LATINA IDENTITYReconciling Ritual, Culture, and Belonging

By Stacy E. Schultz

he cultural traditions of colo-nial cross-fertilization and

overwhelming machismo pro-foundly affect how Latina womensee themselves. Performance artist

Coco Fusco views the Latina body"as a decorative layer that conceals anon-identity."' This is the result of thecomplexities that abound and createtension in defining identity: ethnic,racial, emotional, political, and geo-graphic.2 Hybridity with indigenouspopulations is consistent throughoutLatin and Central America. Manypeople find themselves at physical,cultural, and metaphoric crossroads,because Spanish rule and the slavetrade created diverse populations.Migration and displacement alsoinfluence people's mindsets. The Fig. 1. Marta Marfa Perez Bralegacy of this process that exists in (Parallel Cults) (1990).

the performative works by artistsfrom Mexico, Cuba, Costa Rica, andPuerto Rico features a mixture of Western and non-Western art

and ritual, high art, and popular culture as reflections of livedexperiences between two or more worlds. The artists discussedhere draw upon the interwoven iconographic traditions ofCatholicism, Afro-Caribbean Santeria and Palo Monte, and someancient pre-Columbian religions.

Qualities that define Latin hybridity include the mixing ofoften divergent genres or approaches; references to the self,positioning the artist in the process of a journey of self-

discovery; literal and figurative representations of the artist asdislocated or geographically estranged; recreating orcontextualizing oneself in relation to a biological, created, orsymbolic family; and the use of the media to addressrepresentation and alternative ways of seeing.' By engaging one

or several of these modes, Latina artists of different ethnicheritages are finding ways to define "Latin American." Thefemale body and traditional and religious expectations ofdemure and self-sacrificing femininity collide in theircontemporary performance practices. The work of the seminalfigure Ana Mendieta is especially significant in this regard. Insearching for a sense of place in her own work within aspecifically Latin American context while highlighting thefemale body, she paved the way for an ongoing investigation of

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vo, Cultos paralelos

the intersections of Latin Americanculture and feminine identity.Latina artists continue to engage in

a struggle at these crossroads ofancient and modern practices intheir desire to break free fromtradition and define themselves ontheir own terms: Marta Marfa P6rezBravo's and Lorena Wolffer's use ofreligious practice and bloodsacrifice, death and burial imageryin which the body becomes one

again with the earth by Coco Fuscoand Merin Soto, and binding orentrapment by Coco Fusco and EliaArce.

For Ana Mendieta, exposure tothe Afro-Cuban religious practicesof Santerfa during her childhood inCuba was influential. Though shenever directly witnessed or

participated in any rituals, she wasaware of some of the mystical

elements being discussed by servants working in the Mendietahousehold. Ana's sister, Raquelfn, remembers hearing maids"talking about their religious practices, about magic, about sex,

about who was cheating on whom, about who needed a lovepotion. We were fascinated. Ana loved listening to this forbiddentalk."' Their parents, however, looked down on Santerfa andconsidered it a superstitious outgrowth of Catholicism. WhileMendieta let Santerfa inspire some of her work, she does notreference specific practices or rituals. Therefore, Mendieta'sinterest in Latin American religious practice, whethercontemporary or ancient, should be treated in a general manner.

Ana Mendieta and her sister arrived in Iowa in the early1960s through the Peter Pan program, which sponsored, inconjunction with the Catholic Church, foster placement ofCuban children in the United States to escape the political

instabilities in Cuba. The sisters spent years in the United Statesisolated from their parents, their culture, and the Spanishlanguage. The experiences of separation, loss, and alienationfueled Ana Mendieta's desire to become an artist and to

investigate Latin American culture during several trips toMexico while a student at the University of Iowa. The themesof blood sacrifice and a literal connection to the earthfrequently appear in her work. Blood serves as a literal

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Fig. 2. Marta Maria Perez Bravo, Macuto (1991).

manifestation of emotional pain. In addition, by blendingancient and contemporary Western and non-Westerntraditions, Mendieta could access an important realm andstraddle powerful lines of demarcation. In tapping into thepower of the crossroads, Mendieta revealed her belief in thepotential for renewal and transcendence despite negativecircumstances. In forging a connection between her physicalbody and the earth in several performances, Mendietaattempted to address her physical separation from Cuba andreconnect with her Latin heritage. By choosing the earth,Mendieta literally and metaphorically established roots to herorigins. It is from these concerns with defining identity whilemaintaining ties to Latin America that contemporary artistshave garnered influence and strength.

