the new world border- prophecies for the end of the century

The New World Border: Prophecies for the End of the CenturyAuthor(s): Guillermo Gómez-PeñaReviewed work(s):Source: TDR (1988-), Vol. 38, No. 1 (Spring, 1994), pp. 119-142Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1146360 .Accessed: 10/12/2011 01:01

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The New World Border

prophecies for the end of the century

Guillermo G6mez-Pena

If I had known, I wouldn't have gone.

-Columbus

When the world was ours, you took it awayfrom us. When the world was yours, you didn't want to share it. Now that the world is ours again you are trying to dress and act like we do. What's wrong with you Teules?

-Moctezuma Jr.

Everything is changing and moving sofast that we don't have time to confront our immediate past. Soon everything will be new.

-East German psychiatrist

No one or everyone should be named.

-Moira Roth

Fresh water from Canada and cheap oilfrom Mexico, all served in an American glass. The perfect Free Trade Cocktail, caramba.

-From an ad by the FRA Commission

Too much (concept); and too little (movement). -The Washington Post

The Drama Review 38, 1 (T14I), Spring 1994. Copyright ? 1994 New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

II9

I20 Guillermo CGmez-Pena

GOMEZ-PENA: How would you define Los Angeles? BOB WISDOM: It could be Beirut. It could be utopia. We'll know next weekend.

To my adored grandmother Carmen, who was bor with the century and who will hopefully live to see the birth of the next century. Her eyes have seen it all.

PROGRAM NOTES: This performance is part of "The Year of the White Bear," an interdisciplinary project created by G6mez-Peiia in collaboration with Coco Fusco, and cosponsored by the Walker Art Center. Versions of The New World Border have been performed in Minneapolis, Iowa City, Chicago, Washing- ton, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Portland, Seattle, Atlanta, Boulder, Denver, San Antonio, New York, Hamburg, London, San Juan, and Mexico City.

Ideally, a local radio station broadcasts live the opening night performance. Its open structure allows for other collaborators and media to enter the piece at different times. An adaptation for television directed by Chicano filmmaker Daniel Salazar is on the works and will be ready for distribution by September I994.

CREDITS: Written and directed by Guillermo G6mez-Peiia Performed by Coco Fusco (Miss Discovery 93) and Guillermo G6mez- Pefia (El Aztec High-Tech) Soundtrack: Adalberto Arcos, Guillermo G6mez-Peiia, Coco Fusco Technical Director/Road Manager: Roberto Sifuentes Manager of G6mez-Pefia and Fusco: Nola Mariano (Circuit Network) Mucho muy special thanks to: Kathy Halbreich, John Killacky, Julie Voight and Gary Garrels (The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis); Jennifer Turco (UC Boulder); Marda Kir (Colorado Dance Festival, Boulder); Kim Chan (WPAS-Washington); Encaracion Teruel and Carlos Tortolero (Mexican Fine Arts Center, Chi- cago); Peter Taub (Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago); Peter Sellars and Claire Peeps (L.A. Festival); Julie Lazare (MOCA, Los Angeles); Catherine Lord (UC Irvine); Nola Mariano, Kim Ima, and Danny Salazar. Each of these individuals and organizations participated in the creation of "The Year of the White Bear."

Glossary of "Borderismos"

Amigoization This process of happy Mexicanization was first detected by Gran Vato Jose Antonio Burciaga, Minister of Information of the seceding Republik of Berkeley. Anacaona Taina queen, enslaved and killed by Columbus. Sorry! Art-maggeddon The end of the world according to the art world, or the end of the art world itself. Aztec High-Tech, El Undercover antrop6loco, apocalyptic disc-jockey and cross-cultural salesman. He also goes by the dubious names of "Supermojado," "The Warrior for Gringostroika," and "El Charrollero." Gringos often call him Guermo Go-Mex Pifia. Aztlan The "original land" in Aztec mythology. According to Chicano poets it is located in the U.S. Southwest.

Borderization This process is also known by sociologists as "calcutization" or "third-worldization."

Chica-lango Half Chicano and half "chilango" (derogative term for a Mexico City native). Culti-multuralism An Esperantic Disney worldview in which all cultures, races, and sexes live happily together. Coined by Post-Chicano antrop6loco Robert Sanchez.

Empty-V After "Reali-TV" the second largest media conglomerate on the

planet. Free Taco Agreement An innovative economic initiative designed by The

I. From the New World Borderfamily series, "The End of the

Century Family": Miss

Discovery (Coco Fusco, left), El Charo-Vero

(Guillermo G6mez- Pefa, center), and mother (right) in Mexico

City, I992. (Photo courtesy of Guillermo

G6mez-Peia)

I22 Guillermo G6mez-Pefia

Press Release (This text was meant to both be published in the program and dis- tributed as a conceptual "press release" to local newspapers.)

In 1991, President Belse-Bush appointed a Quincentenary Fiesta Bureau (QFB) to link the alleged "discovery" of the New World with the fiction of the New World Order. Superstar Christy Colum- bus was designated the Bureau's symbol of a kinder, gentler expan- sionism and Free Trade Art.

Appointed head of the Bureau was Queen "Chavela" La Cat6lica (Isabella of Castille), a leading impresario of the European Common Market, together with her mentor, the deposed British dictator Ma- margaret Thatcher. Spanish Holy Inquisition Leader Torque-mamada was appointed head of the United Nations Security Council. Al- though his post was meant to be symbolic, he has crossed the border between representation and Reality #I on several occasions to punish countries, communities, and artists who violate QFB rulings.

In I992, Inquisitor Torque-mamada brought together a secret

group of unemployed propaganda experts to form Discovery Pro- ductions. Among its members were General Antonio Noriega, Augusto Pinochet, Oliver North, Jesse Helms, Hilton Kramer, John Gotti, and the Pope. In the past years, their covert activities have ranged from money laundering to the falsification of Indian treaties, the expansion of the transnational maquiladora network, and the black market sale of Pre-Columbian and Colonial Art.

