Meme : @latinacellectuals
What ?
I am interested in challenging elitist and bourgeois ideas of “good taste” (as seen in Bourdieu’s) in the West by exploring the contrasting experiences of Gen Z Latam diaspora.
I believe this would help us redefine narrower understandings of identity, making room for fluidity and kinder interactions.
Why?
Because Latam (Cuban in my case) diaspora aesthetics and customs have long worked in contrast to European (Western) conceptions of “good taste”. The class and race factors play a major role into this. This is not a personal belief, but the result of years of listening to the experiences of other immigrants and going through the words of more stablished writers and academics, for instance, Gloria Anzaldúa.
After having gotten in touch with experts and collected feedback from stakeholders, I have come to the understanding that there is a general interest in this kind of exploration, as well as a desire to experience (to be part of a process or a community/family).
During my research I have struggled to find essays or articles on Gen Z Latam diaspora. This could be due to the fact that Gen Z is quite a recent generation, but also to the fact that it is a very specific group, often neglected. Therefore, we all agree that it would be nice and inspiring to have more representation on the media.
How ?
Through Art . I believe Art works as the perfect medium to rise questions, enable, representation and make an audience part of an experience.
I also think collaborating with other artists and individuals (not necessarily related to the art world) would enhance the project and nourish that feeling of familia.
Some personal context
When I was a teenager I desperately wanted to be perceived as having good taste. I so badly wanted to be accepted by the Spanish upper and middle class because I thought then I will finally achieve a feeling of belonging that I had lacked when I was younger. It is sad to admit, but there was a period of time during these teen years where I was utterly ashamed of my Cuban roots. I had been made fun of and judged because of my curly hair or my body, the way I spoke, the clothes I wore (I was often called tacky) , the music I listened to or our Santeria practices. So I decided to silence all that. I drastically changed the way a looked and dressed, I became a top 10 student, I would spend my days reading classic literature, learning opera, studying art history… And, don’t get me wrong, I genuinely enjoyed these processes. However, my desire to belong in this idea of High Culture was slowly eating me alive. To the point of having a deep identity crisis. But now I am very thankful for that moment of darkness, because it made me realised that I didn’t want to feel ashamed ever again.
The point is that I was not the only person going through this. It happens all the time. I have seen it reflected on my Love Letters exercise or in my Arts & Poetry Night. Thus, I wish to create kinder atmospheres, and I think representation is key.
Now I’m not only proud of my roots, but I am also fascinated about those things that are discarded by High Art / Culture. I want to investigate the reasons behind these decisions, play and mixed them until the boundaries are diffuse, fluid.
For instance, I am fascinated by Syncretism, as in ‘the amalgamation or attempted amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought’. Syncretism is central in the encompassing of Cuban culture. Some of my most vivid experiences of syncretism have been those regarding religion and Cuban Santería, Santería being a syncretism itself (between Yoruba religion and Catholicism). Growing up in Spain and attending a catholic school I would constantly go from playing some batá drums for Changó to going to church on Sundays. In our current systematic organisation there is little space for contrasting ideas to come together. We often find ourselves compelled to choose one or the other, even to the point of sacrificing part of ourselves in order to fit into a category, a binary.