Slaves transported to the Caribbean, South America, andparts of the United States brought their religions with them.Because most slaves came from the West Coast of Africa, thetraditions of the Yoruba people had the most profound impact.The Spanish required slaves to convert to Catholicism andforbade other religious practices. What emerged from this forcedconversion was Santerfa in Cuba, or Candomble in Brazil, afusion of Catholic reverence for saints and use of devotionalimages, and Yoruba beliefs in multiple manifestations, or orichas,of Olodumare or Olofi, the Supreme Being. Thus Catholic saintsand orichas, whose characteristics were viewed to be similar,could be uniquely blended. Other aspects of Santerfa that haveparticular relevance for Latina artists are attitudes toward thebody, concepts of existence, and ash6, or life force.

Within Yoruba and Santerfa practice, the human body isconsidered to be a divinely inspired work of art. This viewcontrasts greatly with Judeo-Christian notions of the body,which emphasize denial of the physical body in attainingsalvation. Sexuality and sexual expression, which are oftencontradictory in Western religious ideology, co-exist moreeasily within Afro-Caribbean practices. Artists who harnessSanterfa spirituality explore the female body without shame,because it is divinely sanctioned.

The concept of ash6 plays a significant role in Santerfacosmology. Ash6, or ache, is considered to be a vital energy, a

force present in everything. Ash6 can also be a transformingpower varying in degree. The human body contains thepotential to be a powerful site of ash6.1

Also relevant in exploring religious duality are the ideassurrounding human existence. Yoruba and Santerfapractitioners view life as occurring on two planes: thephysical/tangible and the spiritual/intangible. These planesoften intermingle, supporting a belief that seeming oppositescan co-exist in harmony: life/death, sacred/profane, etc. Theidea of the crossroads as the point of intersection between thetwo planes is especially powerful. It is within this realm thatthe artists addressed here have particular poignancy andexplore problematic Judeo-Christian dualities. Whetherthrough explorations of Catholic or Santeria/Palo Monteimagery, ritual and blood are important elements for Latinaartists. By using emblems that have powerful connotations inboth religious and violent senses-positive and negative-artists are able to channel spirituality to make sense of theirfemininity and personal circumstances. By using symbolicelements of power, change, and liminality, artists reconciletradition with contemporary life for women in an ever-changing world.

This spiritual communion can be seen in the photographs ofMarta Marfa P6rez Bravo, who enacts images of ritual byengaging the female body. Born in Cuba and now residing inMexico, P6rez Bravo directly addresses the body as object. Byphotographing portions or isolated fragments of her body withtraditional African ritual objects, she changes the context of boththe objects themselves and her body in relation to them. Shedraws on the ritual objects and beliefs of Santerfa and PaloMonte, two Afro-Cuban religious traditions that draw fromYoruba (western Africa) and Kongo/Angola (central Africa)practices respectively. For both the Yoruba and the Kongo, thenatural world is a sacred realm where the gods reside. PaloMonte traditions differ slightly in their focus on communicationwith the dead through spirit mediums. By focusing on her bodyas the container of her sacred power, her ashO, P6rez Bravo shedsnew light on the power of the female form. She creates a space oftransformation. Her body and the altar upon which ritual isperformed become one. Like Mendieta, an important referencefor P6rez Bravo, she also communes with nature in order tocreate new spaces for female empowerment.

