by Daniel Dominguez & Alicia Hamar
We are proud to announce the return of El Aguila after a nearly 9 month interlude. We have faced many obstacles on our way to delivering these words to you but like a phoenix from the ashes we rise again. Beginning as the newspaper wing of Stanford’s Movimiento Estudiantil Chican@ de Aztlán (MEChA), El Aguila provided a voice to the Chican@ activists at the time until its mysterious demise two decades ago and gave a voice to the comunidad. Two years ago, El Aguila was revived by our predecessors in the Editors-in-Chief position and we are proud to carry forward the torch they reignited.
El Aguila logo
As El Aguila enters its third year, we are ushering in a wide range of new developments including our first official officer change. More than half of our current staff members are either new to the publication or assuming new roles within El Aguila. This influx of new voices and ideas has brought about many changes that we are looking forward to implementing. We miss those seniors who had to take their inevitable departure from Stanford and El Aguila but wish them the best and will carry forward the legacy they helped us build.
Furthermore, we are excited to announce that this edition of El Aguila has gone digital! This was a decision that the whole staff wrestled with yet we agreed that in our rapid digital age an online platform would be the best way to fulfill our promise to our readers of always providing them with the most up-to-date developments about the comunidad on campus and around the world. We feel that this will ensure that the voices of those who preceded and fought for us will continue to be heard. We hope to roll out new surprises online this coming quarter so stay tuned!
We are proud to present El Aguila’s first creative issue and its first completely submission based publication. Deciding to step back for a moment from our past endeavors in journalism we instead sought out the voices of our community. El Aguila is first and foremost a publication dedicated to giving a voice to the Latin@ and Chican@ community on campus and providing an outlet for all those who wish to share their voice.
We saw a formidable number of contributions ranging from visual art to poetry to research pieces to photography. We were deeply moved by the genuine emotion and thought that characterized them. We also chose to highlight those voices which surround the spaces we inhabit by choosing to use the murals in El Centro Chicano on our front and back covers.
The poetry in this issue covers a broad range and we are proud to showcase all these talented writers. The poems range from the concise yet moving to the expansive and thought-provoking, from English and Spanish, from traditional forms to imaginative ones, and from passionate love to capitalist critiques. We hope that you enjoy reading them as much as we did selecting them.
Our visual submissions range from the wide open and emancipating plains of a Chilean Flamingo Reserve to the suffocating knowledge of Borgesian libraries.
Two of our longer research-based submissions focus on what it means to be Latin@ in today’s society and zoom in on questions of our own identity. Our third piece highlights the incredible work being done by medical professionals in Mexico and reinforces the idea that no matter where we come from we are never so different that we cannot offer a lending hand to others. We encourage you to read them closely and ponder the questions they raise.
As always we hope you enjoy the contents within and wish you a happy end of quarter! Be sure to keep an eye out for our continued posts on our website http://stanfordelaguila.com.
¡Acuérdense-Pro captu lectoris habent sua fata libelli!
Alicia Hamar is a junior studying Science, Technology, & Society with a Biotechnology focus. She has explored her passion for life sciences through medical research and has developed her skill of communicating social issues through her work at The Business Journal and as Co-editor-in-chief of El Aguila. She hopes to one day stand at the intersection of science and business.
Daniel Dominguez is an undergraduate student pursuing a degree in Comparative Literature, focusing on Modernist literature from the early 20th century. He was born and raised in Las Vegas, NV and writes on topics of art, religion, the place of Latin@’s in society. He also writes creatively.
