Tichacoco

I am of Managuara, so-called “El Salvador,” to which I am forever of. I bring and seek tradition, wisdom, and historical accounts from my heritage and community to bear on the contemporary moment and contribute to the reparation of our/my own harmed relationships to life, community, the land, and body. I create other worldly creatures and visceral installations that reflect on the intersections and diffractions of my personal, ancestral, and relational histories. I often mimic patterns and structures from the flora and fauna that symbolize important memories and combine different mediums. Material and the past are alive, sentient, or spirited so I am always guided. The work comes to breathe life through transformation, renewal, and harmony; a process that mutates the mundane into the folkloric mystique. Performing to loved ones across dimensions, they are gifts/odes/offerings. To preserve our memory, my practice involves research and poetry as I rewrite and digest stories that have survived. I focus on my experiences, folklore, the genocidal Salvadoran “civil war,” current events regarding the environmental and human rights crisis, and how they inform/condition our perception of history and ourselves. A critical understanding of history, my deep love for Managuara and all its beings, allow me to grieve… to dream.