In Cultos paralelos (Parallel Cults) (1990; Fig. 1), we see P6rezBravo's upper torso. She leans toward the viewer, placing herbreasts into offering cups placed on an altar. It is notable thatP6rez Bravo was nursing her twin daughters at the time of thiswork. For both Yoruba and Santerfa religious practitioners,twins are especially significant because they are thought topossess unique magical powers. In Yoruba practice, if one twindies, the parents commission a carved statue to take the placeof the dead twin and to be cared for as if it were a liverepresentation of the twin. In Cultos paralelos, we see P6rezBravo engaging in her own form of twin worship. By placingher breasts into the two offering cups, she pays homage to theIbeji, or twin gods. Perez Bravo's body as a religious site is alsosignificant in light of her personal connection to twin worshipthrough her daughters. Thus, through her bodily connection to

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the Ibeji, she becomes a priestess and shares a "transcendentalpower and knowledge based on her own body as a ... seat ofher ash6,, her personal sacred energy."'

In another image that pays homage to the twin gods, P6rezBravo creates Macnto (1991; Fig. 2). A macuto is a receptacle ofpower of Palo Monte. Within the object, P6rez Bravo places twodolls representing both the Ibeji and her daughters. Utilizing herbreasts as a sacred space, she holds the macuto and the dollsagainst her torso at breast level. Within this ritualized drawing,we see the sign of the four moments of the sun. This graphicsymbol is considered to be the foundation of everything and is asynthesis of Yowa or Kongo cosmography. The symbol activatesa center of power. The center of the macuto represents the eye ofthe cosmos, its center. Within this realm, the living and the dead,the sea and the land, are joined together. Again we see an imageat the crossroads, where the personal and sacred are joinedwithin an emblem of power. By bringing the Ibeji within thispowerful center, P6rez Bravo blends religious and personalattributes. The spiritual and everyday realms become one in thespace created.

In Caminnos (Roads) (1990; Fig. 3), P6rez Bravo moves from herupper torso to her legs as a site of exploration. In one image fromthis series, her legs are bordered by crossed sticks as he bodyemerges "from a base image of Eleggua, the Yoruba god ofchange and crossroads"17 and the messenger of two worlds. P6rezBravo's legs move from one world to another; her body leads herfrom one mystical realm to the next. The choice of title and itsspiritual reference also speaks to the female body as a site at thecrossroads between two worlds: as subject and object.

The space of the crossroads is also relevant in relation to thework of Mexican artist Lorena Wolffer. Through positioning herbody between the physical and the political, Wolffer'sperformances serve as a metaphor for her country. By enactingvarying "political tortures" on the "landscape" of her body, sheemphasizes her own political commitments to the economicplight of Mexico and challenges the gaze of the viewer lookingupon her attractive female body. In a performance of MexicanTI"rritory (1995; Fig. 4) in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Wolfferenacted Chinese water torture on herself with drops of bloodinstead of water. A bag of blood was suspended above her nudebody as she lay on a simple palette. The drops were positionedto fall onto Wolffer's abdomen, the site of gestation. Like P6rezBravo, Wolffer sees this area of the body as one burdened byfemininine expectations. The Belfast piece lasted six hours, and asthe work was unrehearsed for this length of time, Wolfferactually experienced the physical and psychological effects oftorture while performing ill real time. Audience members, whoviewed the work for ten minutes to two hours-some of themseveral times during the course of the performance-were justas deeply affected by the piece. Wolffer said that severalindividuals, who only felt the courage to speak to her days afterthe performance, related the work to issues of torture inNorthern Ireland.' This level of response to P6rez Bravo andWolffer seems to confirm the importance of the body as a site ofreflection, be it political or spiritual.

The theemes of sacrifice, death, and burial become especiallyrelevant in connecting Latina artists to a long-standing

Fig. 3. Marta Maria P6rez Bravo, Caminos (Roads) (1990).

tradition in Latin Catholicism: Marianism. The concept ofwoman as self-sacrificing martyr is idealized in Latin culturesas the complement to male machismo.' A woman can onlyassume power through rituals of submission that offer access toecstatic states through sacrifice. In this regard, Latina womenoccupy a significant position in negotiating life, death, andfemininity in performance. This is a direct result of the uniquedevotion to the Virgin Mary that developed in Latin Americaduring the time of the Spanish conquest. Historically, the Virginhad been called upon as intercessor to defeat the Moors in Spainand as a symbol of strength, resistance, and hope in new lands.

