International Musuem of Art and Science McAllen - Armando Garcia, Week 1

 

Hello everyone, I hope y'all are doing well. 

The first week of my internship at the International Museum of Art & Science was very informative and eventful. I was given a more in depth tour of the four museum galleries as well as the front learning rooms and what the focus of each room was, for example the Biozone which encourages STEM learning and environmental consciousness. The IMAS museum has one permanent gallery with Latin American folk art and cultural items on display.

 Mexican & Latin American Folk Art Exhibit   

        My first assignment for the museum was funnily enough to go grocery shopping. My supervisor, Claudia Martinez, had me accompany her to get snacks and supplies for the kids learning camps that the museum was hosting. During the car ride she told me that originally I was going to help with the Back to School Blast Off event, but since the event was coming together easier than they had thought, she was going to have me help plan the Dia de Los Muertos event that the museum has every year. When we got back she had me look into the past events and write down the ideas that were worth repeating and come up with some new activities or presentations that they could do.

 Grocery Shopping 

    One activity that had stood out was a presentation on curanderismo. I asked her about the presentation and brought up the idea of expanding on the idea by focusing on curanderismo in the Rio Grande Valley and getting a local curandera to do the presentation with displays of herbs used and descriptions of rituals. She liked my idea and asked me to research the subject and look for curanderos to do the presentation. During my research, I discovered a lot of interesting facts. Curanderismo is a part of our culture that many are ashamed of and don’t openly practice or admit to using. Throughout the history of the Valley, it has been vilified by Anglo American settlers and religious groups that have moved to Texas. Curanderas have been the backbone of our community since the colonization of Texas and the Valley, before American settlers and religious groups moved in. In a community where historically quality medical care had been hard to access, curanderas were the ones who took care of people. The practice has recently gone through a reawakening with many curanderos beginning to educate people of their work. I believe that bringing it into a place of learning will help our community become more comfortable and accepting of the practice. 

Industrial Nature by Michelle Stitzlein      

I'm looking forward to the rest of my internship.