Art and Nonbeing
In the zone of Nonbeing that borders force us into, it is art that asserts our humanity and the right to our bodies and their sacredness.
Monday evening I received a google drive link to a project my seven year old daughter and I had the privilege of participating in alongside other parents and their children for the Nuestras Historias exhibit at the Museo de Las Americas. Artist, Andrea Garcia Vasquez shared her heartfelt experience putting together our group’s audio letters of belonging along with the link for me to watch the video at home.
At my desk I click on the google drive link and open up the video to a 3D world of a generic North American suburb and the voice of my seven year old daughter telling me about what makes her feel like she belongs. After not being able to cry for weeks, the tears poured out of me. The audio of me reading my letter about finding belonging in my matrilineal lineage is overlayed onto a video of baby Andrea dancing in a living room with her mother and grandmother. They dance with her, pick her up and hold her over their laps, in their arms. Her grandmother and mother hold a white broom …