Fig. 4. Lorena Wolffer, Mexican Territory (1995).

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The evolution of Mariandevotion in Latin America stemsfrom this Spanish reverence forthe Virgin as nurturing protector.It is this view that enabled the

process of mandatory religiousconversion resulting in aconflation of the Virgin with thesacred feminine throughout pre-Columbian Latin America. Thelasting appeal of the Virgin Marywas due in part to her singular,

positive nature, as opposed tothat of female deities such as the

Fig. 5. Merian Soto, Todos Mis Aztec goddesses Coatlicue and

Muertos (All My Dead Ones) Chalchihuitlicue, who possessed(1996). Photo: Geoffrey Miller. both life-giving and destructive

qualities. More commonalities,

such as Coatlicue's virginal conception of Huitzilopochtli (thesun who is reborn through his mother each night), when a ball of

feathers fell from the sky impregnating her, enabled furtheracceptance of Christianity. It is this fusion of traditions that

occurred in colonial Latin America that can be connected to thecommon desire to explore death, Catholicism, and ancientcultures in the work of MeriAn Soto and Coco Fusco."'

In Todos Mis Muertos kAll My Dead Ones) (1996; Fig. 5),Puerto Rican artist and choreographer Meriin Soto created anhomage to Mamita, her beloved grandmother. In making awork that reflected both the Day of the Dead traditions and

personal experience, Soto sought to conjure the spirit of hergrandmother through this performance:

As I began to think about the dead it was Mamita whocame to me. Her memory is the stuff of which this piece ismade. She was blind so I blindfolded myself. She knewme through touch so I touched audience members as Ientered the performance space. She was kind and calmand balanced. The work is a movement altar to hermemory and that of my father who passed in 1996. Her

photos figure prominently on the basket I balance on myhead. Through the work I attempt to enter and share with

the audience an inner space and a way of communicatingthat I learned from her."

In preparation for the work, Soto invoked her memory,seeing the spirit of her grandmother as a yellow light. Yellowthen became the primary color she used in the piece. Soto

became an offering in yellow, with a yellow costume, yellowbody makeup, and yellow flowers covering her headdress. Shealso blindfolded herself, further connecting to Mainita, who hadlost her sight to cataracts in her later years. Soto sees the bodyin this performance as an offering in addition to the literal andphysical offerings she carried with her into the space: bells,photos, a yellow chair hanging from one shoulder, a yellowpack holding dirt, a large skeleton child attached to her back,

yellow flowers on her head, and her pockets filled with rum,cornmeal, bread, flowers, candles, and matches. The

performance space contained a video altar onto which theaudience guided her. Images of hands digging up soil and thenbones, photographs of the deceased, flowers, and

objects/offerings make up the tripartite altar. Before the altar,Soto would be "saluting and invoking the four directions,honoring the earth, caressing/ eating the soil, dancing with the

dead (the skeleton figure), mourning, conjuring, eating,drinking, dancing, communing, and finally resting in thedirt."" By dedicating this performance to her grandmother,

Soto was honoring her matrilineal heritage. She also wasdrawing upon the multicultural tradition of female mournersas she attempted to commune with the spirit of hergrandmother in a space that honors life and death.

