In Their Words: Maribel Garcia

Anthropology student Maribel Garcia is the 2016 recipient of the Jeremy Demian Marx for Cultural Anthropology award. The award was  established in 1993 by Alan Marx, M.D., to honor the memory of his son, Jeremy Demian Marx and to provide funding for an outstanding undergraduate paper in cultural anthropology.

Name: Maribel Garcia

Department: Anthropology, Film and Digital Media

What Scholarship did you receive? I received the Jeremy Demian Marx Award.

What graduation year are you? 2016

College: Merrill College Where do you call home? Sun Valley, CA

With all of the choices for college, what made UC Santa Cruz stand out? UC Santa Cruz was my first choice for a university because of its reputation as the alternative UC. UCSC was established as a university where students can work one on one with their professors and focus on their material as opposed to a grade. While I was there all my courses were graded and I did not have as much one on one interaction as I would have liked but initially that appealed to me.

What is your field of focus? My field of focus in anthropology is cultural anthropology.

What do you hope to do once you graduate from UC Santa Cruz? I have already graduated from the university and currently I am working on producing a short ethnographic film about the contemporary cuisines of Mexico and the Philippines and the history of trade and colonization that connects both cultures together.

What is one memorable moment that stands out for you as a student here? During my time here I enjoyed connecting with professor emerita Susan Harding as her work study student. My time with her was rewarding. As her work study student I began by helping her organize her library and prepare bibliographies and later I began coediting her film, Bushwork. I learned from her on a one-to-one basis and gained valuable knowledge and skill.

How will this scholarship impact your academic life /research? With this scholarship I will be able to do fieldwork in Mexico and the Philippines to deepen my understanding of the relationship between both countries and see firsthand what looks like. Without the grant I would not have had enough funds to pursue this research nor the production of the ethnographic film. I will submit the film to local film festivals such as the Watsonville Film Festival in order educate and empower Mexican and Asian American youth.