Sheila Arellano
Josema Zamorano.
Liberal Studies & Spanish Language and Culture.
LBST 391.

At the start of this tutorial, I had chosen too many topics to focus on and numerous Mexican indigenous cultures to explore, which dispersed my attention from the story. As the semester went on, however, I found that focusing on one topic would be more fruitful than working on too many elements of my story at once. When I found the stories in the readings, such as Chilam Balam and the articles on the Zapatista movement, I was inspired to take it slow and learn with patience. These resources taught me to narrow down my research and not want to take on all the work at once. At times, I found myself becoming impatient, but I had to remind myself that learning is a process and that stories take time to conceive. The interplay between the selected Program Learning Outcomes and the identified Tutorial Learning Outcomes became a battle between the vastness of Mexican culture and the task of choosing a path to follow within that grand vastness.

Before beginning this tutorial, I did not intend on basing my story on the Zapatista movement, or researching the topic in detail; yet, in the end, the story unveiled itself. The symbolism of various elements in my story was unexpected as well, such as the dogs and the historical cites. The difficulty of weaving research and fiction was another challenge I had to overcome since I always thought this task would be easy, but I was wrong. Weaving research with fiction and magical realism was not an easy endeavour. Nevertheless, I was pleased I was able to write down an outline for my graphic novel at the end of this tutorial. On each section, I color coded the information and the research I was planning on weaving into each story block. This outline was a happy surprise, as it will aid me in moving forward toward my graduating project.

The research methods selected in this Tutorial were suitable. The selected readings truly expanded my knowledge about my own culture and about my ability to learn as well. It opened my eyes to the grand amount of resources available for me to choose from. It is amazing to see how small my mind became before the vast knowledge of the Mexican culture. Picking what to research was daunting, though the research methods chosen were easy to work with and beneficial for exploring the numerous facets of Mexican culture and heritage. This semester has been one permeated with discovery, which has brought my creativity and inspiration to fruition. It has also led me to focus my energy and create a project that is more and more chiseled and specific as time passes by. My first two tutorials were research-based tutorials, while my third tutorial will be a stepping-stone towards my graduating project. In my third tutorial, I will create a script for my graphic novel. With a script, I will be able to start sketching and editing my final graphic novel, which will be the first stage towards completing my graduating project. Throughout the summer, I will refine the parameters of my story and focus of my Graduating Project by exploring different drawing styles and storytelling techniques.