In Better Yet When Dead (1997; Fig. 6), Coco Fusco created thefirst of several performances and plays involving women and

necrophilia. In this piece, she sought to produce an extremeexpression of the feminine will by feigning death:

After the Tex-Mex singer Selena was shot and killed by acolleague last year, and the People Magazine bearing herimage sold more copies than any other issue in the

publication's history, I began to ask myself why Latinocultures in the north and south are so fascinated withfemale creativity once it has been forever silenced.Clearly, there are aspects of Catholicism that celebratefemale suffering as a virtue, and which have often been

used to encourage Latin women to accept mental andphysical abuse; however it seems to me that the stakesare raised when female artists are involved in the

equation, in that the very ambivalence toward cedingaccess to women in public life expresses itself perfectly inthe sharp change in attitudes toward women artists

before and after their death. It is almost as if a violentdeath makes them more acceptably feminine.'"

Performed twice, once at the YYZ Artists Outlet in Toronto,Canada, and again for the Arts Bienal of Medellin, Colombia,the piece involved Fusco being "on view" for several hours aday for three to four days in a coffin lined in satin andsurrounded by roses. The Canadian audience was very somberand quiet. Few people touched or spoke to Fusco. The

Colombian viewers, on the other hand, were extremelyphysical and emotional. From having prayers offered to having

wine poured onto her lips, the Colombian experience verymuch reflected the Latin American belief in the mystical power

of interactions with the dead. By controlling her breathing andmuscular movement, Fusco entered the otherworldly realm of

the female martyr. 1For El Ultimo Deseo (The Last Wish) (1997; Fig. 7), performed

during the 1997 Havana Biennale in Cuba, Fusco again tookdeath as her inspiration. Drawing on family memories andpersonal experiences in Cuba, Fusco held a wake in Old Havana.She laid herself out on the floor of the parlor wrapped in a white

sheet. Radio Reloj, the Cuban radio station that marks the timeby recounting historical events that occurred on that given day,

played in the background. Though much more personallyrelevant-Fusco wanted to explore the unfulfilled wish for those

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who were unable to be buried in their homeland, particularly hergrandmother- the theme of burial site as culturally relevantresonates. Surrounded by flowers, the resemblance to

Mendieta's Silhueta series is striking, almost an homage.Indebted to this Cuban mentor, Fusco returned to Cuba toreconcile other issues not addressed by Mendieta, namelypresence rather than absence. By physically occupying the spacethat Mendieta often left uninhabited, Fusco was able to connectherself to her predecessor's search for identity in exile.'"

Fusco further explored this connection in El Evento Suspendido(The Postponed Event) (2000; Fig. 8), performed at El EspacioAglutinador in Havana, also during a Biennale. For this pieceFusco was buried in a vertical position up to her chest in the yardoutside the gallery for three hours, beginning at sunset. Duringthe period of her burial, she wrote the following letter (inSpanish) over and over, leaving copies for anyone passing by:

My dear ones,

I am writing this letter to tell you that I am alive. For many

years I feared that if I told the truth you would suffer at thehands of those who buried another woman in my name. I canno longer stand not being able to tell you that I exist. Not a dayhas passed without my dreaming of you. Fortunately I can say

that I recovered from the ordeal that resulted in my departure. Iwill send more news soon.

With love, C."

Fusco intended to create a work dealing with the feeling ofbeing buried alive that many Cubans experience. In a state ofexile, separated from their homeland, they feel as if theyoccupy a state between existing and living. Like others born inthe United States to a Cuban exile, Fusco was seeking aconnection to a place she belonged to culturally but notphysically. By returning to the earth in a literal or metaphoricmanner through burial, the Latina artist sought to harness theseemingly incompatible states of life and death.

Through performative cosmic experiments, Meridn Soto andCoco Fusco seem to invite, in the words of Mexicanpoet/humanitarian Octavio Paz, "disorder, reunitingcontradictory elements and principles in order to bring about arenascence of life. Ritual death promotes a rebirth.'",Ultimately, they seek a rebirth of a redefined femininity.

