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Jacci Sanchez

Professor Mejia

CAS 115

05 October 2017

Equality is all we want

Many women think the way society treats them is fine. They are okay with what is

thrown at them because it's an "exception" and "blessing" for what they are given by men

without even taking in count that they deserve it because they earned it. Luckily, there are

women who are willing to speak up for the rest of them who aren't willingly enough to think for

themselves or are scared of being discriminated by speaking up. It’s about time that we reshape

our own perception of how we view ourselves. We have to step up as women and take the lead,

just as Beyoncé said. Women have been fighting multiple stereotypes thrown at them such as

having to look a certain way and act in a certain manner to be womanly "enough." Bandera

Negra makes a connection to Yerli's untitled painting from Grafiteras y Muralistas en America

Latina by Cassandra and Guicks Grafiteras by showing women empowerment through

feminism.

Bandera Negra is a song rapped by Rebeca Lane. Before going into detail on Bandera

Negra, we're going to speak about Rebeca Lane. Rebeca Lane is a rap feminist and anarquista

who is from Guatemala. Her feminism was influenced by her aunt Rebeca Eunice Vargas

Braghiroli. She was la guerillera and poet who was detained and disappeared by the Guatemalan

Army around the end of the Civil War in Guatemala in 1981. The disappearance of her aunt

caused a deep cut into her life which led onto the singer looking into rescuing the historic

memory of her country through rap. With this being said, this is what triggered her feminism to
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grow. Now let's talk about Bandera Negra. Bandera Negra is a song which talks about feminism

such as in the lyric "En esta vida y en la anterior soy guerillera. Me matan pero vuelvo a nacer

en esta tierra." Which in other words means that she's not here to give up but to put up a fight for

what she believes in because she's a fighter. Further into the song Rebeca says "me gusta verme

guapa cuando canto en el micro" which means that she does not dress to impress men but to

make herself feel good about it. Not everything is about men. Another interesting lyric is "Soy

luz y oscuridad." Which means that as a women it can go both ways in either a positive, good

way or evil, negative way. Besides the word context the visual context is also strong. The music

clip shows women dressed in all black. The women being dressed in black represents rage. Their

rage means that they are not giving up regardless of the circumstances because even if they die

they will come back to life because that's what fighters do. Another thing is the age of the

women ranging in between ALL ages from kids to elderly women. That means that this fight

with equality has been going on for as long as one can remember. Another thing from the clip is

that most women have piercings which means that just because they have piercings on their face

or body it does not mean that they aren't woman or lady-like. The biggest thing of all is the

repetitive anarchy symbol on black flags. In general, anarchy the condition of a society, entity,

group of people, or a single person that rejects hierarchy But in this case anarchy or in other

words the anarquistas are people who are against any type of negativity that is put upon this

world such as them trying to cleanse the earth from discrimination or inequality. Overall, the

whole setting of women being together united as one agreeing with what Rebeca raps tells you

that they won't take what is being thrown at them but that they will show the world how strong

they are regardless of their appearances because they're guerilleras and are much more than just

real women.
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Yerli's untitled painting shown above in Grafiteras y Muralistas en America Latina by

Cassandra & Guiks Grafiteras shows a woman next to an owl. Before going into detail with the

painting let's talk about Yerli. Yerli is a female from San Salvador, El Salvador. When street art

comes to her mind she thinks you should only involve yourself in it if that's something you're

actually interested in. If it’s something you're simply doing to impress someone else then you

should let go of it because you won't get anywhere. Enough about Yerli, let's go onto her untitled

painting on page 45 of Grafiteras y Muralistas en America Latina. The untitled painting portrays

a woman and an owl just as I've mentioned before. The woman has a caramel skin tone with

black hair and a flower as a hair accessory. Her hair accessory may portray feminism, anyway,

her face expression is serious which automatically comes to assume that she's all about business,
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that she isn't joking about who she is. The owl has brown feathers and looks just like any other

ordinary owl. The only difference on this owl is that it has flower prints on its neck/chest. Once

more, the flower prints can show a sign of feminism. Besides that, what drew my attention to

believe that this image portrays women empowerment is the fact that it’s a woman and a bird

next to each other. It is found rather eye catching because why should they be next to each other?

What’s the purpose? Are they being compared? Well let's take into consideration that Yerli is

mirroring them. The conclusion of them being mirrored as the same being is because of their

identical brown eyes. The reason they are mirrored is because owls are intelligent. Owls are

smart because they have binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers adapted for

silent flight. Yes, I understand that women don't have all those qualities but what they both do

have in common are similar qualities in different ways such as different ways of solving a

problem. Another thing is intelligence. Besides that, the image isn't telling you that the woman is

secretly an owl, what it’s telling you is that they both are quick to detect and act as situations

come across their path.

As it's obvious, Bandera Negra by Rebeca Lane and untitled painting by Yerli both

represent feminism by expressing how powerful women can be. They both focus on showing

how powerful women are through the triggered situations they went through. The intended

audience for the both of them are either young ladies looking for their right path or women who

are doubtful about standing up for themselves. For the women who are doubtful, both Rebeca

and Yerli reassure them that they are intelligent and that they are much more woman than

anybody thinks because every woman is woman enough in their own unique way. They both

present the same purpose, to make women empowerment grow. The overall message is don’t be

sorry for who you are just because sometimes you're told you're not "lady-like", you are lady-like
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because you own up to who you are. Just how Rebeca says in Bandera Negra, the intelligence of

a women can take you wherever you want just as it's shown in the woman mirrored as an owl in

unititled by Yerli.
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Works cited

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HbsZhzRBfg

anarchist

http://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a4056/empowering-female-quotes/

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebeca_Lane

owl characteristics

Grafiteras y Muralistas en America Latina by Cassandra and Guicks Grafiteras