Paola Perez

Conceptual and Performance Art Seminar

5/8/12
"This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To
view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/."

Diversity in Performance:
Construction of Identity and Race in Contemporary Latina Performance Art

Within the discourse of the feminist movement emerging in the 1960s

and 1970s, womens performance art directly confronted patriarchal
institutions, thereby ultimately aiming to confront issues entrenched in
dominant culture.

Fortuitously, the civil rights movement coincided with the

womens movementcreating a fertile atmosphere for addressing the

intersectionality of inequality. Women of color had to confront a gender bias
and racism within the institution vis vis systematic societal exclusion. This
conflict intriguingly politicized Latina artists like Ana Mendieta, Coco Fusco,
and Vaginal Crme Davis by not only challenging the status of women
within heternormative institutions but their position within a racialized
society as well. These artists works explore the interplay of these identities,
with the aim that innovative representations of femininity and race can allow
women to simultaneously construct a more fluid identity, while
deconstructing pervasive power relations.

Jeanie Forte, Womens Performance Art: Feminism and Postmodernism,

Theater Journal, Vol. 40, no. 2. (May, 1988): 217.
1

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Ana Mendietas work reconciles the struggle of her political exile from Cuba
at the age of twelve with the discrimination she encountered as a woman of
color in the United States.2 She was ostracized for the color of her skin and
her nationality, causing a disruption in her identity.3 I was looked at by the
people in the midwest[sic] as a erotic being (myth of the hot Latin),
aggressive, and sort of evil.4 The perception of an inherent evil within her,
a negative stereotype she was unable to subvert, was the prominent cause
of her feelings of isolation and rejection: This created a very rebellious
attitude in me until it sort of exploded inside me and I became aware of my
own being, my own existence as a very particular and singular being. This
Charles Merewether, From Inscription to Dissolution: An Essay on
Expenditure in the Work of Ana Mendieta, Corpus Delecti, ed. Coco Fusco,
(2000): 139.
2

At this time the United States was engaged in the Cold War against Cuba,
Russia, and any country with possible ties to communism. Her father had
originally joined Castros Revolution to remove Batista from power, but once
he came in power with his communist agenda her father joined the
counterrevolutionary movement. His involvement with the Bay of Pigs led to
his incarceration, which forced his family to send Ana and her sister to the
United States under the auspices of Operation Peter Pan. This religious based
operation sponsored flights to take children out of Cuba into the United
States, but with no family in the country Ana was placed in foster care and
orphanages in Iowa.
3

Charles Merewether, From Inscription to Dissolution: An Essay on

Expenditure in the Work of Ana Mendieta, Corpus Delecti, ed. Coco Fusco,
(2000): 142.
4

3
discovery was a form of seeing myself separate from others, alone. This
search for a home, a space where she could embrace displacement and
combine created in Mendieta a fracture, manifests in her work Blood Writing,
1974, (Fig. 1).
In Blood Writing she dips her hand into a bucket of blood creating an
arch on the wall. Facing the wall as close as possible she encloses herself
within the arch, kneels in front of it then writes there is a devil inside me.
She proceeds to stand up and walk away, ending the performance by
breaking the confines of the arch. This is not proclamation of true demonic
possession, as proposed by Charles Merewether in his essay From Inscription
to Dissolution: an Essay on Expenditure in the Work of Ana Mendieta, but a
rejection of the projected identity society imposes upon people of color.5 It is
a physical depiction of the myth and stereotype she has had to contend with,
confronting the viewer and in turn society, with the limitations imposed on
her. What Mendieta emphasizes in the work is the body as woman, and as

5 Merewether argues that she "appears as if possessed, when she performs

Blood Writing as a form of masochistic economy of the Christian to distance
herself from the symbolic or institutional power, to dissolve the boundaries of
Otherness. I am suggesting that her piece is not only rooted in Christian
associations attached to the Other when the Americas were colonized, but
also a direct political confrontation to the United States treatment of all
minorities.

