Thursday, June 26, 2008

Latina Enough


Here is the audio file of the Latina Enough show, where I was interviewed by Arianna Martinez on Neighborhood Public Radio (installed at the Whitney) about being a Latina in the U.S. Latina Enough is a photo and interview documentary art project, where Latinas are asked five very simple but very revealing questions:

1) Do you consider yourself Latina? Why?

2) Has there ever been a time when you didn't feel Latina enough?

3) Describe a time when you felt too Latina.

4) What would you describe as your most Latina moment?

5) What if anything do you identify as [besides Latina]?

The interview was structured so that I would respond to a question and then clips of other respondents answers to the same questions were played, which was totally interesting for me because I got to hear the breadth of other Latina womens' experiences. I went into the project with a degree of fear and ambivalence because I couldn't honestly say that "Latina" would be a a label that I used to describe myself often or an identity that I felt like I fully owned, but in listening to some other womens' responses I heard a similar ambivalence towards the very fraught term "Latina," I heard my own dissonance and identification.

The final incarnation of Latina Enough is going to be an installation including audio of the interviews and photographs by Molly Stinchfield. More details to be announced.

p.s. in re-listening to my somewhat nervous yammering in that interview I heard the statement drop from my mouth that I started the Ladies' Misbehavior Society, which ignores the fact that the group was co-founded by Annie Maribona (fellow Latina) and Claire Sanberg. My deepest apologies in advance.

picture above from Nikki S. Lee's hispanic project

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