The process of reconnection and redefinition continues in aperformance by Elia Arce, Stretching My Skin Until It Rips Whole(1994), in which the artist actively confronts her Costa Ricanfamilial past. Arce introduces the audience to her twograndmothers and her mother and reveals the difficulties sheexperienced both in becoming her own woman and breakingfree from her cultural past. Slide projections and photographs ofher family stand in as substitutes for the brunt of her anger. Sherecounts the disdain and misunderstanding she encountered inwanting to transcend a life as a dutiful and submissive Latinamother and wife. She condemns the middle-class values of herpaternal grandmother, Helia, who kept pets while others existedin extreme poverty. Arce forcefully pulls feathers off a deadchicken held upside down before the audience in an accusatory

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Fig. 6. Coco Fusco, Better Yet When Dead (1997). Photo: Peter Dako.

Fig. 7. Coco Fusco, El Ultimo Deseo (The Last Wish) (1997).Photo: Eduardo Aparicio.

Fig. 8. Coco Fusco, El Evento Suspendido (The Postponed Event) (2000).Photo: Juan Carlos Alom.

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Fig. 9. Elia Arce, Chicken Incantation (1994). Photo: Andrew Perret.

Fig. 10. Coco Fusco & Guillermo G6mez-Pena, Two Undiscovered Amerindian

incantation (Fig. 9) exposing the plight of the underclass:"hungry, hungry, very hungry"; "no soap, no soup ... growingmushrooms"; "broken pipes ... paper, paper, everywhere,""fascism, fascism, fascism."'" Though personal in nature, Arce'schants and incantations of this performance as she shakes a deadchicken recall Ana Mendieta's Chicken Piece.

A confined / caged / trapped bird also becomes a curiosity: abeing denied fluidity or movement within predeterminedparameters. Coco Fusco and Guillermo G6mez-Pefia exploredbeing caged or trapped in the collaborative performance Two

Fig. 11. Elia Arce, I Have so Many Stitches That

Sometimes I Dream That I'm Sick (1993).Photo: Martin Cox.

Undiscovered Amerindians Visit... (1992; Fig.10), which debuted in September of 1992 atthe Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.Interested in exploring and exposing mythsand stereotypes about Otherness, Fusco andG6mez-Pefia decided to stage an exhibitionof non-Westerners, much like those popularin the nineteenth century throughoutEurope and the United States. The two livedin a golden cage for three days, presentingthemselves as people from Guatinau, an

is Visit... (1992). undiscovered island in the Gulf of Mexico.Fusco and G6mez-Pefia donned "authentic"native costumes for the display. A donation

box was set up so that in exchange for money Fusco woulddance to rap music and G6mez-Pefia would tell Amerindianstories in a nonsensical language. The two also posed forPolaroids for visitors. "Guards" stationed before the cageanswered questions, took the artists to the bathroom, and fedthem sandwiches and fruit."

What was most surprising to Fusco and G6mez-Pefia wasthe outraged responses of the audience. Many audiencemembers felt betrayed over the misrepresentation of thedisplay as authentic. Others found it cruel to cage "these

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people" in such a manner. Most striking, though, were theexperience of being displayed and the reactions of Fusco andG6mez-Pefia. Looking back, Fusco felt that being looked at waseasier for her than for G6mez-PeAia. As a woman, a role thatinvolves being on display and/or objectified, Fusco was betterprepared to deal with the stares, jeers, and sexual commentsdirected at her?.2 Fortunately, no one threatened physical harm,although many of the Spanish men made explicit sexualcomments about her body. Some onlookers bribed the guardwith money to convince Fusco to reveal her breasts. Men usedlewd language, taunted her, propositioned her, and blew kisses.For Gomez-Pefia, visitors were more physically direct: theywanted to touch and physically interact with him.

