Meet the 2023-2024 TFI Interns

My name is Fabianna Fuentes Mosqueda. I am a Queensborough Community College graduate with a major in Digital Art & Design and a current Hunter College transfer student. I am pursuing Studio Art as a major and Film as a minor. My name might be a hint to the fact that I am from a different country. I am from Venezuela and lived there until I was fifteen. Being from South America has made me aware of a few things, not only is it hard to find pear juice here but it is also not common to have two last names.

I used to just go by my first last name, Fuentes, which is my dad’s last name since it was easier. At first, it was fine but, with time, something felt off. I love my mom’s last name, Mosqueda, it is hard to pronounce –even in Venezuela, some people wouldn’t know how to spell it– but for me, it has always been pretty. To this day I don’t know if that is because I like how it sounds or because it reminds me of my mom. I started using my full name in college, it never fits on my IDs, my introductions are always long, and I need to correct people when they pronounce it, but I love it, it is a part of me, of my mom, and of my grandmother, who I adored.

A name as a fundamental part of someone’s identity might sound silly, but I learned that is not true. One of the things that I found the most fascinating about The Feminist Institute was that they were giving visibility to women’s stories, their work, and contributions to their communities throughout the years. Thanks to TFI’s website, programs, and the work I do as an intern, I can learn the names of incredible and talented women in history. I want to get to know them, I learn their names and keep them in my mind, with the intention of not letting a part of their identities be forgotten with time.

My name is DK Rule. I am a Macaulay Honors College and CUNY BA student in New York City. I designed my own major: Libraries for Social Equity, which explores the function of libraries within social justice. The dream is to run a library someday where I can provide resources and programming that will help the community thrive. DK is short for Dorothy-Kate and I am the fourth Dorothy in a generational line. My mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother were also all named Dorothy. I grew up in a family of strong women, and I like to think that I got my own strength from them.

I am also a fiber artist. I knit, crochet, and sew. Historically, this art form has been devalued, being called arts and crafts instead of being recognized for its true worth. It is women’s work and therefore is not fine art. But one of the reasons I started knitting was precisely because it is women’s work. Like my name, knitting connects me to a rich history of women who have persevered through unimaginable hardship.

The feminist archive serves the same purpose of connecting us to the giants whose shoulders we stand on. I often think about how many great works of art were lost because they were made by people whose worth was not recognized. How many diaries were thrown away, murals painted over, or claywork destroyed because diversity was not valued? The Feminist Institute is a conduit for those seeking those lost stories. Through the archive, we can grow, celebrate our differences, connect, and see beyond the lens of our own experience.