Items

2020-04-17

A easier way to breath

This is a face shield that I used around family as an easier way to breathe without the mask on.

2021-08-22

What COVID-19 Meant for My Mother: A Latina Small-Business Owner’s Experience in the Bronx.

The item I am submitting is a pandemic auto-ethnography detailing the disproportionately negative impact of COVID-19 on Latinx businesses. I do so through the narrative of my own family's experience, specifically my mother, as well as supporting academic research of general demographic trends. This piece speaks to how the pandemic, while in and of itself does not discriminate, has proportions of its impact that demonstrate a systemic bias leaving certain racial and ethnic groups less protected and far more targeted than others. The piece also connects how these discrepancies are not products of the pandemic, but rather were already systemically there and exacerbated by the pandemic.

2021-06-05

Andy Gaukel Oral History, 2021/06/05

Puppeteer Andy Gaukel had carved out a comfortable niche for himself in the Early Childhood Center at Bronx Community College. Then Covid-19 hit, and he had to find new ways of connecting with the college’s smallest students. In this oral history, he explains how he learned new skills to teach online while maintaining his rapport with his pre-schoolers and engaging their parents in a way that he hadn’t before the pandemic.

This is a picture taken of a messy footwear isle at a store. Shoes lie strewn across the ground of the isle.

2021-03-17

A Day at Macy's Inc. During a Worldwide Pandemic

As my primary source I chose a picture that I took on March 17, 2021 at 8:39pm, it was the end of my shift in my retail job. This picture was taken one year later since they first closed down the city. I work in Macy’s Inc. at Bay Plaza, and the store was closed during the pandemic until the end of June. When the store first reopened, big crowds of people came to the store every single day without caring about the pandemic. It is understandable that all they wanted was to shop, and also get out of their houses to distract themselves. This picture is just a small representation of what retail workers have to deal with during times like this. It got to a point, where it was very frustrating seen so many people at the store walking around trying to shop. Many people did not care about the 6ft social distancing, and others did not want to wear a mask because it was too hot, or they couldn’t breathe. There was a limit of 600 people in the whole store, but in days like this I know for sure that it was more than that. The women shoes department was always full of people, there was always a long line, people were right next to each other, and others were screaming or talking too loudly. People were getting into arguments with each other, many were getting frustrated because they wanted to get a shoe size right away. Others were just sitting on the couch sleeping, you could hear babies crying, and kids running or playing around dropping shoes on the floor. I remember I was in the register during my whole shift taking customer after customer, some were really nice but others very rude. As my job, I have to ask every customer if they want to open a Macy’s credit card with us, but their answer was always, “I can’t afford it, this virus has made me broke” yet, they were still out shopping. On this day, I had a disagreement with a customer because I told her to put her mask on about 3 times, and she just ignored me. She then, approaches me to pay for a shirt, and I told her very kindly once again, “can you please put your mask on? Thank you!”. Her reaction was priceless because she was furious and asked me if it wasn’t enough with the plexiglass that was between us, I felt very frustrated because she didn’t seem to understand how serious this virus is. I told her no, and refuse to ring her out she then, proceeded to another register very furious and still with no mask on. We are not essential workers but working in a retail store during this pandemic has been very overwhelming. The company benefits from all of this because they reach their sales goals every day. When I think about it, we as employees should be happy that there are sales because it means the store won’t close down, and we can keep our jobs. The customers do not seem to have any type of consideration for any of us as retail workers. It upsets me because now more than ever, everyone should be thankful for still being alive after what we just went through this whole year. We need to appreciate each other, and respect one another because we don’t know what everyone is going through. Always be kind to everyone!

2021-03-25

Painting of a Nurse

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This is a picture of three men and one woman wearing face masks while posing in front of a brightly lit Christmas tree.

2020-11-15

New York, Bilbao, New York

In November 2020 I began reading Kirmen Uribe's novel Bilbao New York Bilbao while in Bilbao, Spain with my partner. We were there to care for his father who is suffering through the late stages of dementia and to spend time with his family who he had not seen in a year. Uribe's novel is important to my plague year for many reasons. He talks about the split mind being from Bilbao yet living in New York. My partner is from Bilbao, and the novel helps me understand his mindset. But Uribe also talks about the ways humans remember and carry pain and mark loss. Unlike trees who carry their growth in their rings or fish who mark time through their scales, humans mark time and pain through simply marking time. He notes that fish grow their entire lives, but humans start dying and shrinking from the moment we hit maturity. Growth, it seems is only for the fishes. My plague year was marked by my entire partner's family getting the virus, a story of gradual family loss, one of borders, and of course a presidential election. The pandemic closed not only schools and bars but also borders and our chances to move between Spain and the U.S. in any straightforward way. When we began planning the trip in the summer of 2020, we came up against all of the travel bans in place. My Spanish partner could get to Spain, but I could not. So, the research began, and I spent more time on Facebook groups than any person should be allowed to. We knew we weren't going to Spain just to have fun. We needed to take care of his father, but it felt like we were doing something wrong. Love, it turns out, knows no national borders, but border agencies certainly do. To get to Spain, he just hopped a plane to Madrid. I had to go through Lisbon, London, and Paris before arriving there. On the way back, I hopped on a plane flying directly to New York. He had to quarantine in Mexico for two weeks. Our stay there was marked by his father's continued decline but also moments of joy. The picture here captures one of those. As a U.S. citizen, his Spanish family and friends are always asking me about U.S. culture and practices. One of my tasks in Spain was to cook a big American Thanksgiving dinner, which I did with gusto. I made all the things: turkey, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pecan pie. I tried to explain the significance of each dish while realizing how insignificant and somewhat gross Thanksgiving foods are. But we had fun and spent the night after the meal singing "American" songs and discussing art--his cousins are all artists. That night, one of his friends recommended I read Uribe's novel. So, I ordered it that night. It is a lonely book of loss and thinking about how art marks that loss. I think that is how we marked our time in Spain contemplating everything we had lost in 2020 and everything we were gradually losing. We spent time at the Guggenheim and Fine Arts museums in Bilbao. In fact, we waited for my partner's COVID test while browsing the Fine Arts Museum. It turned out positive, and we separated at the point for two weeks. But the picture here represents a moment of joy as we said goodnight to my partner's cousins after the Thanksgiving weekend. I hope for all the clichés of going back to normalcy. And we probably will get back to the "before times" given humans' inability to learn from any of their experiences. But I am one of those humans and just want to sit at a bar and talk to strangers again. When that normalcy returns, I will look back at this picture and remember Uribe's words: "As with the growth rings of fishes, terrible events stay on in our memory, mark our life, until they become a measure of time. Happy days go fast, on the other hand--too fast--and we forget them quickly." Maybe Uribe is wrong, though. I will not be forgetting this day anytime soon.

