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Cindy Pinedo-Hernandez

J. Snyder

Cindy Pinedo-Hernandez Capstone Rough Draft 2023

10 April 2023

You Need To Get Creative

Intro: Since Childhood were often subjected to the discussion of what we want to be in

the future. Everytime that someone would ask me the question “What do you want to be

in the future?” I would always have a different response, I want to be the lawyer, I want

to be the president of the U.S, I want to be a math professor, or even I want to be an

accountant. All of these responses were in careers that are respectable and stable. But

I’ve always wanted to be an independent artist, this has evolved to wanting to be a book

illustrator. Although it’s not the most stable career path it is what I am most interested in.

There are so many stories that need to be told, so many people's stories that aren’t

getting the attention that they deserve. I want to be able to give a voice to those who

can't speak for themselves.

Bio:

About me and my life, I am a first generation Mexican-American, I was born in Grand

Rapids Michigan on April,22, 2005 to my parents Irma Hernandez and Alejandro

Pinedo. I am the eldest of my two full siblings and the middle child with my half siblings.

I have lived most of my life in the Grand Rapids and Wyoming area. Throughout my

childhood I never felt like I was enough on either side of my identity. I was never fully

American because I live in a Mexican household, I never saw the movies that my

American friends saw, I rarely had the food that they ate, I didn’t even read the books
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that they read outside of school. My parents have very limited english vocabulary so it

just wasn’t possible for them to help me with daily reading back then. And since their

jobs dont pay them well because of their document status they had to work longer shifts

to provide for me and my siblings. So even if I wanted to read with them and translate

the words into Spanish they rarely had the time to do so. I use to/still wish that I grew up

in a household where everyone spoke the same language and I feel ashamed for

feeling this way. My parents sacrifice so much to come to this country, my mom left her

kids behind, so for me to feel this way is horrible. In fifth grade I started to ask my

parents to buy me books, mainly the Dork Diaries series. I would live vicariously through

Nicki and her family. She was able to talk to her parents without language barriers and

her family did activities that most American families would do. On the other hand I never

felt like I was Mexican enough for others. This might be because school forces us to

only think in english. From 1st grade and above I was forced to primarily speak English.

This could be another factor as to why I wish my parents and I spoke the same

language. I never cared for the social aspect of Mexican culture. I understand why it's

so important to the culture but I just can't connect with it. I hated the loud music at

parties or on the car rides to school. I hated how you were expected to forgive someone

simply because they are family. I couldn’t stand the idea of living at my parents house

into my 20’s or living close to them. At one point I despised my parents, why did I have

to be their translator, why did I have to take care of my siblings when I couldn’t even

take care of myself, why did they expect me to marry a man and obey his every wish.

As I grew older I started to appreciate my culture more, although I still don’t enjoy most

of the things that I listed off. I do find that I miss the car rides with the music in the
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morning, now I walk and listen to my own thoughts, I miss how much fun those parties

were. The way that me and my cousins would run around for hours while the adults

would cook food and prepare the piñata, the song that they would sing while it was your

turn to hit the piñata. I understand now why family was forgiven so easily, because

sometimes that's all they had. I don't agree with it but I understand it. I love the songs

that were correlated to the games we would play. I now have a greater picture of my

parents' traumas, the suffering that they went through during childhood, how they didn’t

have one because they'd have to work at young ages to help provide for their families.

My mom wasn’t able to continue her education because her family didn’t have the

money for it. People here wouldn’t assume that she's smart because she works in a

factory but back in Mexico she was offered an office position in her town. She was the

top of her class until she had to stop due to financial issues. My dad only made it up to

elementary school until he had to drop out because of financial issues. Even with his

lack of education he teaches himself new things every day. If he doesn’t understand

something he’ll look it up and research it until he figures it out.

This is all to say that I now admire my parents for what they've through and for

persevering. They're hard work makes me want to push forward. I have to make their

efforts worth something. If I do nothing with my life then they left their family for nothing.

Identity has been such an issue for me because I rarely see people like me in the media

“The researchers analyzed 139 films with the highest gross global ticket receipts of

2018. They found that 41.0% of lead roles went to women and 26.6% to Minorities”

(newsroom.ucla.edu) This has ultimately made me want to go into storytelling, I had

always been unsure of what I wanted to do for my future. This uncertainty had always
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come from fear of instability, my parents didn’t make much money when I was little, they

still don’t have too much income. I don’t want to have this financial struggle so I always

looked into careers that would keep me financially secure. But I knew that these career

paths wouldn’t make me happy, and the art scene is seeming to grow and expand.

“Overall employment of craft and fine artists is projected to grow 6 percent from 2021 to

2031, about as fast as the average for all occupations.”(Bls.gov) This makes me feel

more secure in my decision. Uhhhhh I need a transition into the future goals 😭

Future Goals: I hope to go to College of Creative Studies, it is a school that specializes

in art close enough to me. They have a good program for illustration and animation.

After graduating id like to work for a bit while doing art during my free time. I would

slowly start building up an audience of people who like the art that I post. I will work on

my story at the same time, slowly but surely ill release bits and pieces of my story. Once

I have a good enough fan base ill release my story on Webtoon or Tappa until I feel im

at a place where I can find a publisher to get physical copies of my story. Besides my

art goals id like to live in a small apartment or home. This wont be until after I move out

once I graduate. I want to start taking testosterone and saving up for gender affirming

surgery, mainly chest surgery. I want to have a stable source of income before going to

deep into my book.

Route/path:I will attend College for Creative Studies, I will make connections with
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classmates and professors to get a job in the industry as I work on building my story. I

will make different social media accounts to build an audience who would enjoy my

work. Once theres enough of them ill release my story on sites like Webtoon and

Tappas, on there I can gain more of an audience until I have enough money and

influence to get my own publisher in order to release a physical copy.

Conclusion: To conclude I believe that book illustrating is the career path that I'd like to

pursue. Although it may not be the most stable career path it is something that I am

passionate about because everyone deserves to have a role model in the media. So

many stories need to be told, I know that many people like my parents don’t often have

the resources to tell their tails due to language barriers or financial setbacks. But

America needs to see how undocumented immigrants are treated, they support a large

part of America so people need to see how mistreated they are.

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Works Cited

“Craft and Fine Artists : Occupational Outlook Handbook.” U.S. Bureau of Labor

Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 8 Sept. 2022,

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/arts-and-design/craft-and-fine-artists.htm.

Wolf, Jessica. “2020 Hollywood Diversity Report: A Different Story behind the

Scenes.” UCLA, UCLA, 22 Oct. 2020, https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/2020-

hollywood-diversity-report.