Reflections on the Economic Crisis: El Mariachi

Explroing Society Photographically

Students worked with internationally known Mexican documentary photographer to achieve a body of images along with text to express the issues that we are facing today. Students used photography as a means to document the current economic realities that we are facing today, such as home foreclosures, loss of jobs, businesses closing, cost increases in gasoline and food, etc.. This class engaged students in a positive and creative manner as to how to make a difference in society through theirreflective images and words for change.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

El Mariachi

Course: Images of Mexico

Mariachis and their music is something that is unequivocally Mexican, and is deeply ingrained in its' people. It is through the passion of those who perform the music that is gets its' life from. Today, mariachi music has spread far and wide from its origins in Mexico, but those who carry on its tradition bring out its' liveliness wherever that may be. One may have never thought of it that way, but that is what I am trying to convey in the following set of images. I try to answer the question, is it the people who give Mariachi music its flavor and essence, or simply the things associated with the music? The following images are to be viewed in sets. The first image depicts objects that are associated with Mariachi music. However, there is no life in the shots containing them. They sit there alone, untouched, waiting. Waiting for what one may ask? They wait for someone or something to bring life to them. The objects sit there in a surreal world until someone takes them out of that world. This is where the second image of the set comes into play. The second images, shows the previous object revitalized, injected with life through the people who make up this Mariachi. The objects leave the surreal world they once inhabited and through the members of the group bring out the life in the music they play.

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Artist Statement

Carlos Amaya

Class of 2009

Major: Finance

Hometown: El Paso, TX

The economic crisis in the United States has been gaining steam over the last year. However, it is only until recently, that the economy has been declared in a recession. Before going home to El Paso, TX for Christmas break I heard that shopping for Christmas gifts was down all across the country due to rough economic times. Contrary to what I had heard, I noticed every shopping center in El Paso packed with cars in the parking lots, lines that stretched almost endlessly, and shelves out of stock of many items. I joked to my mom, “Some kind of recession we got going on here.”
On a recent trip to Boston, MA, a city I have visited very frequently over the past 3 years I was interested to see how the recession has impacted a very large, dominant city in the United States. As I walked the streets I was now familiar with, I saw little change in them. The buildings I last remembered were still there, the same shops, restaurants, even more restaurants and shops then I remembered. Again I thought, “Some kind of recession we have going on here.”
The two judgments I made about really having a recession have stayed with me for sometime, which is until I started to look at the recession on not such a superficial basis. The mistakes I made were as follows: I looked at the whole picture; I didn’t look into the details. Were those shopping centers back home packed because people were buying gifts or were they full because people were returning gifts they couldn’t afford? I began thinking how recessions should be viewed, and I came to this understanding. They should not be viewed as a whole, rather by looking at the individual parts that make up that whole. For example, I always thought, well El Paso hasn’t been affected by the recession that much, but then I started thinking about my family. And as I thought about it, it came very clear that my family has been affected. The only difference is that we have been lucky and been able to overcome those shortcomings.
In the past year, my dad lost his job as a Plant Manager in Cuidad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. He was able to find another one 2 months later, however he feels the only reason he got it was by his guardian angel looking after him. He essentially stumbled across the job offering by accident. Also, it should be said that he has not held a job in the U.S for over 10 years and lost his job 3 times in the span. Any jobs he has been lucky enough to find have been in Mexico.
Then there is my brother, a 2005 graduate of MIT with a degree in Electrical Engineering/Computer Science. This past August, he was laid off as a computer software programmer and it took him nearly three months to find a job in San Diego, where he lives. It is something to be said about the job market, if someone with an MIT degree cannot find a job, imagine those with little or no education.
My uncle has owned a neighborhood grocery store for over 20 years. He works extremely hard, and has had a problem with banks to lend him money or any other service he needs. This past month, his bank told him they will no longer be serving him because they feel his is too “high risk” for them. Again, he has never defaulted on anything or ever shown any illegal practices.
As I reflected on the events that had individually impacted my family, I started trying to figure out what a recession actually was. Formally, a recession is a period where GDP growth is negative in at least two consecutive quarters. If not formally in a recession, the following characteristics can signal one may be nearing: People buy less stuff, there is a decrease in factory production, unemployment grows, personal income is affected, the stock market declines, and house values fall.
With a formal understanding of what a recession entails, I tried to capture those characteristics in the South Bend area. As I explored the city and surrounding areas, I noticed some of the before mentioned characteristics of a recession. Many houses were boarded up or for sale, once prominent factories in the area resembled a ghost town more then a production giant. At first I thought that I would be able to easily capture what I had intended, but I ran into a problem. Although I was able to capture some of the effects a recession can have on an area, I was not able to say the recession was the cause of what I captured. For example, I would see run down houses with boarded up doors and windows, but of all the houses I saw none had a foreclosure sign on it leading me to believe this house had been recently foreclosed. I had the same thoughts with regards to the factories I saw. Many of them closed down, but what seemed to have been for a long time. To say the recession caused all of this would be false and misleading.
Again I was unsure what to believe about the economic recession. I knew deep down it was a real problem, but I could not seem to capture the real cause and effect of a real economic crisis. I then decided to resolve my intentions as follows. Although I cannot say truthfully that the pictures I have taken are a direct result of the current crisis, I can still use those images to show what the consequences of an economic recession could be. The following images will highlight the different areas an economic recession can affect. And although they are not a direct cause of the current crisis, I would like to use them as an illustrative purpose and show people that this is what an economic crisis can do and will do. For a factual backing to my claims, I will include a collage made of headlines about the economy that show these problems are happening and were a direct result of the recession and although my pictures are not a direct result they very well could be.

Reflections on the Economic Crisis