4
an instrument and material for the production of art. Art becomes both a
form of expenditure and transgressive form of reinscription.6 She objectifies
herself in order to declare and then reclaim not only her space, but more
importantly the space Latinas are forced to inhabit.
The use of blood in the piece connects to the artists dual fascination
with life and death.7 In this use of blood as a medium, a primary source of life
contained within the body, she gives interiority a tangible and undeniable
exteriority. Blood is also associated with a womans ability to give life; thus,
through the use of blood in these piece, she gives a heretofore denied
subjectivity to her emotionsa staunch reclamation of her identity. She
creates a room of her own, a la Virginia Woolf, where she can be free to
create her art and, by implicit extension, her autonomous self.
Although the feminist movement was happening at the same time as the
civil rights movement, representations of women of color were utterly
inadequate. Lucy Lippards Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object,
a chronological compilation of conceptual and performance art from 1966 to
1972, neglects to incorporate women of color in the discourse (such as

Ibid, 142.

Ibid.

5
Mendieta, who began performing in 1972).8 Mendieta manifests her
disillusionment toward the feminist movement, particularly in regard to its
homogeneous and heteronormative approach: During the mid to late 60s as
women in the United States politicized themselves and came together in the
Feminist Movement with the purpose to end domination and exploitation by
the white male culture, they failed to remember us. American feminism as it
stands is basically a white middle class movement.9 She emphasizes that
the exclusion of different narratives in progressive social movements not
only diminishes the power it has for change, but freezes the ability of the
privileged members for future growth and fluidity. Moreover, minorities which
happen to gain equality within a dysfunctional system problematically gain
dominion over neglected identities, thereby continuing to subjugate other
members of society. This transference of power potentially causes
detrimental societal relations; the equalizing power of the movement can be
called into question and be subject to a critical backlash, potentially taking
back all the benefits gained.

Lucy Lippard, . Escape Attempts, Authors Notes, Preface, and Postface,

Six Years: The Demateralization of the Art Object. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1997.
8

Kaira M. Cabaas, Ana Mendieta: Pain of Cuba, Body I Am, Womans Art
Journal, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Spring Summer, 1999): 16.
9

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In Mendietas Silueta Pieces, 1975, (Fig. 2), she removes herself as the
material object in her art and works directly with the landscape.10 She
creates her silhouette out of paint, ashes, flowers, stones, etc. on different
surfacesin essence, literally leaving her mark upon the earth. Because the
home she was denied from her home due to exile, the merger of her body
with a distant land allows her to deposit and recreate her subjecthood
throughout different physical sites. The roots she so desperately needs to
forge with her culture take form by carving out her body in the environment
as a means to reconcile her feelings as a foreigner since arriving in the
United States. Mendieta notes in other words that little bit of earth will make
possible the transition between the two homes.11 This disjunction creates an
overwhelming source of grief for many immigrants and their children: not
having a space where one can feel at home because of a transitory existence
in between these two locationstwo locations in which society always
marginalizes the immigrant as the other. Personal identity closely ties with
nationality and, by extension, a nation is created by the communities that
inhabit it. Therefore the destruction of communal ties takes away a persons
sense of safety and comfortan arguably fundamental part of their
emotional well being and, in a certain sense, functionality.
10

Charles Merewether, From Inscription to Dissolution,143.

11

Ibid,144.

7
The Silueta Pieces display a sense of beautiful aesthetic construction.
The outlines of her body contrast with the surrounding space but never
raucously compete. They effortlessly blend within the confines of the space
chosen, but retain their individuality through their shape. Her outline repeats
itself throughout the land, often with her arms up high in a sense of praise or
triumphant rejoice. The works transmit a sense of peace and isolation, but
they are captured by a photographer who had to be present. Their seemingly
autonomous presence becomes the Beholder, actively creating an intimate
connection forged by the artist. The pieces organic yet ephemeral nature
adds another layer of intimacy, because the viewer feels privileged to have
the opportunity to witness an act verging on an infusion with nature. The
elements of the work are delicate and feminine because of their material and
shape, yet mysterious and elusive because of the implications of transition.
Charles Merewether calls these works the negative dialectics of exile.
It occupies a borderland, homelessness, a solitude that yearns for an
imagined community, yet yields to living out a community of absence.12 The
spiritual and thus private aspects of her work thicken the political
implications posited, from her exile to her continuous feelings as an outsider.
A victim of the Cold War, as well as an active participant in feminist and civil
rights discourse, Ana Mendieta through her innovative body of work

