Amelvis Villafane Selfie and 5 Facts

 5 Things About Me: 
I love to read, especially literary fiction.
I am a psych major with the intention to pursue a career in substance abuse counseling or adolescence counseling. 
I am a big fan of musical theatre and music in general. 
I am currently a barista at a cafe and have the intention to work up into higher management until I am finally ready to pursue counseling. 
I tend to be a bit of an overachiever and can over exert myself. 
5 Social Issues
Black and Brown rights
LGBTQ rights
Low income communities lack of resources
Feminism 
Afro-latinx rights and recognition

Lin Manuel Miranda 

Lin Manuel Miranda is from New York and is of Puerto Rican descent. He is a singer, songwriter, playright, actor, rapper, and activist. He is most known for his broadway shows Hamilton and In the Heights, but also created the soundtracks of Vivo, Moana, and Encanto. A lot of Miranda's work put an emphasis on the recognition of Black and brown rights, especially those involving latinx and hispanic community. In the show In the Heights, a song called 96,000 talks about what life would be like for those who live in low income poor communities if they won the lottery. The whole film brings awareness to the latinx community in New York. It talks about issues with immigration being undocumented and holding onto your latin roots during tough times. Below are the lyrics to the most impactful lines in the song. 

"Yo, with ninety-six thousand, I'd finally fix housin'

Give the barrio computers with wireless web browsin'

Your kids are living without a good edu-ma-cation, change the station

Teach them about gentrification, the rent is escalatin' (What?)

The rich are penetratin' (What?)

We pay our corporations

When we should be demonstratin' (What?)

What about immigration? (What?)

Politicians be hating (What?)

Racism in this nation's gone

From latent to blatant! (WOOOH!)

I'll cash my ticket and picket, invest in protest

Never lose my focus 'til the city takes notice

And you know this, man!

I'll never sleep because the ghetto has a million promises for me to keep!"

My intentions were to touch upon a couple of things in my selfie. First thing is to reasonably capture my natural hispanic self. Meaning no straightening my hair, keeping my face bare and not trying to hide any latinx features in my face. Emphasizing my latin features helps show the acts you see regularly in Lin Manuel work. The image shows a bunch of lottery scratch offs, and they represent both the actual lottery tickets in the song, and represents the "What if" questions he asks in the song. The song regularly talks about what each person would desire in life if they had won the lottery. The lottery scratch offs are supposed to be showing little moments of hope each low income person has everytime they buy a lottery ticket. It subtly explains how many black and latina The image is definitely more impactful when you learn that it is also taken in low income housing, in a community very similar to the one Lin Manuel Miranda is speaking about.