Can you briefly describe your work and art practice?

My work explores histories of indigenous Nahua culture at the intersection where Western ideology creates grates of tension and erasure and where Indigenous cosmological resistance take on new queer forms. 

My practice is physical, one that explores locations and spaces where material culture exists and simultaneously is not present—at least seemingly. For example, these spaces include walking through local flea markets where antiques and colonial souvenirs are brimming, as well as nature preserves; these elements combined with abstract concepts inspired by others, my lived experience, and radical imaginaries materialize and inspire my sculpture and body movements. 

What inspires you in this moment?

I have spent a great deal of time thinking about vulnerable bodies, displaced and Indigenous bodies living in the post-apocalyptic geo-colonial age. Western culture and the legacy of terror continues to threaten our environment, inevitably impacting all life on earth as we know it. The experience of helplessness and complicity challenges and moves me to honor Indigenous spirituality but simultaneously contend with its complex traditions.

Indigenous Aztec faith is influenced by dual gendered deities, for instance Chicomecóatl and Centeōtl are the corn god. Meanwhile, Aztecs view the earth as a living being and intertwined with the cosmic order. Unironically, scientists recently discovered that humans are literally made up of the elements that are found within the stars. These logics inspire my advocacy, my vision and allow me to move through the unknown.

What are you looking forward to during the spring 2020 semester of your residency:

In the spring, I am looking forward to taking part in the Latinx Project programming. I am also in the early stages of planning two workshops and a discussion panel that will be central to my art-making process. These workshops will focus on conceptualizing thought into skill building through the use of craft techniques (hand building clay, sewing) that integrate readymades. This panel will feature a conversation with a scholar and myself on subjects of queer identity/popular culture relevant to themes found within the periphery of Latinx-Indigeneity. The third event will meet at a site (tbd) that connects bodies to the earth and honors queer – indigenous traditions. 

Additionally, I will feature the new body of work that I am currently working on, in a new art space located in the Social and Cultural Analysis Department at NYU. The work is a video performance that takes place in El Paso, TX. Dressed in an elaborate costume, walking on a 9 mile pilgrimage using a manual seeding machine, I will make interventions at historical sites along the Texas-Mexico border route.