12

Ibid, 145.

8
proposed a different representation of a Latina that clearly influenced future
artists like Coco Fusco and Vaginal Davis.
Coco Fusco confronts political and social issues within the Latin community
with an overtly feminist perspective. She declares, I wanted to break the
tropicalist stereotypes about Latin American performativity and to unhinge
the tokenist approach that characterized much cultural diversity
programming, limiting it to the repeated presentation of one or two name
artist.13 In her piece Dolores from 10 to 10, 2001, (Fig. 3), she performs as
Dolores, a woman who:
In a not so faraway free trade zone at the northern edge of Mexico,
cobbled machines together for a living was accused of trouble making
at her job. Her boss locked her up in an office without food or water or
a phone. He tried over and over to persuade her into signing a letter of
resignation. He watched her to see if she would break down. She held
out for twelve hours, and later she sued the company. Her boss told
the judge that she was crazy and that it never happened and no one
would claim to have seen her. This piece is based on a story that no
one saw. 14

The performance chronicles the twelve hours during which Dolores had to
endure, tormented and held hostage in her place of work. We watch her
Coco Fusco, Introduction: Latin American Performance and the
Reconquista of Civic Space, Corpus Delecti, Edited by Coco Fusco, (2000): 2.
13

14 Coco Fusco. Dolores from 10 to 10. Accessed April 21, 2012.

http://www.thing.net/~cocofusco/performance.htm.

9
boss, played by Ricardo Dominguez, push and bully Doloresand yet, her
determination prevails. Ultimately, she is not only abused by her boss but by
the justice system as well. This piece not only brings attention to the
inequality in the justice system suffered by all women, but more specifically
addresses the injustices which affect impoverished women of color in the
United States and third world countries.
Through her portrayal of Dolores, Coco bestows this character a sense
of legitimacy and agency. The public reconstruction of a story no one claimed
to see exposes the interior mechanism perpetuating the previously hidden
injustice. Although this work is an undoubtedly uncomfortable event to
witness, it is within this discomfort that a testament to the feminist unity and
love emerges triumphantly. Cocos performance aims to honor another
womans struggle and hardshipthe artists empathy reified by literally
putting herself in her place through, ostensibly, one of the worst times in
Dolores life. As Jeanie Forte proposes, As a destructive strategy, womens
performance art is a discourse of the objectified other, within a context which
foregrounds the conventions and expectations of modernism.15 The legacy
of the feminist movement from the 60s and 70s is apparent in the piece by
its depiction of the objectified other, alongside its use of technology to

Jeanie Forte, Womens Performance Art, 218. The problematic issue I

find with Jeanie Fortes article delineating womens performance art is she
continues the same white homogeneous assessment as Lucy Lippard.
Women of color are ignored.
15

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heighten the effect. Coco uses multiple surveillance cameras, which provide
the viewer with different angles, all shot in black and white with no sound.
The words appear on the bottom of the screen, which actively engage the
viewer in the characterization of Dolores and her boss Jorge. Their body
language is how the actors communicate to the viewer, bringing in
theatricality to create disruptive and noticeable action.16
In Sudaca Enterprises Fusco, along with Juan Pablo Ballester and Maria
Elena Escalona, dress in ski masks and Quechua knit hats sold t-shirts at
ARCO, a Latino art fair held in Spain.
The t-shirt text compares and contrasts the price of Latin American art
in Europe and the cost of selling it at ARCO with the cost of surviving as
an undocumented Latin American immigrant in Spain. Over three days,
the performers were removed several times by ARCO security for not
having paid for space to sell their wares; then they were stopped from
selling inside a booth, and finally were ejected for keeping their faces
covered. SUDACA is a derogatory term used in Spain to refer to
Latinos, meaning dirty southerner.17