The QFB in collaboration with NAFTA has hired dozens of the best performance artists in the New World to host Discovery Pro- ductions programs. These official artists impersonate key historical figures from Discovery legends on television, and in film and adver-

Chicano Secret Service. Its main objective is the production and distribution of free tacos to the starving gringo minorities. Funkahuatl The Aztec god of funk. Alter ego of Lost Angeles performantli Ruben Guevara. Ganga From the English word "gang." A term coined by the U.S. Police Department to describe all people of color under I8. Gring6latra He/she who adores gringos. Gringostroika A continental grassroots movement that advocates the com- plete economic and cultural reform of U.S. anarcho-capitalism. Hanging chickens, Los In the I9th century, the sinister Texas Rangers and a white supremacist vigilante organization named the White Caps used to lynch migrant workers, who to this day are referred to as "pollos." Any other political, metaphysical, erotic, or artistic interpretation of the chickens hanging onstage is welcomed by the author. Horror Vacui Please ask Umberto Eco or Baudrillard. Jaina Spanglization of "honey." Sweetheart, novia, torta, etc. Kilombo Independent micro-republics created by runaway slaves in the 17th and i8th centuries. Mexkimo A polar Mexican. Mexkimo settlements are found in what used

New World Border I23

tisement. Some examples: Cabeza de Polio, the Spanish explorer gone bnrjo somewhere between Florida and Texas, promotes shamanistic tours for new age gringos in the American Southeast. La Malinche, aka, "the first bilingual secretary of the Americas," hosts various Reali-TV shows in seven languages including Ndhuatl and Arawak. Program topics range from "Cultural Transvestism" and "Safe Interracial Sex" to "Esperanto Lessons for the New World Or- der Businessman." Saint Frida Kahlo has a very popular aerobics show on Empty-V called "Mexercise." Indian princess Pocahontas advertizes Marlboro and Te-saco Oil. Conquistador Pizarro spear- heads the "Say no to drugs and yes to foreign investment" campaign. Heman Cortes and his disciple General Schwarzkopf are touring the continent to promote positive images of war. Many nations have hired them as military advisors. Interactive videos of these exciting Free Trade Art performers can be obtained by simply dialing I (800) NAFT-ART.

Opposition to these activities is widespread. The presidents of various seceding Republics have hired cross-cultural salesman El Aztec High-Tech and his jaina pop semiotician Miss Discovery 93 to promote a Free Art Agreement/Tratado de Libre Cultura among the ac- tivist artists of the New World Border. Their countercultural activities include live performances such as this one, interactive mul- timedia installations, pirate radio and TV broadcasts, and electronic town meetings. Their appearance in this city was sponsored by the Ministry of Counter-Cultural Affairs of Aztlan, Inc. Any complaints regarding this presentation may be addressed to your local Gringostroika representative. And remember, if you attend the performance dressed as your favorite "cultural other," you can enter for free.

to be Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, and British Columbia. Coined by Chi- cago poet Carlos Cumpian. Miss Discovery, La Undercover pop semiotician and beauty queen. She also goes by the names of "La Taina del Norte," "La Yemaya de Loisaida," and Coco Fusco. The Taino Indians were the original inhabitants of the Caribbean. Yemaya is the Afro-Brazilian goddess of the oceans. Othercide The murdering of otheress. Performantli An Aztec tradition of experi-mental performance. Pocho He/she who bastardizes Spanish language and Mexican aesthetics. Well-known pochos include the members of "Culture Clash," "The Chicano Secret Service," Rene Yanez, and G6mez-Peiia himself Post-CNN Chicano Art A new techno-rascuache aesthetic that fuses epic rap poetry, performance art, interactive video, holographic radio, and computer art with a Chicanocentric perspective. Pus-modernity Infected modernity. Coined by robo-raza II impresario Rogelio Villareal, aka "el principe maldito del D.F. underground." Saint Frida (Kahlo) Holy Patroness of ethno-feminists. Sexual Democracia A Latin American version of democracy in which political decisions are made according to sexual desire.

124 Guillermo G6mez-Peia

2. Guillermo G6mez- Pena dresses his performance space of the New World Border at The

Space in Boston i99i with the stereotypical icons ?0"4.. of Mexico: votive candles, incense, and three dead chickens with feathers. (Photo courtesy of The Space)

Spanglization A continental infection for which there is no antidote. Television White people's freedom of speech during the pre-gringostroika years. Vatoman Chicano Batman. A colleague of"Supermojado." White list A secret list that includes members of the opposition to the New World Border as well as militant monoculturalists. Coined by antrop6locos Robert Sanchez and Richard Lou.

COSTUMES: G6mez-Peiia-Ritual face makeup, mariachi pants and hat, earrings, Aztec chest piece, snake boots, 3-D glasses, low-rider glasses, bandanna, black gloves, heavy metal bracelets, and an assortment of masks and wigs (see photos). Coco Fusco-Ritual face makeup, Afro-centric wig, plastic Taina suit, sneakers, tropical glasses and masks (see photos).

PROPS:

Smog mask, "Caucasian" masks, "Indian" mask, blond wig, rubber heart, boxing gloves, a machete, a soccer ball, a shampoo bottle, gauze.

The following items must be obtained by the space: Two small tables, two chairs, a lecter, 50 votive candles, incense, rope, a medical skeleton, and two dead chickens with feathers, head and feet. We also need three cardboard signs with instructions for the audience: LAUGH! APPLAUSE! and EXPRESS OUTRAGE!

EQUIPMENT: Two ghetto blasters, three mikes (one of them must be wireless), a battery-

New World Border 125

operated megaphone, theatre lights, a sound mixer with capabilities to alter the voice, a sound system, an "ON THE AIR" sign.

STAGE DESIGN: We are in a bizarre radio studio somewhere in the immediate future. The feeling of the space is ceremonial. An "ON THE AIR" sign hangs to the left. A lectem stands on the right. The human skeleton hangs upstage center as a Christ-like figure and the chicken downstage center. The chairs are downstage center and upstage center (high on a platform) next to each chair there is a small table for props. There are two portable tape players: one under the chicken which plays "Radiorama" programs in different languages, and the other one on top of the downstage center table to be operated by EL AZTEC HIGH-TECH. The candles divide the stage from the audience.

PRE-PERFORMANCE EVENT IN THE LOBBY: MISS DISCOVERY and EL AZTEC HIGH-TECH walk around with a basket collecting objects from the audience. He has a ghetto blaster with Latino rock. They speak in Spanish and tongues:

Is there anything you would like to give away? Anything you don't really need. Please, feel free to give me money, IDs, condoms, keys, a poem, a credit card, your pain, your anger, etcetera...Just be sure you don't need what you're parting with to face the end of the 20th century. In some performances, the audience was "segregated" and seated according to their racial background and degree of bilingualism.

