The participating students of our art camp from Sarita Elementary School produced this stop animation video. If the storyline seems a little misguided it is only because our participatory process produced these results.
What you're seeing is a narrative composed from many different stories merged into one.
I asked each student to draw out their own storyboards each with an original story from their memories.
Each student produced his or her own original storyline. This group had many children with diverse talents however they collectively decided on this final narrative for the video.
The process was very democratic and I made sure to engage with each and every one of them. This art camp student group’s age ranged from 6 years old to the age of 12.
The challenge was to get this very diverse group of students to create only one stop animation video from all the storyboards.
This group introduced ideas about bike riding while you play baseball in a farm where long horns invade the play space. Then some off road vehicles replace what originally were horses, or donkeys. I edited all the pieces on final cut and taught a short workshop on how to do it on iMovie. We only had four hours with the children each day but my assistants, Barraza and I worked until the wee hours of the night trying to move the project along for the next time we worked with the students.
The children of Sarita are very aware of their specific cultural environment. Sarita, Texas belongs to what used to be the "Kenedy" Ranch. The town is named after the daughter of a famous rancher. The children of Sarita tend to work in the Kenedy Ranch during the summers and at their young age know how to take care of farm animals. The reason why you see so many animals and stories about horses and snakes is because this is what they find very funny. They had stories about every kind of animal you can imagine. It was so refreshing to learn that they celebrate the life of animals just as much as that of a human.
I learned so much about "South Texas", Kingsville, "los Kenedeños vs. the Kingeños" from locals and especially Santa Barraza who she herself was a child raised in Sarita, Texas.
The program ended with a bang. We contacted the director of the
Kenedy Ranch Museum and begged Homer Vera to allow us to screen our films there. We had a wonderful turnout from parents and community members anxious to see the work the El Tigre Art Camp students from Sarita Texas. I produced the DVD and Video Art Camp with the help of Santa, the assistants and our Sarita Elementary School liason and 4th grade teacher, Joe Silguero.
