Sarita's Site

and internet dust collector

A few encapsulating words: Human rights. Decency of life. Knowledge and Education. Multiplicity of consciousness. Power in words. Cries of the silenced...and the list is infinite.

I love everything theater, I love literature like Shakespeare and Borges, I enjoy photography, graphic design, computers and other electronics. I love the outdoors, I enjoy taking risks when I can afford to, I like to keep myself busy and involved, and my boyfriend is my best friend in everything I do. As for my parents, I can only say that it is an injustice that I am the only person in this world who was given the honor of being their daughter. From the core of my soul, everything I do is driven by an infinitely growing appreciation for these two wondrous human benigs. I have no more words to describe them, only tears of passion.

I cannot fully describe myself in an 'about me' section, so I try to make my website reflect my persona as much as possible...through words, images, concepts, and more. Thanks for visiting.

I am an Argentine-American, and I have no country.

I think of myself as a Latina, but I consider that identity one that is given to me; one that I must accept out of negation. What does it mean to be Latina? My parents are immigrants from Argentina, most of my family resides there, and my language and culture is Argentine--but I was not born there. Argentina is not my country. I am a United States citizen--but as a child of immigrants, I am always an outsider within, and my parents will always be second-class citizens. I was born here, I live here, yet the blood running through my veins comes from another place. The United States is not my country.

I am torn by a dash, I am not really Argentinean, nor am I U.S. "American." Yet somehow I am Latina? My identity is that dash hovering in the middle, never grounded. I am that which divides me, I am pieced together, but never whole. I am that dash that simultaneously unites and separates the two pieces of me, never allowing me to set foot on ground.

I have no ground to root myself in, and so I am incapable of contemplating a homeland or tracing an origin. I can only root myself in my present. I root myself in my people. My people are any people whose voices are silenced, whose rights are denied, whose minds are conscious, and whose souls are vibrant. With them, I am at home. Everything I do is for them. I am working hard at Berkeley for them; going to law school for them; volunteering my extra time for them; writing in my blog for them...I am pushing myself to never stop learning, never stop loving, never stop caring, FOR THEM. I don't need a country to do these things. A country would only tie me down, trap me within manufactured boundaries and restrict the extent of my far-reaching passions.

Gloria Anzaldúa's concept of mestiza consciousness and Donna Harraway's myth of the cyborg are among some of my major influences in how I shape the way I think about myself.

I send my love to any relatives out there! My email is rhetoricalrose@yahoo.com! ¡Un beso para mis familiares y que sepan que los quiero mucho! Si mi quieren encontrar, mi email es rhetoricalrose@yahoo.com.

I am now in my third year of college at the University of California, Berkely. I am a major in Rhetoric (see below) and minor in Ethnic Studies. I plan to attend law school and my interests are in public policies affecting immigrants, public schooling, and other civil rights issues affecting the poor and/or people of color in the U.S. My latest project has been working on a book with an ex-professor which will compile the writings of some students, from a local continuation high school, about racism in schools. I have been volunteering at this high school for over a year now and I have become very passionate about the students there. I am also passionately involved at a local sanctuary for asylum seekers fleeing persecution, where I help provide legal services, translate documents, and serve as an interpreter. In summer 2007, I interned at the Applied Research Center in Oakland, where I became involved with Racewire, the Colorlines Magazine online blog. It was this blog that helped me develop a new passion for blogging, which I now indulge in during my free time. Some of my experiences involve having worked with ACCESS in San Diego, a non-profit organization that serves immigrant women and their children attain legal status under the Violence Against Women Act. I have been involved greatly with UNICEF on campus, and I also volunteered for a while at Centro Legal de la Raza, a local legal clinic for low-income immigrants.

Why Rhetoric? Near the end of my very first semester at Berkeley I went over to my boyfriend's place and I told him and his roommate that I felt that my R1A class (English/writing requirement) was too easy and high-schoolish. I told them I wanted a challenge. Both of them immediately agreed that the Rhetoric department offers the most challenging classes in the English/writing area and then proceeded to describe it as a boring and overwhelming subject. My boyfriend is a Legal Studies major, and his roommate a double major in Business and Economics, so they just had different tastes and did not like the style of the Rhetoric department. To their surprise, however, I did not take their suggestions as a deterrant but rather as an invitation to finish the last half of my requirement under Rhetoric. At the end of my second semester--the end of my first year at Cal--I was in heaven. I was challenged in ways that I had never believed I could be challenged, and I excelld in the class. Ever since then I have been a passionate Rhetoric major. I never know how to describe what the major is, which is justified in that Rhetoric does not seek definitions nor does it believe in boundaries. Rhetoric must not be defined, it must be performed, experienced, and enveloped. Rhetoric is my life.

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