At 7:50 P.M. EL AZTEC HIGH-TECH and MISS DISCOVERY go in- side theatre. They begin to walk ritually around the stage. He has portable tape player #I on his shoulder. Every now and then they kneel or squat in front of the skeleton and the chicken, performing "indigenous" chants with corporate words interspersed.

Once the audience has completed the seating process, the two performers then proceed to take their seats. BLACKOUT.

The literary script...

Intro

GP/NORMAL: (Speaks in tongues intertwined with corporate words) De Volada Productions presents a live broadcast from (name of the city where the performance takes place) on (date of the actual performance). Miento. This is not a performance, but a cue to cue rehearsal. Miento. This is an authentic Indian ritual. Miento. This is a techno-town meeting. Fuck it! This is what it is. Chingao'!

Hey man, pay attention, the South is talking to you...

Prophecy #I: The Fin de Siecle Society

(GP howls)

(Music: Rap by Lighter Shade of Brown)

GP/LOW-RIDER DISC-JOCKEY (Suavecito and breathy): Hello queridos,

126 Guillermo G6mez-Pena

3. Miss Discovery segre- gates the audience by race and language skills at the

Randolph Street Gallery in Chicago,January I993 during a New World Border performance. (Photo courtesy of Randolph Street Gallery)

yuppies, turistas, voyeauristas, antrop6logos aficionados, perplexed citizens of the end of the century. This is the voice of EL AZTEC HIGH-TECH broad-

casting from the heights of WXYZ-FM, 93 megahertz above reality. I'm the representative of The Liberated Republic of Aztlin in the signing

of an Accord du Free Cultura among the artistas/activistas of the New World Border.

I'm here with La Miss Discovery 93, la chava mds loca de Cuba York in a reconquista tour across the Americas.


I warn you. This ain't performance art but pure Chicano science-fiction. Anygueyes, comenzamos sin translation cha-cha!

Y ahora, nuestra corresponsal en los Estamos Undidos....

(Music: Chilean rock by Los Electrodomesticos)

(GP kneels under the chicken, drinksfrom shampoo bottle, and does wolf and mon- key sounds)

CF/ANCHORWOMAN (with echo): Imagine a new American continent without borders. It's a continent that has become a huge border zone. Think of it as the New World Border.

We are living in the age of pus-modemity, a blistering festering present. In these times, all known political systems and economic structures are dys- functional. They are being reformed, replaced, or destroyed. Many see this as the era of la desmodernidad, a term that comes from the Mexican noun desmadre, which can mean either being without a mother or living in chaos. The Great Fiction of a social order has evaporated and has left us in a state of meta-orphanhood. We are all finally untranslatable hijos de la chingada.

GP/FRENCH ACCENT: Les enfants de la chingada da-da.

(Music: Pre-recorded chants in Quechua)

(GP stands up and addresses the hanging chicken. CF counts downfrom o1 to o in military position.)

GP/DRAMATIC and SLOW (to the chicken): Yes, we are linked by imagi- nary networks...[CF: Io]...members of a fictional society, no longer defined by ethnicity, ideology, nationality, or language but by time. [CF: 9] Yes, the only recognizable parameters of this emerging society are "rup- tures," i.e., the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Baghdad genocide, the L.A. insurrection.... [CF: 8]

Yes, I roam around this shattered puzzle in a state of acute apendejamiento (from the Mexican noun pendejo, [CF: 7] o sea stupid; and the verb mentir, meaning to lie).

Yes, I'm lying to you [CF: 6] extranjero en tu propio pais. No, we don't lie together. In the end, we never lie together, vecinos

abismales [CF: 5] still undiscovered to one another, el othercide [CF: 4] digo, the murdering of otherness. [CF: 3]

Es triste, tristisimo. 500 years later, Columbus and Queen Anacaona [CF: 2] still cannot understand each other, each mother, each madre, [CF: I] la tuya, que fuckin' desmadre. [CF: o]

(Music stops)

GP/RADIO EVANGELIST (with megaphone): Is this utopia or dystopia? Are we closer to Catholic heaven or capitalist hell? Is this re-a-li-ty or performance? Can anyone answer?! Can anyone tell me which country we are in? (Screaming) I can't hear you!! I can't hear you!!

CF/AIRLINE HOSTESS (overlapping): Can anyone answer? Can anyone answer? (Continues repeating question every seven seconds into next text.) GP/NASAL (old-fashioned Mexican radio voice): And the worst of all, Godzilla and El Santo are nowhere to be found, nowhere to be found, nowhere to be found....


4. At Cal Arts in Valencia, CA (February 1992), El Aztec High- Tech (G6mez-Pena) and Miss Discovery (Coco Fusco) present their version of the conquest to a bunch

of multicultural gringos. (Photo by Rachel

Slowensky)

Prophecy #II: La Gringostroika

(Music: "Honky Tango" by Argentine band, Les Lutiers)

(GP sits on chair, puts on holographic glasses.)

GP/NASAL (nervous and veryfast): In the wake of the stormy changes in the ex-Soviet block, the winds of Gringostroika have reached every corer of our continent. Can we still call it "ours"? Who are "we" anyway?

Geopolitical borders have faded away. Due to the implementation of a Free Raid Agreement, and the creation of an untranslatable Zona de Libre

Cogercio, the nations formerly known as Canada, The U.S., and Mexico have merged painlessly to create the new Federation of U.S. Republics.

FUSR is controlled by a Master Chamber of Commerce, a Department of Transnational Tourism, and a Media Junta. The role of the presidents is now restricted to PR, and the role of the military has been reduced to guarding banks, TV stations, and art schools. No se me asuste guey!

The immediate effects of this integration are spectacular: The monocul- tural territories of the disbanded United States, commonly known as

Gringolandia, have become drastically impoverished, leading to massive mi-

gration of unemployed wasp-backs to the South. All major metropolises have been fully borderized. In fact, there are no longer visible cultural differ- ences between Toronto, Manhattan, Chicago, Lost Angeles, or Mexico Cida. They all look like downtown Tijuana on a Saturday night. (GP/NASAL slowly turns into DRUNK.)

