.5 Synopsis ........................................................................................... 46 3. GRAMMATICA NECRONOMICA—LANGUAGE OF THE DEAD .............. 51 3.1 Corpses and Cadavers ...................................................................... 52 3.2 Story-Telling and Metaphor Research .............................................. 56 3.3 Blow Flies ......................................................................................... 59 3.3.1 Before the Damselflies She is a Nymph—Liminal Spaces ... 64 iii 3.3.2 Metamorphosis—Poststructuralist Woman ......................... 67 3.4 Synopsis—When the Sparrow Sings, A Soul He Brings .................... 69 3.4.1 Singing the Song ................................................................. 73 3.4.2 El Que Por La Boca Muere ................................................. 75 4. LIKE A FEATHER FALLING ON WATER ...................................................... 81 4.1 Gringolandia ...................................................................................... 83 4.2 Yes, Alice .......................................................................................... 85 4.3 The New World ................................................................................. 89 4.4 Bob Ross ........................................................................................... 92 4.5 Traditions ........................................................................................... 94 4.6 Synopsis ............................................................................................ 99 5. BABEL ................................................................................................................ 105 5.1 Let Them Eat Cake .......................................................................... 105 5.1.1 Structuralism and Language .............................................. 108 5.2 You Can’t Have Your Cake and Eat It Too ..................................... 112 5.2.1 Baudrillard .......................................................................... 114 5.2.2 Poststructuralism ................................................................ 115 5.2.3 Bakhtin ............................................................................... 118 5.2.4 Structures In Relation to Power—Foucault ........................ 119 5.2.5 Truth ................................................................................... 122 5.3 The Cake is a Lie ............................................................................. 124 5.3.6 Postmodernism ................................................................. 126 5.3.7 Deconstruction ................................................................... 128 5.3.8 Derrida ............................................................................... 130 5.4 Betty Crocker Can Bake Someone Happy ....................................... 132 5.4.1 Visual Culture ..................................................................... 134 5.4.2 Visuality .............................................................................. 140 5.5 Synopsis .......................................................................................... 141 6. BETWEEN SEA AND SKY ............................................................................. 144 6.1 Duality .............................................................................................. 146 6.2 Resistance ...................................................................................... 149 iv 6.3 Courage .......................................................................................... 154 6.4 Synopsis .......................................................................................... 160 7. FOR WE ARE MANY....................................................................................... 164 7.1 The Fourth-Dimension ..................................................................... 169 7.2 Oranges are not the Only Fruit ........................................................ 180 7.3 Wondertwin Powers—Activate! ....................................................... 188 7.4 Culture ............................................................................................. 194 7.5 The World Will Cry ‘Save Us,’ and I Will Say No ............................. 197 7.6 Tú Me Sobras, y Yo Te Falto A Tí................................................... 201 7.7 Synopsis—What the Serpent Knew ................................................. 205 8. THE TWO BECAME ONE .............................................................................. 207 8.1 Twilight ............................................................................................. 207 8.2 Camera ........................................................................................... 210 8.3 Defiance ........................................................................................... 213 8.4 Quinceañera ................................................................................... 217 8.5 Bigfoot ............................................................................................. 219 8.6 Synopsis .......................................................................................... 222 9. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE ............................................................................... 225 9.1 Evolve or Perish .............................................................................