Altar - Eric fong

Hi, my name is Eric Fong and my Ofrenda is honoring Ana Castillo: Chicana Feminist Fiction Writer. Much like other mediums of art, Fictional storytelling is a great way to bring awareness to the theoretical, social, and historical context of feminist altar making in the borderlands. Castillo’s creation of realistic fiction humanizes the lives of women living on the borderlands. Fiction serves as a great vehicle to create distance from the issue to make stories more readily accepted by viewers. Much like the works of artivism with Maya Jupiter, Castillo uses another form of art – writing – to engage audiences that are unfamiliar and might otherwise not engage with the ideas of Chicana Feminism. She paints the everyday social lives of Chicana Feminist living on the borderlands, she humanizes them in their struggles and triumphs, and she can rid the narrative that women are weak victims to their situation. Castillo’s writing is a great way to understand the importance of altar making as fiction serves a similar goal: provide evidence of one’s’ existence, connects transgenerational communities, and act as a sacred place for contemplation and learning.