The First World-slash-Third World-slash-geopolitical distinctions, vestiges of an outdated colonialist vocabulary, have completely overlapped. The leg- endary U.S.-Mexico borderline, affectionately known as "The Tortilla Cur-


tain" no longer exists. Pieces of the great Tortilla are now sentimental sou- venirs hanging on the bedroom walls of idiotic tourists like you.

The hundreds of thousands of Mexican POWs imprisoned for jaywalk- ing in the Southwest have finally been released. Some of them now oc- cupy important government positions. Acd, for example, servidor Gran Vato Charro-llero (Pause.)...just kiddin'. (GP stands up and walks toward audience.)

GP/MEGAPHONE: Lights! An undocumented Mexican and a Cuban mulatta, invited by [name of organization and city where they are performing] are seeking political asylum in [name of country]. Have the TV cameras arrived? (Blackout.)

(GP on lecter. CF translates simultaneously to Gringonol.)

GP/THICK LATINO ACCENT (with big smile): (He clears his throat.) Spanglish and Gringonol have been proclaimed official languages, lingua franca. The controversial Spanglish Only Initiative that in 1992 outlawed the use of English in the Southwest quickly spread throughout the entire Federation. It's mind-blowing. Televisa, CNN, and CBC have joined to create Reali-TV, the largest media empire of the globe, in charge of broad- casting the daily New World Orders. Their slogan is "TV or not to be, that is the question!" And as if this weren't enough, United, American, and Continental Airlines gave up their hegemony to new and more chingonometric companies such as Mexicanada Airlines and the amazing Alas- kan-Patagonian Shuttle...Are there any questions?

CF/GRINGO ACCENT (misspelled): El spanglish y el gringonol han sido proclamadas lenguas oficiales, lingua franca. La controverssial Spanglish Only Iniciativa que en 1992 prohibi6 el uso del ingles en el Southwest, se extendi6 rdpidamenti por toda lafederaci6n. Es mind-blowing. Televisa, CNN, y CBC se han unido para crear Reali-TV, el imperio de los medios de comunicacion mas grande del planeta, a cargo de transmitir los New World Orders cada dia. Su eslogan es "TV or not TV, esa es la pregunta. Y como si esto fuera poco, las lineas aereas de United, American, y Continental cedieron su hegemonia a companias mas nuevas y chingonometricas como Mexicanada de Aviaci6n y el sorprendenti Alaskan-Patagonian Shuttle... Hay alguna pregunta?

(CF doesfart noises as soundbed.)

GP/SLOW DRUNK: Ay!... Reality looks and feels like a cyberpunk film codirected by Jose Marti and Ted Turner on acid; and I, little post-Mexi- can romantic with my permanent poetical erection, cannot help but to ask out loud: Are we closer than ever to Art-maggeddon or are we merely expe- riencing the birth pains of the new millennia? Am I exaggerating or are you out of it?

CF: (Interrupts.) Shut up you Chicanocentric pedero! You theoretical minority!... (Her tone becomes apologetic.) Sorry, this pirate radio broadcast has been authorized by the Department of Transnational Tourism. Whiteout please! (Blackout.)

Prophecy #III: Neo-Natonalism

(CF deliversfascist salute. GP stands behind lecter.) CF/MILITARY CHANT: New World Order, New Disorder, New Word Order, Free Trade Art, Utopia, Utopia 93...(in loop).

(GP doesfascist sounding tongues with megaphone.)

130 Guillermo Gomez-Pena

5. From the New World Border series installment at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (1992)

Miss Discovery (Coco Fusco) auctions off the Third World. (Photo by Glenn Halvorsen)

6. The Warrior for Gringostroika, Guillermo G6mez-Pena, makes his anti-colonial sentiments known during New World Border at the Walker Art Center, Min-

neapolis. (Photo by Glenn

Halvorsen)

GP/ULTRA-MILITANT VOICE WITH REVERB: We witness a resur-

gence of ultranationalist movements together with the rise of the New World Border globalist rhetoric. Quebec, Puerto Rico, Aztlin, South Cen- tral Los Angeles, Yucatan, Panama, and all Indian nations have managed to secede from the new Federation of U.S. Republics. Independent micro-re-

publics are popping up everywhere at the blink of an eye. Verbigratia: (Music: Popol Vuh) The twin cities of San Dollariego and Tijuana have united to form the Maquiladora Republic of San Diejuana. Hong Kong relo- cated to Baja California to constitute the powerful Baja-Kong, the world's

greatest producer of pom and tourist kitsch. The cities of Lost Angeles and

Tokyo share a corporate government calledJapangeles, in charge of oversee-

ing all the financial operations of the Pacific Rim. The Republik of Berke-

ley is the only Marxist-Leninist nation left on the globe. The Caribbean

populations of the East Coast, including Nuyo Rico and Cuba York, have

merged to form the Independent Pan-Carib Nation. They willingly accept refugees from Haiti and Miami. Florida and Cuba now share a corporate junta that holds the cryptic name Lenin, Mas Canosa & Associates. The

nation/city of Mexico D.F. (Detritus Defecalis) now Tesmogtitldn (from the nahuatl nouns tesmog, pollution, and titldn, place) with its 50 million inhabitants and its 800 square miles is presently negotiating its independence from FUSR.

GP AND CF: (Whispering.) FUSR...FUSR...FUSR...

(Pre-recorded sounds of clock.)

VOICE (over sound system): If you guys don't like it here, why don't you go back to where you came from?

(GP and CF put on their "Caucasian" masks. CF begins text in French. CP si-

multaneously translates into English with French accent.)

CF/ACADEMIC VOICE: Le mois dernier, le conference historique sur la paix multiculturelle s'est passe dans plusieurs villes de la Frontiere du Nouveau Monde.


Toutes les villes ont ete connectes par la technologie du video-satellite. L'objectif etait de commencer le processes douloureux de resoudre les resentiments inter-ethnique et la hysterie qui ont et cree par le gringostroika. Quatre principes importants ont ete etablis.Je cite verbatum:

GP/FRENCH ACCENT: Simultaneous translation: Last month, the his- toric Multicultural Peace Conference took place simultaneously in numer- ous cities of the New World Border, all interactively connected through video-satellite technology. The objective was to begin the painful process of working out the interethnic resentments and crosscultural hysteria created by Gringostroika. Four important principles were established. I quote verbatum:

(GP goes to center stage, positions soccer ball, and threatens four times to kick it into the audience while subvocalizing CF's text.)

