Migration, a Natural Process
Jazmin Jimenez
Restoring a Family Portrait
On the left, I have a caricature portrait of my parents and me that we had done at the South Florida Fair in January 2021. I recently discovered that my mom had stored the original, physical copy, and it is now ruined. Luckily, I had a photo of it, though it isn’t perfect. This assignment was the perfect moment for me to edit it into the photo on the right. I had to crop the photo, eliminating the excess around the art piece and making it look almost as great as the original. We might not have the physical copy, but now the art is, in a way, digitally preserved for my family to keep. I also auto-edited the image to make the colors pop out better, since the picture of the portrait was taken a few phones ago, and the quality wasn’t great either. There was no need to apply the golden rule, since the aim was to create a digital archive of a damaged portrait. This was achieved by cropping out the area outside the portrait and brightening the colors that were less vibrant than the original.
Home Is Where the Cane Is
Burning Cane by Gerald McCollam. Photo is licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC 2.0
Acoustic Meditation by Jason Shaw (AudionautiX.com). Song is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution: CC BY 4.0
Home is where the cane is. Oftentimes, I have found myself going out of town and realizing the immediate sense of comfort upon returning to my hometown. The smell of sugar cane, the sounds of the semi trucks, and the miles of sugar cane fields all provide a country aesthetic.
Seeing pictures of sugar cane burning reminds me of the rich history, culture, and tradition in my community. It reminds me of unity, struggles, and strives. It also reminds me of what an agricultural community’s history, present, and future.
I was conflicted about whether to include a dramatic, alarming song to reflect the effects of burning sugar cane and how it might be perceived at first glance, but decided to present it differently. I instead present it with a sense of calm and hope.
The photo can be of winter and cozy days in the country. While, at first glance, a photo of something in nature burning might be alarming, I chose to add a calm folk song to shift the feelings toward a reflection on the process of sugar cane harvesting and agriculture. I hope others can relate to the culture in their own hometowns or get a glimpse into the country.
Home Is Where the Cane Is by Jazmin Jimenez. Licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
This work is a derivative of IMG_9945 by Gerald McCollam, licensed under Creative Commons: CC BY-NC 2.0 & Acoustic Meditation by Jason Shaw (AudionautiX) licensed under Creative Commons Attribution: CC BY 4.0
Both works used were combined to complement each other for a class assignment. IMG_9945 was renamed to “Burning Cane” to better explain the photo, and the song Acoustic Meditation was compressed using OnlineConverter.com to meet the audio upload requirements.
Hello, Jazmin Here!
Hello, everyone! My name is Jazmin Jimenez. I live in Pahokee, Florida. I am currently working toward my Master of Science in Information. I work full-time at the library in my hometown, where I serve as the Children and Teens Specialist. I love connecting with the kids who come by, providing the essentials of a library, building bonds with my community, and being there when they need me. My favorite part of my job is programming. Lately, I have been loving creating arts and crafts with the kids that we display around the library.
I also work part-time at BRIDGES at Pahokee, a resource center. I am learning that they do so much more in the community than I previously knew! They provide dozens of resources for new parents, children in schools, and the community at large.
A hobby I have been loving lately is journaling! I have been using a Hobonichi Weeks journal, and it has been really fun. Looking through everyone’s posts, I see a few of us journal, enjoy vlogging, and take pictures! That is so exciting! I have been loving collecting all things stationery, writing about my day, using my endless sticker collection, making lists, writing about the books I’m reading, and gluing pictures of my family and friends. I have also been loving going to the movies! The entire class interests me, as this year I hope to be more comfortable with technology, specifically videos. I hope to gain more knowledge of digital media tools to become more tech-savvy and more comfortable using different resources.