MALA CARA: UN AUTORRETRATO

Mala Cara began as a series of performances I filmed and photographed during my MFA at UCDavis in 2011. I will be updating this page with those images soon. The following is my statement:

“Mala Cara is the skeleton hero that haunts an imaginary place I call Borderlandia; A colorful and vibrant land where people negotiate their place, where people thrive and struggle, and where people resist the idea of unjust borders. For generations Latinas have pushed against gender norms and expectations in their own communities and continue today. When Latinas and women of color express anger, passion, or strong emotions, they are often encouraged to smile to make others comfortable. With one glance, they harness the power to confront these calls, set boundaries, and send warnings. Theorist, Gloria Anzaldúa wrote, “Among Chicanas/Mexicanas, haciendo caras, ‘making faces’ means to put on a face, express feelings by distorting the face--frowning, grimacing, looking sad, glum or disapproving.” For Anzaldua, “haciendo caras” was a politically subversive gesture, “the piercing look that questions or challenges, the look that says, ‘Don’t walk all over me,’ the one that says, “‘Get out of my face.’”

In 2020, I was invited to create an interactive performance art piece for Transmissions at ICOSA Collective in Austin, TX. Here is the exhibition statement from the curators: Terra Goolsby and Tammie Rubin: “There is disruption. We cannot physically interact, connect, or share experiences, so where does that leave the act of performance? Transmissions is a platform of investigation: What’s performance without the expectations of the traditional “live” shared experiences? How to create intimacy and connection mediated through limited audiences, projected, and virtual transmissions? Is it possible to trigger an emotive response through distance? By removing the audience from making, what will artists explore?”

Here is the documentation of that ritual.

This year I created mini-prints of my 2011 images of Mala Cara. And after some world-building I created a two new videos of Mala Cara applying her makeup.

Follow the link to a gallery of Mala Cara’s self-portraits.