¡Corre y se va! (Let’s begin the game!)
“No te olvides nunca, que eres poderosa!” (“Don’t you ever forget, that you are powerful!) -Natalia Lafourcade
I come from Winnie, Texas, a small town I sometimes call a “mini-Mexico.” My Latin upbringing followed a common lineage of getting married young, having kids young, working, raising a large family, waiting for grandkids, and passing this pattern down. It’s a well-known lifestyle in my family, and I believe throughout Latin America.
I identify as a Latinx female. I and others in my culture have been exposed to machismo, sexism, homophobia, racism, and sexual assault for far too long. I’m interested in educating my family at-large and making these issues more public within the Latinx community. The most challenging part has been getting others to understand the dynamics of gender identity. I’ve often received responses like, “it does not exist” or “I do not know what you are talking about,” and I am tired of not talking about these traumatizing issues and their effects.
For this exhibition, I reflected upon these concerns by recreating a common Mexican game known as La Loteria, which is similar to Bingo and uses text and symbols to deliver meaning. I was influenced by the 19th century iconic illustrations on the game cards and made photographs and digital collages to merge new meanings and symbols to explore the experience of machismo, sexism, gender inequality, and assault.
