Introduction by Reyna Muñoz, Faculty Fellow:

I had first met Ana, a timid nursing student at Rio Grande campus a few years ago. She took an introductory English course with me then, but almost immediately I saw in her a love for reading and writing which she confessed was one of her biggest pastimes. It was apparent, though, that this was not just a pastime for her, but something she was passionate about and actually good at.

For my second year with The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP, I began an exciting new research project with El Paso Community College professor Zaira Crisafulli, and Humanities Collaborative Undergraduate Research Fellow Aylin Garcia. Our project focuses on investigating angels and demons as they appear in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.  Our exploration includes these religions’ holy books, folklore, and contemporary literature. 

Introduction by Professor Muñoz: 

At this stage in our project, our team has brainstormed what we feel are some of the most effective and feasible ways to reach out to our community during the pandemic. We have maintained our goals to highlight what we think makes our border unique, beautiful, and our own. In this month’s blog, Undergraduate Research Fellow Mikhail Atayde discusses what he expects to contribute to our overall project goals, what interests and excites him about the project, and what he hopes the community will gain once it is all said and done. 

Ever since I was a child, my family and I have always been very religious. Growing up in the religion of Catholicism, I experienced the strictness of church early Sunday morning, followed by religious classes right after for the children, classes that were intended to help the child grow a closer connection with God and the Church, as well as better understanding of the Bible. As a child, I always wondered where the somewhat-cartoonish stories they told us in these religious classes came from. 

Mid-way through the 2020 fall semester in El Paso, Texas, the number of people hospitalized with Covid-19 has more than tripled. The dire situation has forced doctors at nearby University Medical Center to airlift some patients to hospitals as far away as Houston and to transform the downtown El Paso Convention Center to an emergency health care facility. The most repeated advice for the past months has continued to be to wear a mask and wash your hands to not only protect yourself, but to protect others in the community. Despite these simple measures being promoted constantly, the recent spike of COVID-19 patients in the region demonstrates our failure to take these and other measures seriously.