Brandon Clark

Emily Dibble
Humanities 1100 Fall 2015
MW 5:30-6:50 pm
Signature Assignment Explanation
I chose to do my signature assignment for Humanities 1100 on my friend
Santiago. Around two years ago, I started learning Spanish. At the beginning of
the semester, I noticed there were a few Hispanics in my Communications 1020
class. I conversed with each of them in Spanish and told them I enjoy the Latin
culture. Of the Hispanics in my Communications 1020 class, Santiago seemed to be
the one who had difficulty speaking English. I offered to help him revise his written
speeches and prepare PowerPoint presentations. Over the course of the semester,
we spent time together working on homework and ate out a few restaurants
together. Santiago told me a little bit about himself; however, there was much I was
still curious about. I wanted to understand more about his personal struggles, and
search for happiness. In preparation for this assignment, I asked Santiago in
November if I could interview him about his immigration to America. In the
interview, Santiago explained his journey from Guatemala to Texas and his lengthy
wait to arrive to Utah (Mendez).1
After interviewing Santiago, I decided the themes from humanities which
pertain to Santiagos story include, Happiness and the Good Life, Identity, Privilege,
and Inequalities. In my project, I decided to depict the countries and states
Santiago lived in from 2011-2012. In each country and state is drawn its correlating
flag. I incorporated the flags because a country or states flag oftentimes
represents independence or liberty from other countries, states, or entities.
1 I credit Santiagos story to the interview held on November 4 th

Likewise, Santiago immigrated to the United States in order to pursue happiness,

which was not available to him in Guatemala. I researched experiences of Central
American natives; I found information on Frida Kahlo. The popular band, Coldplay,
made it known to have made their song Viva la Vida, after one of Firda Kahlos
artworks (Serpick). Similar to Santiago, Kahlo experience injustice in her
relationships and physical abuse.
I drew bananas and an arm holding a beer bottle in the picture of Guatemala.
Each of those items represent sources of inequality which Santiago dealt with in his
home country. At a young age, Santiago was put to work selling bananas every day.
Each week, he was required to work more than seventy hours in order to earn
wages to live. In his teenage years, Santiagos mother and father divorced. His
father remarried and experienced physical abuse from his step-mother. I drew the
alcohol representing the beer Santiagos stepmother drank. She would physically
beat him and starve him for several days at a time.
The picture of Mexico represents Santiagos journey away from home. In
November of 2011, and at the age of seventeen, Santiago decided to run away from
home to pursue a better life. Over the period of three weeks, Santiago prepared
himself to journey with other immigrants. In Spanish, the slang terms coyotes or
polleros, are used for the guides who help immigrants cross the border illegally. The
term literally translate to mean coyotes or poulterer. I decided to draw a chicken
and coyote with foot prints in order to represent the coyotes and polleros.
Immigrants go through extraneous and sometimes dangerous measures to cross the
US border (coyotes modernos). Santiago stayed in Mexico for about a month in a
dangerous city called Reynosa, near the border of Texas. In December of 2012, the

immigration guides took him and a group of immigrants across the US border
illegally.
In the picture of Texas, I drew a police car. The police car represents the
justice Santiago faced when he crossed the Mexican-United States border. About
three days after crossing the border, the coyotes abandoned Santiago, and he
decided it was best to turn himself in.
Immigration filed a juvenile case for Santiago because he was under eighteen
at the time. Santiagos case was reviewed and he was granted legal citizenship.
After six months in a teenager-care-center, Santiagos lawyer arranged for foster
care with a family in Utah. Santiago moved to Utah in 2012 and started attending
high school and working to become independent.
I only explained the surface of Santiagos story. My signature assignment
demonstrates the inequalities Santiago experienced in Guatemala. Importantly, I
desire to demonstrate Santiagos search for happiness through the American Dream
in my drawing. I learned some of Santiagos identity by getting to know him this
semester at Salt Lake Community College; I hope to learn from and familiarize
myself with people from different backgrounds and cultures such as Santiago.

Works Cited
AnonMoos. Alternate Texas flag map. 2011. Web. 2 Dec. 2015.
Coyotes Modernos. Univision San Diego, 2012. Web. Youtube. 16 Dec. 2015.
Darwinick. Flag-map of Utah. 2012. Web. 2 Dec. 2015.
Fry1989, Denelson83, and Vxb83. Flag map of Guatemala. 2011. Web. 2 Dec. 2015.

Mendez, Santiago C. Personal interview. 5 Nov. 2015.

Serpick, Evan. "Rolling Stone Exclusive: Coldplay's New Album Title
Revealed." Rolling Stone 18 Mar.
2008. Web. 2015.
Vector-Clip-Art Mexico Flag 071511. 2011. Web. 16 Dec. 2015.