Throughout this performance Coco was harassed by a male Mexican

critic and his associates because of a negative review of an art work she had
Shannon Jackson, Staged Management: Theatricality and Institutional
Critique, Social Works: Performing Art, Supporting Publics, (Routledge,
2001): 108.
16

Coco Fusco. Sudaca Enterprises. Accessed April 21, 2012.

http://www.thing.net/~cocofusco/performance.htm.
17

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given a Mexican artist.18 This work not only addresses the racism still present
since the colonial era in Spain and throughout Europe, but the sexism within
the Latino communityevidenced with blatant inaction. As an artist and
critic it is perfectly valid for her to express aesthetic dislike for a particular
piece; thus making the disruption, physical altercation, and insults directed
toward her an undeniable transgression. In the piece she intersects the racial
bias against all Latinos with those against women. The work was successful
on two levels, first demonstrating the inequality in ARCOs selling practices
and the European buyers prejudice, as well as demonstrating the sexism still
prevalent in Latino communities, which catastrophically subverts the
progress of racial equality.
Coco Fuscos work deals with several layers of problems that plague
not only art institutions but society at large. Her work is confrontational and
direct, and she creates change through action. She is not a passive nor an
ambiguous performer. Her body and voice are her primary medium thus
constructing pieces which directly involve the viewer, reflecting their role
within the socio-political and economic sphere. Their positionality, whether
positive, negative, or somewhere in between, becomes an interpretative and
thus a subjectively internal process.

Coco Fusco, Introduction: Latin American Performance and the

Reconquista of Civic Space, Corpus Delecti. Edited by Coco Fusco, ( 2000),
18-20.
18

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Vaginal Crme Davis work not only highlights issues within the queer
community but difficulties women face as well. Stereotypes are confronted
through her pieces on what a woman is or should look likea confrontation
effected by her own experience as a transgendered woman of color. As Jos
Esteban Muoz states, her performances produce socially interrogative
performances that complicate any easy understanding of race or ethnicity
within the social matrix.19 These new explorations provide a unique and
heretofore unavailable perspective, thus presenting possible solutions to the
problems the Latina community still endures. Although there have been
some improvements since Ana Mendietas Blood Writing in 1974, many
issues undoubtedly permeate multiple vectors of society. Culture is fluid,
constantly in flux, which is why the inclusion of subversive and disarming
women like Vaginal Davis present a unique opportunity to explore neglected
facets of intolerance.
Her work with the band Cholita! (Fig. 5), an all girl Latin pop-punk band
(billed as the female Menudo) mixes main stream performance with an
unconventional look.20 It is this unconventionality which lends her
Jos Esteban Muoz, The White to Be Angry: Vaginal Crme Daviss
Terrorist Drag. Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance
Politics (Minnesota, 1998): 97.
19

20 Ibid, 95. Like its male counterpart the members of Cholita! are kicked out
of the band by age 16.

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performances a unique power within the feminist and Latina community;
through this defamiliarization and unexplored depictions of gender and race,
the viewer inevitably interacts with issues perpetuated by established norms.
The band is comprised of both men and women in teenage Chicana drag.
Davis is Graciela Grejalva, age thirteen, with bright orange hair at over sixfeet tall; fifteen-year-old Sad Girl; and twelve-year-old Lupita.21 They create a
space of positive and powerful female energy, inciting hope that change can
occur within mainstream culture, were it to embrace different
representations of gender.
A critic aptly describes, According to Daviss own self-generated legend, her
existence is the result of an illicit encounter between her then forty-five-yearold African-American mother and her father, who was at the time, a twentyone-year-old Mexican-American.22 Whether this story is objectively real or
not does not make a difference in her ability to be effective through her
performance. She is a woman of color embodying and confronting the same
issues as Coco Fusco or Ana Mendieta, just in a different space and through
different representations. She uses humor and camp to facilitate the

Cholita! The Story of Cholita! The Female Menudo. Accessed May 3,

2012. http://www.alicebag.com/cholitastoryof.html.
21

22

Jos Esteban Muoz, The White to Be Angry, 95.