From Minneapolis, Two Undiscovered Amerindians Visit...traveled to Madrid, London and Sydney as well as to severalU.S. venues, including Washington, D.C., Irvine, California,and New York for the Whitney Biennial in March of 1993.Unlike the original outdoor display, the gallery space of themuseum offered new and different challenges for Fusco,G6mez-Pefia, and the visiting public. Around the cage,background materials were displayed, including a map ofGuatinau and a fake Encyclopaedia Britannica entry:

The female weighs sixty three kilos, measures 1.74meters, and appears to be in her early thirties. She is fondof sandwiches, pad thai, and herb tea. She is a versatiledancer, and also enjoys showing off her domestic talentsby sewing voodoo dolls, serving cocktails, andmassaging her male partner. Her facial and bodydecorations indicate that she has married into the uppercaste of he tribe.21

In addition, a chronology of the history of displaying non-Westerners was included. Establishing a history was especiallyimportant for Fusco and G6mez-Pefia, because this practice ofdisplay dates back to the Spanish Conquest. The timeline citedexamples from museums, royal court appearances, andsideshows. By drawing attention to this phenomenon with alive display, the artists wanted to highlight how Europeanshave treated Otherness. Ethnographic displays have drawnattention to Eurocentric cultural and racial superiority, andseeing non-Western people in such a degrading light hasdeemed mutual understanding across cultures unworthy. For afemale "specimen," the colonizing gaze is supported and leftunchallenged. By seeing non-Western dress in an unnecessarilyand overly sexual way, which may cover the female body to alesser extent than Western attire, the European male can (still)easily justify his appetite for the exotic.

The use of a cage is not entirely unique in performance art;however, the themes of simultaneous display and entrapmentcarry much resonance when examined in a Latin Americancontext. By focusing on what the cage may symbolize for theLatina artist, I hope to achieve an analysis beyond currentreferences to Anglo- or Euro-centric performances. In her non-action prelude to I Have so Many Stitches That Sometimes I DreamThat P'i Sick (1993; Fig. 11), Costa Rican artist Elia Arce placedherself within a large metal cage with a sign reading "Feed Me"attached to the top. Arce remained seated and motionless, with

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her face looking downward for the entire period of this pre-performance "body installation." She did not speak or makeeye contact with the viewers, and her long hair hid her facefrom view. Arce's brown body and the sign can be read asenabling agency, giving Arce the sustenance to assert herself asa Latina artist. The sign may also point to society's inability to"feed" her properly. She can only receive support while caged,thereby placing her in a double bind. To feed information,cultural or societal, is also a key consideration.22

Arce's body is clearly on display, much like Coco Fusco'sbody in Two Undiscovered Amerindians Visit... Nudity is multi-layered in both cases because of ethnicity. What differentiatesthe two pieces, however, is the choice of whether or not tointeract with the audience. Though both pieces give the artiststhe ability to communicate what is problematic about the non-Western body, speech is not always necessary. Elia Arce utilizesthe body to comment on the cultural plight of the Latina bodyin American society. She is confined and makes no eye contactwith the viewer. Arce's and Fusco's bodies subsist in a state thathighlights their existence within the parameters ofgendered / cultural / ethnic Other. What both ultimately conveyis that it is American society that has caused the confinement.

By utilizing ritual, these artists are communicating thestruggles of contemporary Latinas. Whether through Santerfa,Palo Monte, Catholicism, or Pre-Columbian religioustraditions, the spiritual realm at the intersection of life anddeath invites their explorations of identity. By drawingattention to the site of the female body as a space ofoppositional practice, they call colonial, racist, and patriarchalauthority into question. Despite existing in seeminglyperpetual states of duality, whether through religious orcultural beliefs, or physically through ties to an ancestral placefraught with political contradictions, Latina artists are able totriumph in the crossroads by creating new spaces forfemininity. 0

Stacy E. Schultz is a Visiting Assistant Professor at TheUniversity of Texas at Arlington.

NOTES

1. Mary Ellen Croteau, Ayodamola Okunseinde, and Denise M.Rompilla, "Coco Fusco," in The Latina Artist: The Response of theCreative Mind to Gender, Race, Class, and Identity, exh. cat. (NewBrunswick: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 1998), 22.

2. See Coco Fusco, English is Broken Here: Notes on Cultural Fusion in theAmericas (New York: New Press, 1995) and Geoffrey Fox, HispanicNation: Culture, Politics, and the Construction of Identity (Secaucus, NJ:Birch Lane Press, 1996) for further discussion.