2020-06-02

Organized clean up efforts on Fordham Road

Destiny Ramos and Amin Razzaque organized a clean-up effort on E. Fordham Road after a night of looting and destruction. It's pictured on Tuesday, June 2, in the Bronx. (Esha Ray/New York Daily News)

2020-06-02

Store owner stares at aftermath of looting

A store owner stares at the wreckage the looters caused in her store as she cleans up.

2020-06-02

Locals participate in cleaning up their neighborhood after the lootings of June 2nd.

2020-06-02

Fordham students helping in the clean up efforts

Students from Fordham University participate in the community clean up efforts of Fordham Road after the looting.

2020-06-02

Inside of ACELO footwear after the looting

The inside of Bronx Footwear vendor ACELO footwear after it was trashed by looters

2020-06-02

Aftermath of the looting of Good Life Pharmacy in The Bronx

Aerial shot portraying the aftermath of the looting of Good Life Pharmacy in The Bronx

2020-06-02

Morning after the looting of Fordham Road

Images of the state of Fordham Road the morning after it was looted following the start of the protests.

2020-06-02

Volunteers help clean up store fronts on east fordham road.

A group of volunteers participated in cleaning up the aftermath of the looting the morning after Fordham road was ransacked. It was a community effort that took the better part of a day but was ultimately succesful.

2020-06-02

Spray Paint on the wood boarding up stores on Fordham Road

The Spray paint on the boarding wood exemplifies the movement behind the June Protests and shows the creativity of protesters using a canvas created to supposedly protect the store from the looters hidden among the protestors.

2020-06-02

Co Workers pose cleaning up their smashed up storefront on East Fordham Road

Two co-workers pose while sweeping the broken glass that is scattered all around their store after the looting of several stores along Fordham Road as an unfortunate side effect of the George Floyd Civil Rights protests.

2020-05-12

Making this Moment in Time: My Covid-19 Reality

This is my story and my truth regarding my moment in time in my new Covid-19 reality. This story was originally done in May 2020 on behalf of a contest I entered for the Bronx Community College Spoken Word Club. It expresses what I was feeling and going through during that exact time at the height of the pandemic.

2020-06

Finding Beauty in a COVID World: Running Alongside the Locked Up Botanical Garden

The New York Botanical Garden happens to be near where I reside in the Bronx. Every summer and spring my friends and I plan a few trips to this lovely place to experience all of the natural beauty of the garden. However, this year however, the “Botans,” as we like to call it, was closed for the entirety of the spring and a large chunk of summer due to the pandemic. I believe they are just now, in early August, starting to open with limited capacity. I decided to capture this photo on my run to illustrate how the garden’s beauty is able to penetrate the surrounding community even from outside the gates. You can see the lavender peeking up over the gate and we were able to take a look inside through the openings of the fence to appreciate the park’s beauty. My mask reads “New York Strong.”

2020-06

Political Activism in the Midst of a Pandemic: Aftermath of the Looting in the Bronx

I took this particular photo because I found it interesting that these already struggling, local shops were looted and were tied to the protests by the media. I did not feel as though these specific actions were tied to the protests however, I do see looting as a valid form of protest when they are targeting big/chain brands and businesses. It was sad to see my neighborhood in this condition. These photos were taken in early June 2020.

2020-08-16

A Lucky Star Adventure

Victoria Lee-Brewer Professor Dominguez Politics in a Global Pandemic 08/15/2020 Moakley Visual Memory: New York I went to New York for a day, which not only showed me how serious some states are taking this but how officials in certain states are not enforcing some of the policies causing more problems. From the Boston Lucky Star Train terminal, is where I started my adventure to Manhattan, New York. As we got on board, they checked our temperatures I noticed the mandatory mask wearing sign on our way there inside of the bus but not on the way back. I stayed at the Courtyard Marriot in Midtown Manhattan on 34th street which not only had the best stores but the best sales as well. As I walked down the strip shopping with my boyfriend we notice, how all of the police officers are not wearing a mask while 75% of the civilians had on a mask. Which creates answers to questions like, why is the virus still spreading? Officials are not following the CDC and Health guidelines themselves, which explains why the spread in New York is continuous. I even rode the train to the Bronx and observed how Hospitals are not making sure their Sanitizers are staying full and officers once again were not wearing a protective face mask. Why should the citizens in New York wear a mask if the officers are not going to? Police officers are supposed to set examples and protect the public, instead they seem like a danger to public health.

2020-03-28

Trash Can

Each day during the height of the horror of living in the epicenter I'd allow myself 1 walk, strategically timed to avoid as many people as possible. No matter how abstract the imagery the pandemic seems to intrude, in this photograph in the from of an out of focus figure in a mask.