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message, embodying what Jill Dolan refers to as utopian performative.23
Her article discusses the notion that utopia can be imagined or experienced
affectively, through feelings, in small, incremental moments that
performance can provide.24 Performance allows the viewer to explore these
momentary experiences in a space where possibilities become realities;
where the tall queer brown girl, the epitome of the Other, is the charismatic
lead singer of a pop banda cultural artifact which illustrates inclusion.
As a transgender woman clearly not trying to pass and incorporate
herself into heternormative life, but rather creating her own identity and
space, she breaks the viewers automatic perception and passivity. Through
Jill Dolan. Performance, Utopia, and the Utopian Performative. Theater
Journal, Vol. 53, No. 3 (October, 2001): 460.
23

24 Ibid. In her article Jill Dolan proposes that through performance, the
viewer can experience what utopia would feel like, rather than constructed
by which the spectator would become mobilized to create change to recreate
that feeling. She acknowledges her argument is highly optimistic, but can be
achieved. This argument seems too simplistic to solve all issues plaguing
society and does not take into consideration that not everyone has access to
attend performative piece. This does not mean that utopian performative
cannot happen, just that her vision of creating an actual utopia through
viewership seems highly unlikely.

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fiction at every point of the performance, the spectator confronts, at every
juncture, the possibility/denial of becoming an independent agent and
socially aware.25 The viewer becomes inevitably politicized, as they are
confronted with a new image of femininity and race, with Vaginal Davis as
the revolutionary political agent.
With her more racially charged band Pedro, Muriel, and Esther aka
PME, (Fig. 6), a speed metal band, she produced the CD and live show The
White to be Angry.26 In this performance she becomes Clarence, the
oppressor who embodies the stereotypical attributes of a white supremacist
male. As Clarence, she represents the fear white males express in right-wing
movements (as proposed by Munoz), but through her parody she also
addresses the inherent racism, sexism, and homophobia within the Latino
community.27 Through her extreme parody of a bigoted white male, she
demonstrates the absurdities of the logic which buttresses prejudicial
ideology. Although both the Latino and queer community are both
disenfranchised and, arguably, suffer from similar disadvantages within
dominant society, they have not united to further their efforts in creating
Bertolt Brecht, The Street Scene as a Basic Model for Epic Theater,
Brecht on Theater, Translated by John Willet, (1950): 1.
25

26

Jos Esteban Muoz, The White to Be Angry, 102.

27 Ibid, 105.

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changea harmful disjunction perpetuated, largely in part, due to these
nonsensical attitudes.
Different narratives and experiences provide a solution not only to the
issues of heterogeneity and homogeneity defining in American society; more
importantly, through the fusion of various minority discourses, the public can
obtain clarity and if not effect proactive change, at least the foundering of
progressive hope. Through examining the works of three Latina artists we
can see a wide range between their modes of depiction, representation, and
medium. There are connections one can discern between the three
performers works, pertaining to issues of gender, sexuality, and race. All
three women contest not only institutionally hegemonic but, more subtly, the
internal issues within the Latino community. Jos Esteban Muoz summarizes
it best, the question is no longer to know whether one will play feminine
against masculine or the reverse, but to make bodies, all bodies, break away
from the representations and restraints on the social body.28 This
sentiment, ultimately, underscores the aim of all social beings: the freedom
to create our own identity without suffocating limitations and institutional
restraints.

28 Ibid, 100.

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