3. Caridad Svich and Maria Teresa Marrero, eds., Out of the Fringe:Conteinporary, Latina/Latino Theatre and Pelformance (New York: TheatreCommunications Group, Inc., 2000), xviii.

4. Ana Mendieta. exh. cat. (Barcelona: Fundacio Antori Tapies, 1997), 227.

5. Isabel Castellanos, "From Ulkumi to Lucumi: A Historical Overviewof Religious Acculturation in Cuba," in Santerfa Aesthetics inContemporary Latin American Art, ed. Arturo Lindsay (Washingtonand London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996), 47.

6. Gerardo Mosquera, "Marta Maria P6rez: Self-Portraits of theCosmos," Aperture 141 (Fall 1995): 53.

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7. Ibid., 54.

8. Lorena Wolffer, "Mexican Territory," Art Journal 56, no. 4 (Winter1997): 72.

9. See Coco Fusco as quoted in Cameron Bailey, "Sentimental Necrophilia:Coco Fusco Asks Why the Only Loved Latina is a Dead Latina," Mix:The Magazine of Artist-run Culture, vol. 35-38 (1997): 55-58.

10. The role of the Virgin Mary in Latin American is contextualized inLinda B. Hall, Mary, Mother and Warrior: The Virgin in Spain and theAmericas (Austin: Univ. of Texas Press, 2004).

11. Email correspondence with the artist dated May 30, 2007.

12. Merian Soto, "Todos Mis Muertos (All My Dead Ones) (1996)," inCorpus Delecti: Performance Art of the Americas, ed. Coco Fusco(London and New York: Routledge, 2000), 176.

3. See www.cocofusco.com for further discussion.

14. Coco Fusco, The Bodies That Were Not Ours and Other Writings (Londonand New York: Routledge, 2001), 22-25.

15. Ibid.

16. Ibid.

17. Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth of Solitude, trans. Lysande Kemp (NewYork: Grove Press, 1961), 51.

18. Meiling Cheng, In Other Los Angeleses: Multicentric Performance Art(Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of California Press, 2002), 167.

19. Coco Fusco, "The Other History of Intercultural Performance," inEnglish Is Broken Here: Notes on Cultural Fusion in the Americas. This essayalso appears in The Drama Review 38, I (T141, Spring 1994). See alsowww.cocofusco.com and http://www.english.emory.edu / Bahri /UndiscAmerind.html.

20. See Coco Fusco, English is Broken Here, 57.

21. Ibid., 59.

22. This piece is discussed in detail in Chapter 4 of Meiling Cheng, InOther Los Angeleses: Multicentric Performance Art.

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TrappingsStories of Women, Power, and ClothingTIFFANY LUDWIG AND RENEE PIECHOCKI (TWO GIRLS WORKING)

"Each woman's story, accompanied by one or more photographs, presents an intriguingportrait of both inner and outer strength.... [R]evealing, funny and entirely identifiablestories.'-Publisher's Weekly

"These Two Girls are Working across the boundaries of art and activism to provoke freshthinking about women, clothes, and power. Other people's stories, seen through themedium of a feminist collaboration, are fascinating ... and mysteriously different fromone's own. Reading this book is like going to a great party where all the women arebeautiful and powerful!'-Lucy R. Lippard, author of The Pink Glass Swan: Selected Feminist Essays on Art

Complimented by 149 color and black-and-white photographs, the written portraits inthis book reveal much more than the contents of women's closets. Through the intimatelens of clothing, Ludwig and Piechocki expose the very personal ways that power issought, experienced, and projected by women.224 pages - 149 color and b&w illustrations * 7 x 10 -Cloth $ 29.95 .978-0-8135-4184-6

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0 WOMAN'S ART JOURNAL

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

TITLE: Latina Identity: Reconciling Ritual, Culture, andBelonging

SOURCE: Womans Art J 29 no1 Spr/Summ 2008

The magazine publisher is the copyright holder of this article and itis reproduced with permission. Further reproduction of this article inviolation of the copyright is prohibited.