CF/COMPUTER VOICE: I. No nation, community, or individual can claim racial, sexual, or aesthetic purity. 2. Starting in January of '95, all borders on the American continent will be open. No passport will be required. 3. All nations will operate with only one currency: the mighty peso. 4. Members of monoracial minorities of European descent must be granted equal rights, voting power, and a free multicultural education.

CF/FRENCH NEWSCASTER: On a demande a tous les membres de FUSR d'implementer ces principes ipsofacto. Ceux qui ne veulent pas accepter les regles sufriront un blocage economique. Magister dixit, Reali-TV, caput!

GP/FRENCH ACCENT: (Translating simultaneously) All members of the FUSR have been asked to implement these principles immediately. Those who do not comply will be punished with embargo. Magister dixit, Reali- TV, caput! (Blackout.)

CF/COMPUTER VOICE: Before we continue with this broadcast, I want everyone to repeat after me: "This is art (pause); this is not reality (pause). Reality is no longer real. Thank you. Gracias. Danke Schin."

(The audiencefollows instructions.)

Prophecy #IV: The Melting Plot vs. the Menudo Chowder

(Lights on the audience. Seated on chair, GP drinksfrom shampoo bottle, puts on blond wig, and asks audience:)

GP/GENTLE VOICE: Are there any non-Anglo Europeans in the audience? Can you please raise your hands? (CF counts them.)

(Music: British-Hindu rap by Apachi Indian)

(CF walks into the audience. She touches the heads of audience members while guessing their nationality or race. GP delivers text changing accents abruptly.)

GP/PACHUCO: Hello raza. This is the voice of Gran Vato Charrollero interrupting your coitus as always. Tonight's broadcast is about migration... my gration!

GP/NASAL: This new society is characterized by mass migrations and bizarre interracial relations. As a result of this, new hybrid identities are

132 Guillermo G6mez-Pefia

emerging. All Mexican citizens have turned into Chicanos or Mexkimos and all Canadians have become Chicanadians.

GP/GRINGO: Everyone is now a borderigena, meaning a native of the great border region. According to Transnational Geographic Magazine, 70% of the population in the New World Border is undocumented, and up to 9o% can be technically considered mesti-mulatta, that is the product of at least four racial mixtures.

GP/LATINO: Such is the case of the crazy Chicarricuas, who are the products of Puertorrican-mulatto and Chicano-mestizo parents; and also the in- numerable Germanchurians who descend from the union of West Germans and Manchurian Chinese.

(Song ends. CF goes back to her chair.)

GP/CANTINFLAS-LIKE VOICE: When a Chicaricua marries a Hasidic Jew their child is called Hasidic vato loco. And when a displaced Belgian marries a Chicano, the offspring is called Belga-chica, which loosely translates as "little winnie."

Among the other significantly large half-breed groups are the

Anglomalans, the Afro-Croatians and the Jap-talians, many of whom I see here tonight. It's lovely and very, very post-Columbian, Culombian, may I

say, say...melting plot.

(Music: shamanistic yodelingfrom Panama.)

(GP squats in front of hanging chicken and screams very loudly every 10 seconds while slowly taking off wig.)

CF (with echo): (Go-go dancing) We've replaced the bankrupt notion of the

melting plot with a model that is more germane to the times, that of the menudo chowder. According to this model, most of the ingredients do melt, but some stubborn chunks are condemned merely to float.

The Euro-Americans who resisted interracial love became a nomadic mi-

nority and eventually ended up migrating South to work for maquiladoras and fast-food restaurants. They get paid less than 200 pesos an hour. They are derogatively referred to as waspanos, waspitos, wasperos or waspbacks. These downtrodden people's basic rights are constantly violated, and there is no embassy to defend them.

This alarming "Anglophobia" is based on an absolute fallacy-that "they" have come to take "our" jobs. But the truth is that no hybrid in his or her

right mind, including me, would work for such lousy wages.

(GP stands up, drinks shampoo, and acts disoriented. He addresses the chicken.)

GP/DRUGGIE: Ay, your past is gone for good; my past is gone for good... help me! Estoy perdido....

CF: (Interrupting) Translation please!

GP: ...al norte de un sur inexistente. Me captas cavemicola, mex-plico?

CF: Translation please!

(GP does neanderthal sounds.)

CF: (Angry) Translation please!! GP: OK, OK. Spanish lesson #5. Falsa democracia?

CF: Translation please! (Someonefrom the audience translates.)


GP: Sexual Democracia?


GP: U.S.A. te usa...


GP: Censura no-escultura...


GP: Un Mexicano en E.U. es como un turco en Alemania.


GP: Guera-moment guera...


GP: Me cago en el Nuevo Orden Mundial...


(GP says something in tongues.)

7. Guillermo Gomez- Pefa as the discjockey of the 3rd Apocalypse in a

performance of New World Border at Mu- seum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, I992. (Photo by Isaac

Artenstein)

8. Members of Robo Raza (Left to right: Gregorio Rivera, Guillermo Gomez-Pena, and Bart

Uchida) worship at the altar during Performance

Jamming Session at Boston's The Space in I991. (Photo by Chuck

Meyer)


GP/DIDACTIC: Repeat with me. Los norteamericanos que no aprendieron a hablar espaiol sufrieron una marginacion total. No podian encontrar trabajo y en las escuelas multirraciales se les consideraba retrasados mentales. Aqui con nosotros en el estudio 4 tenemos a varios ejemplos de...(Blackout.)


Prophecy #V: Robo-Raza

(GP puts on "Indian mask" & CF puts on the blond wig. GP kneels and CF stands behind him.)

(Music: excerptfrom "Norte/Sur" radio show.)

(CF mouths then both chant pre-recorded text.)

CF: (Mouthing) Due to pressure from the Mexican Secretaria de Turismo, Huichol and Chamula Indian crafts must remain authentic, at least until I995.

GP AND CF: Authentic Art, Authentic Nostalgia, Quality Control. Au- thentic Art, Authentic Nostalgia, Quality Control (repeat).

(Music interruption #I: Fito Paez. Note: These abrupt and loud music interrup- tions are meant to create the sensation that "someone up there" is sabotaging the show. During them, GP mouths inaudible things to the audience and screams at the technicians, while CF raises cardboard signs with instructions to the audience such as

"Laugh!" or "Look outraged." GP dances like a Hollywood "Indian" around CF. CF stands behind lectern.)

