Final Project Artist Statement

When I first began thinking about my final project I felt overwhelmed and couldn't think of a direction to take it in. My professor suggested I look into the new law in Arizona involving immigration. This fit my major of political science well. This subject ended up being of great interest to me and the timing was excellent. The day after I had chosen the primary topic of my final project a protest was to be held in Milwaukee by the Hispanic community. I borrowed my friend's camera and went to check it out. It was an impressive show by Milwaukee's Hispanic community and I thought I got some good footage and interviews. Unfortunately I wasn't familiar enough with my friend's camera and my video was saved to the memory card but there was no memory card in the camera at the time. My interviews happened to be saved to the tape and while I overwrote some of my friend's old video, he didn't seem to mind. With the project deadline in five days I had no choice but to scrap any thoughts of original video and instead looked online for round images and an Obama speech concerning the new law.
The chant of the protesters was "si se puede" and I used that to introduce and set the tone for the comments I recorded at the march. Even with the project deadline looming i decided to try a new software, Moviemaker, because I hoped it would be easier to add sound too. My little Gamble paid off well as I was able to figure out how to manage my presentation easily in Moviemaker and the end result looked much nicer than my previous project.
Because of this project I learned firsthand the unity and strength of Mexican immigrants. The protest was very impressive and if I were any sort of politician I would definitely pay attention to their concerns. My personal views on immigration have become more liberal because all the people I met and talked to at Escuela Vieau and the protest seemed like hardworking, morally upright people. To me these are the kinds of people that should be American citizens so while illegally crossing the border is not the solution there needs to be some reform to allow for easier immigration to America. It has also dawned on me that I may not be as culturally aware as I should be and will be looking into studying abroad.