"I stand with Emma" is a digital image created in 2018 by Los Angeles-based artist Lalo Alcaraz.
He was finalist with a pulitzer prize as an editorial cartoonist. He's most well known for
his syndicated cartoon strip "la cucaracha". Lalo Alcaraz has this history of reacting to
major news events. On february 14 2018, 17 people were murdered at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high
school in Parkland, Florida. And then on February 17th Emma Gonzalez gives the impassioned "We call
BS" speech. The following day Lalo Alcaraz shares the "I stand with Emma" image to all of his social
media platforms and his personal website, because he wanted to support the cause immediately.
Originally it did not exist in an object form so Lalo Alcaraz created this using
digital tablets and image editing software. The Never Again movement is a student-led
organization that was created by the survivors from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas
shooting and they're really a large group of people. I think he chose Emma Gonzales
because she does have a very iconic look. You see her from afar because of her shaved head.
She does stand out. Even though she has this very unique style, she is really more of a symbol of
a youth movement. There's this connotation of generation z or gen z being very active,
and that's true, but there's also a legacy of teenage activists going back to, for example, 1955
with Claudette Colvin. She was someone who was challenging the bus segregation laws. Or in 1968
the east L.A.Chicano walkouts or the blowouts were part of the student movement for better education
in the public schools. Emma is a legacy of student activist someone who knows that oppression is
ageless. No matter what age you are, legislation can affect you and you can also react and demand
a change to that. And even within the "We call BS" speech Emma Gonzalez mentions high school classes;
she calls herself a kid and other people who are survivors kids, so that's why then the hashtag is
#standwiththe kids because it's very much about showing her age but also showing the maturity
despite her age. So usually you see hashtags affixed to captions for example on social media.
What's interesting about Lalo affixing this to the actual composition is that it really showcases
creating a community or a digital allyship. The red and black really remind me of the united
farm workers movement color palettes. It's definitely this connotation with,
it's like labor activism. It's meant to be very bold and striking and to catch your attention
so that you can affix yourself to Emma Gonzalez and her advocacy when you're wielding
this poster in a protest. "I stand with Emma" is part of a legacy of portraiture
that chicano artists constantly come back to because they're often reclaiming the image
of someone within their community or oftentimes someone they want to make sure is remembered,
quite simply. So Lalo Alcaraz is really interesting because he doesn't put Emma's
full name. He just puts "I stand with Emma" and it reminds me very similarly of Barbara
Carrasco's "Dolores" screen print from 1999 where she just puts "Dolores" in hopes that this person
should be renowned enough and remembered enough to where you know them by their first
name .So "I stand with Emma" really thrust her into this historiography of change makers.
What's interesting is that instead of a man or heteronormative family, a woman, a queer woman,
is this symbol for change. It's a young woman, that's going to guide us to a better tomorrow.