CF (in English) AND GP (in tongues and Calo): A lecture on American pop multiculture. Simultaneous translation: The new transcontinental youths are

global culture cyborgs. Their style of dress is a combination of lowrider

nostalgia, futuristic heavy metal, and "pomo-ethnic" details appropriated from many officially sanctioned traditions. Generically called robo-raza, they rarely love, talk, laugh, or cry. They are aloof, slim, very stylized, and gorgeous-looking. (Music interruption #2: song by Maldita Vecindad) When they speak, they use one language, a blend of Spanglish, Frangle, and Portunol, spiced with calo and borderismos borrowed from Chinese, Tagalo, corporate, and media jargon. Due to their fluency in this trans-border esperanto, a youngster from Sao Paulo has no problem understanding a teen from say Montreal or San Diejuana. However, neither one of them could understand this presentation since it is written for the most part in academic Mexican English.

To them I am merely a monostat, which literally means "a talkative mono-cultural old fart." Since English is now considered Lingua Poluta, this presentation might even be perceived by some of you as a counter-revolutionary act. (Music interruption #3: song by Fito Paez)

The robo-razas hang out in gangas (such as the postmoder ninja-tortas or the floating greasers). When the robo-razas are not sleeping or hanging out in the Mall of Oblivion, they are tuned to their portable 3-D video walkmen. Their sole objective is to avoid Reality #I, a euphemism for what we used to understand as the social difficulties of everyday life in a Western democracy like this one. Depending on the context, this "social reality" can mean interracial warfare, ecocide, homelessness, AIDS, irreversible loneliness, or any combination of the above. (Music interruption #4: Chilean punk)

These youths are too entranced by their virtual reality games to grasp the visceral experiences of racism or hatred for otheress; yet what they've gained in coolness, they've lost in passion for a cause; and what they have achieved in existential fluidity they have lost in depth. They are the chil- dren of Gringostroika and Art-maggeddon, the new citizens of horizontal nothingness. No commitments or convictions: Zero identity. They know better. They don't want their hearts broken and their psyches scratched like ours. Are there any questions? No? Are you sure? (Blackout.)


VOICE (over sound system): Man, these poor people didn't come here to watch this pitiful ethno-techno garbage. Can you put on some salsa or mariachi music and dance like a real Mexican?

Prophecy #VI: The Official Trans-Culture

(GP puts on mariachi hat, jacket, grabs the machete, and walks toward the hanging chicken. CF goes back to her chair. Music: "Tecolotito" by Zazil. He pulls out pul- sating rubber heartfrom his crotch & drinks bloodfrom it. Then he dances "El Jarabe Tapatio" as a drunk while trying to stab the chicken. He misses over and over again and ends up falling down.)

CF/COMPUTERIZED VOICE: The Federation of U.S. Republics' frag- ile sense of self is sustained by a government-sanctioned transnational media culture that is broadcast via Reali-TV, Empty-V, radiorama, and telefax. Its mission is to transmit an idealized and apolitical version of who we are, but unfortunately it must contend with rebels who operate pirate radio and TV stations throughout the continent.

Still, FUSR's experience in overthrowing revolutionary groups has made it clear that the best way to contain rebellion is to offer an easier alternative. That's why they're undertaking the current campaign of the Amigoization of the North, better known as "jalapefio fever." This multicultural consumer training project promotes sexy, colorful, and inoffensive Latino products that range from taco capsules and chili spray to inflatable Fridas and holographic naked mariachis. The jalapeiio fever helps to diffuse the sense of de- spair and the frantic search for spirituality found in today's society.

These efforts mark a drastic change from the early days of the New World Order when democratically-elected fascists like Belse-Bush practiced panic politics via TV in order to maintain a generalized state of fear. Do you remember the "War on Drugs," the "AIDS crisis," the "Invasion of Panama," and the "Baghdad Genocide"-the four most successful miniseries to be produced by the White House? Well, things have really changed. (GP stops dancing and begins to practice hara-kiri in slow motion. Lights off him.)

The CIA joined forces with the DEA and moved to Hollywood to create a movie studio that specializes in producing and distributing multicultural utopias. Free Trade Art can be purchased by mail order. We can travel across the entire continent in a weekend by visiting an expo. Hybrid pop culture airs during primetime on the main channels of Empty- V. The hit program "Pura Bi-Cultura" alone reaches 500 million homes in 20,000 cities throughout the New World Border. Bands that used to be

underground now play their punkarachi, discolmeca, and rap-guanco at NAFTA functions. Transcontinental Radiorama features audio-graffiti art, epic rap poetry, and ethno-musak 24 hours a day. You'll never get bored, even if you want to.

Are your bored? Why? Too many ideas? Not enough action onstage? Not enough action in your life? Not enough salsa picante in your genitalia?

(Pre-recorded sound: excerpt of "Norte/Sur") GP: (mouthing) America is no longer the continent you imagine...Audio- graffiti FM, buscando un nuevo lenguaje para expresar sus temores y deseos inter- culturales...

(Blackout. Excerpt of pre-recorded radio talk show during blackout.)


Prophecy #VII: The Barrios of Resistance

(CF kneels as if praying. GP goes back to chair, puts on holographic glasses and bandanna.)

CF (with echo): In reaction to this official trans-culture, a grassroots octopus with a million tentacles has emerged from below, and hundreds of small pockets of resistance appear everywhere. Together they constitute an invisible artistic continent within the New World Border called Arteamrica Sociedad An6nima.

Tape rolling...

(Music: Brazilian punk)

(While GP delivers thefollowing text, CF puts on a gas mask and performs ritual asahanas.)

GP/LUNATIC, NASAL VOICE: In the barrios of resistance, contemporary versions of the old kilombos, every block has a secret community center. There, the runaway youths called robo-raza II publish anarchist laser-Xerox magazines, edit experimental home videos on police brutality (yes, police brutality still exists), and broadcast pirate radio interventions like this one over the most popular programs of the official Radio Nuevo Orden. These clandestine centers are constantly raided but robo-raza IIjust move the action to the garage next door. Those who get white-listed can no longer get jobs in the Mall of Oblivion. And those who get caught in fraganti, are sent to rehabilitation clinics where they are subjected to instant socialization through em-pedagogic videos (from the Spanish verb empedar, meaning to force someone to drink, and the Mayan noun agogic, to see a man without a self, like many of you).

Since the art market collapsed, artists are no longer needed as image- makers. Most of them have traded making "art" for more useful metiers. They have become borderologos or rather experts on border-crossings, media pirates, and cross-cultural diplomats. In fact many of them collaborate in secret with robo-raza II.

Due to a counter-intelligence program implemented by former dictator Belse-Bush that involved state censorship on the arts and funding cut backs, the "alterative space" network also collapsed. In the absence of "alternative spaces" most successful performeadores (from the Spanglish, to piss on your audience) now appear mano a mano with Tex-Mex rockers at extrava- ganzas staged in abandoned wrestling auditoriums and bullfight arenas like this one. Since Reali-TV doesn't cover these events, we can say that technically they don't exist. (Music fades slowly. GP takes offglasses and changes his voice abruptly.)

(Normal) The only thing left from the old "alternative culture" is a leftist porno channel called Pubic Access TV. It specializes in pomostalgic marxist soap operas. Unfortunately since most people have been de-sexualized and de-politicized only .oooooi% of the population watches Pubic Access TV. In this sense it is a real alternative venue. Have the TV cameras arrived? (Screaming) Where the fuck are the TV cameras? (Dramatic pause: o1 seconds.)

Well, as I was saying, censorship has become the main subject of (he sub-vocalizes as if someone suddenly turns off the volume)...nothing you can do about it. Even the artists ourselves have.... Fear is the sign of...representing a true cross-section of our communities are...

CF/FORCEFUL: Speak maestro!...Speak cofio!...Say what you want!


(He can't speak, experiences pain, and begins to cry out offrustration. Blackout. GP takes off jacket, puts on wrestler mask and Aztec headdress, grabs wooden snake and rug. He sits in lotus position. CF stands behind him and massages him. CF has a crucifix in the right hand and a voodoo doll on the left.)

9. "Censorship Is..." From the 1992 New World Border project,

Prophecy #VIII: The New Paganism Wprd Border project, representatives of the Free Taco Agreement (left to

(Lights on them. GP does meditational "om" then "mocos." Mexican hand sign right: Gomez-Peina equivalent tofuck you.) ~~~~~~equivalent to ~fu~ck you.) pFusco) auction authentic

CF/FAKE SINCERITY: Please stand up, hold hands, and feel the wisdom Free Trade Art at the of the maestro in your genital chacras. Minneapolis's Walker Art

Center. (Photo by Glenn GP/CHANT: Hare krishna, krishnahuatl, hare nalga, hairy nalga... Halvorsen) Halvorsen)


(Music: Mexican new age)

CF: (In trance with closed eyes, interspersed throughout GP's text) iQue diagnostica el doctor? aQue sugiere el diputado? aQue recomienda el chaman? Bajale, bajale, bajale! El es dios! Ella es dios! (Keeps repeating chant until end of this section.)

GP/MEXICAN WRESTLING REFEREE: As Protestantism and Catholi- cism collapse due to their inability to adapt to the Big Change, we witness a logical revival of pagan religions. New hybrid deities are being adored by the confused masses. (He grabs snake and begins to tame it.) Tezcatlipunk, Mexican god of urban wrath is becoming very popular in both Aztldn and Tesmogtitldn. Funkahuatl, the Aztec divinity of Funk has been crowned as the Holy Patron of Califas. Aging pop star Madonna has reincarated as Saint Frida Kahlo. She roams around the nasty streets in search of people who suffer from identity blisters and heals them. Chichicolgatzin, the Guru- esa of strippers is the spiritual avatar of a new age sect from Colorado. Krishnahuatl, the Aztec god of Karma, is revered across the entire Federa- tion of U.S. Republics where thousands of high-tech ashrams infested by world beat gringostanis and gringofarians, provide "the 10 steps to clarity" for a modest amount.

A techno-shrine to Juan Soldado, Holy Patron of border-crossers and migrant workers, now stands on what used to be the San Ysidro border check point. With multi-image projections, the old border saint reminds people of what once was a common yet dangerous experience:

(GP puts down snake, turns around and begins tofondle CF's legs & waist.)

GP AND CF: (Horny and agitated) The crossing from the Third to the First World; from the past to the future, remember?

El cruce, el bordo, el abismo, el sismo, la migra, the spiderweb, the TV cameras, my old performances, your oldest prejudices, the original migration, your great mojado grandparents. Remember? (Blackout.)

Prophecy # IX: Culti-multural Art

(GP squats under chicken, chanting in tongues. He puts on boxing gloves and prays to the chicken. CF is back on her seat. She wears a "Caucasian mask.")

(Sound: excerpt of radio show "Norte/Sur. ")

CF: (Subvocalizes) Yaqui, Seri, Guaycura, Dieguefio, Barona, Seminole, Comanchero, Tuscarora, romantic dots in tourist maps, romantic words in empty ears, cambio de canal.

(Music: generic Latin Muzak. Stands up and begins to box with chicken. He will box until he passes out while saying "I'm beating the Mexican out of myself. ")

CF/COMPUTERIZED: Art about identity is now a dignified form of nostalgia. Nearly every important city in the FUSR has a Museum of Culti- multural Art. They all feature classical shows from the '8os and before as a reminder of what culture used to be before Gringostroika destroyed all tradi- tional borders and categories. Among the most popular traveling exhibits are: "Iooo Ex-minority Artists"; "The Best of Chicano Fundamentalist


Painting (from 1968 to I989)"; "Triple Oppressions: Bi, Mexican, and Handicapped"; and of course, the new show at the San Diego Maquiladora Museum of Contrived Art entitled "Chic-anglo Art on the Borderline."

Last month, a very controversial show opened at the Museum of Lost Identity in Los Angeles. Entitled "Clepto-Mexican Artists of the Early '9os," it includes 30 major Anglo-American painters whose iconography mysteri- ously resembles that of their Mexican contemporaries. (GP stops boxing and freezes. Then, light off him.)

Fem-arte, a collective of Frida-worshiping feminists, picketed the show's opening to protest the lack of Anglo women included in the clepto-Mexican panorama. They all wore body casts and pierced their chests to dramatize their sense of victimization. (GP takes off wrestler mask, puts on "Caucasian" mask, and sits on his chair. Light on him.)

GP/FRENCH ACCENT: Every now and then, these out-dated museums present token Eurocentric shows with insensitive titles such as "The Europasse Vanguard"; "Neo-Geo, coma, a Post-industrial Folk Art"; "Land and Body Art: Early Gringo Tribalism"; "Minimalist Sculpture, coma, Prot- estant Art in an Agnostic Society"; and "The Young German Expression- ists: An Endangered Species." But these kinds of shows are poorly attended and don't seem to perform any real community function, other than fulfilling the extravagant whims of iconoclastic curators.

Two Post-Chicano antropolocos (Richy Lou and Bobby Sanchez) are cur- rently organizing a blackbuster exhibit entitled "Ex-plendors: 3000 Years of White Art," but they are facing tremendous opposition. Minority artists are faulting them for ghettoization and tokenism.

(CF barks during next paragraph.)

GP/NEUROTIC GRINGO ACCENT: No one can escape this wave of reverse racism. A critic from the minority paper, the New York Times, just accused Miss Discovery and I of "latinocentrism" for not having included waspbacks in this show, but the fact is that...their work is simply not good enough! Have you had similar experiences?

Yo no entender un carrayo de porqui la mayorria dominanti de color negro, cafe, o amarillo tenemos que... Shit!

GP/NORMAL VOICE: Cut! Cut!! I don't like this take. It's racist! Let's do it again! Cameras one and two rolling...down...your...psyche. Hasta el fondo y el cansancio. (Blackout.)

Prophecy #X: The Mafias

(GP puts on bandanna and dark glasses, lights a joint. CF next to him with holographic glasses.)

CF/TOURIST GUIDE VOICE: Latinophobe...polyglophobe...ecoracist... criptonationalist...technopuritan...define yourself...define yourself...define yourself... (Lights on them.)

GP/SOFT PACHUCO: Dear citizens of the end of the century. Fear of uncertainty generates sectarianism, therefore mafias are forming everywhere. Their members used to be part of the "cultural elite" during the Belse-Bush years. Though extremely different from one another, these

I40 Guillermo G6mez-Pena

mafias share one objective: to cling to the past in order to experience an optical illusion of continuity and order. The following are some examples. Note that they still utilize the old nomenclature to name themselves:

(Soundbed of animal sounds: cats, dogs, cows, pigs, roosters, and sheep.)

CF/DIDACTIC: Please raise your hands as your group is being mentioned.

(GP continues; CF defines the groups.)

GP: The elite of the artists of color of my generation formed a group called TGAC.

CF: Thin and Gorgeous Artists of Color

GP: They make high-tech postcolonial art and organize symposiums with other members of TGAC from Europe. Their criteria for inclusion are very strict. They don't let me in because my Mexican't moustache and my hipiteca pony tail reveal an obvious lack of sophistication. CF: Are there any members of TGAC here?

GP: Both WWEO...

CF: White Women Experts of Otherness

GP: ...and MGW

CF: Multicultural Gabachos from Wyoming GP: ...claim they are solely responsible for the liberation of the veterans of LVIR.

CF: Leading Victims of Institutionalized Racism

GP: This group was formed by the elite members of the various ex-minority groups who won victim competitions at the Multicultural Olympics of I992. The violent members of SWGAA...

CF: Straight White Guys Are Alright GP: ...couldn't bear the Big Change anymore and went underground. Some people speculate that they asked for political asylum in Germany and England, but to their surprise, they found even more people of color over there. The members of CRF...

CF: Chicken Rights Falange GP: ...a radical wing of the deceased Animal Rights Coalition of the early '9os, roam around theatres and Museums of Natural History picketing events like this one.

CF: Would you please raise your hands?

GP: Composed of ex-Sandinista poets in exile, the Berkeley-based LCS...

CF: La Cosa Sandinostra

GP: ...survives from the selling of political kitsch and meditational revolutionary CDs. Ojo: We must not mistake this mafia with Los Sandalistas which literally means "those bearded gringos with plastic Indian shoes." TAW...

CF: Transsexuales Aztecas Unidos

New World Border I4I

GP: ...commonly know as gaytlanis or putochcas advocate an ardent return to Pre-Columbian group sex practices. The members of BAL...

CF: Born Again Latinos

GP: ...defend a distinct "Latinou" identity at a time when essentialism has been outlawed by the State, and they are very militant about it. They are suspected of the recent bombings of several museums of Culti-multural art. The secret brotherhood of CHAELA...

CF: Chicano Aristocracy from East L.A.

GP: ...believe that Jesus was the first pocho and that Chicanos are the cho- sen race. Their leader, named Vatoman is on death row for conspiracy to overthrow the New World Border. Located in the Independent Republic of Harlem, RAN...

CF: the Real African Nation

GP: ...claims that the entire African continent sold out and that it is no longer African enough. This organization must not be confused with the other RAN...

CF: the Real Aztec Nation

GP: ...which is a group of UCLA anthropologists who swear they have the one and only secret to the Aztec way of life: the untranslatable "tajoditzin." 0 mejor dicho, mejor me callo. I turn on my inner radio.

(GP grabs the machete, walks toward the hanging chicken, grabs its head, and de- capitates it while saying:) GP: Chick...chick...enoh...oh...chi-ca-no...Power! (Blackout.)

FINALE

Two Possible Endings

Ending #I

(The performers, with brown bags covering theirfaces, grab two chairs and sit on the edge of the stage. The technical director delivers the last text. Slowly all house lights come up.) VOICE (over the sound system): The performance is finally over. Would anyone like to spend the night with two sexy AIDS-free Third World performance artists for only $25? Please feel free to walk onstage and touch them, or smell them. The mestizo male weighs 75 kilos and loves German cinema. The mulatta female is shy, very theoretical, and cooks delicious tropical food. They are not trained actors but they have great imagination and charisma.

(Silence. The audience is perplexed. Some finally decide to walk onstage and begin to touch the performers. Loud Mexican rock and roll suddenly breaks the dramatic tension. People begin to applaud.)

Ending #2

(GP walks into the audience and offers the corpse of the chicken to various audience


members. CF returns personal belongings to the wrong people. The performance doesn't finish until someone decides to accept the chicken as an act of commitment. They begin a dialog with the audience.)

CAPUT

Guillermo Gomez-Pe~a is an interdisciplinary artist and writer. His book Warrior for Gringostroika, published by Greywolf Press, came out in October I993.

the new world border- prophecies for the end of the century

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