Inspiration in the ‘in-between’
Alana Hernandez is bringing an added element of diversity to her curatorial work at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. As assistant curator at the museum, she’s organized multiple exhibitions, including the current “To Tame a Wild Tongue: Art after Chicanismo.” Today, this digital exhibition includes an online reading of the work of noted scholar and theorist, Gloria Anzaldúa’s best known work, “Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza.”
“I wanted to organize the reading, first to pay homage to Anzaldúa, whose chapter inf luenced the title of the show and the theoretical grounding,” Hernandez says. “Her book, completed in 1987, still holds incredible resonance today, especially given the increasingly xenophobic attitudes toward Latinx communities in the United States. It is also during our very digital moment that I hope to bring Anzaldúa’s words to new audiences.”
The reading begins at 11 a.m. today, streaming from the museum’s YouTube channel at mcasd.org/reading. Artists, curators, academics and students from all over the country are participating by reading this seminal work aloud, and both this reading and the exhibition explore concepts of identity, code switching and the diversity of the Mexican and Mexican American experiences.
Hernandez, 28, lives in Sherman Heights with her husband and their cat, Frida. She’s previously worked in curating, research and writing at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Hunter East Harlem Gallery (both in New York), as well as at Paramo in Mexico, and her writing will appear in the upcoming “Grove Encyclopedia of Latin American Art and Architecture.” She took some time to talk about today’s reading, Anzaldua’s inf luence, and getting more diverse stories and perspectives to new audiences.
Q:
Why was this an event you wanted to tie to the museum’s online exhibition, “To Tame a Wild Tongue: Art After Chicanismo”? What’s the connection between the two?
A:
The exhibition takes its title from chapter five of Anzaldúa’s text, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” which highlights language as a source of diversity in cultural identity. It is also Anzaldúa’s constant “code-switching ” between English, Spanish, Tex-Mex and Indigenous dialects that foregrounds the idea that it is impossible, as people of the borderlands, to have one singular identity. The exhibition highlighted artists, all from the museum’s collection, who may or may not identify as Chicano/Chicana/ Chicanx, but all of whom explored diverse concepts surrounding social, cultural and political issues affecting those on either side of the border.
Q:
You have a significant background in curating, researching and writing about Latin American art, with a master’s degree in Latin American contemporary and modern art, and positions with museums in New York, Arizona, Mexico, and now at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Has Anzaldúa’s work had any influence on your own work in the art world?
A:
Within the last four years, I have focused my curatorial practice on art from Latin America and U.S. Latinx. I would say, as a Mexican American curator, Anzaldúa’s inf luence of occupying the in-between has been incredibly inf luential to me personally and professionally. It is her fierce advocacy of the oppressed that has been continually inspiring in forging my career.
Q:
What are some of the themes being explored in this reading on Saturday? And what do those themes reveal about the experience of navigating the borderlands?
A:
Anzaldúa’s book is semiautobiographical and takes up themes of home, belonging, identity, culture, physical location, history and myth alongside personal anecdotes. She does so through the lens of queerness.
Q:
On MCASD’s website, it says that Anzaldúa’s “pivotal text continues to be revolutionary in underscoring a livelihood and vernacular specific to those who navigate the borderlands.” What are some ways in which the culture and livelihood of the borderlands differs from other places? And how does this show up in the art created by artists exploring aspects of the Mexican American experience?
A:
I would say the “borderlands” here is not just the physical boundary between the United States and Mexico, but also a state of consciousness. Of someone occupying the in-between, neither here nor there. This
“inbetweenness” is something that many artists in this show often negotiate, seen in depictions of archetypal figures of resistance, or in picturing often unseen aspects of life.
Q:
What is the significance of holding this reading today, on Dec. 12, the feast day of the Virgen de Guadalupe?
A:
As a figure, the Virgin has been linked to the Chicano/ a/x experience. The Virgin occupies a contradictory space, representing pious, yet regressive, sexual politics while signifying racial solidarity and bold disobedience for Anzaldúa and other Chicanx feminists.
Q:
What do you hope people gain from attending this virtual reading?
A:
I hope Anzaldúa’s words resonate with the people listening, specifically in regard to visibility of Latinx communities.
I am hopeful that hearing and seeing the different participants aloud shows the supreme diversity that exists in Mexican and Mexican American communities.
Q:
What’s been challenging about your work with this exhibition and reading?
A:
I would say the sensitivity around identity is always challenging, and it is important to be sensitive and thorough.
Q:
What’s been rewarding about this work?
A:
I am pleased that this exhibition and the reading both provide a greater visibility to Latinx artists and cultural workers, often left out of larger conversations of “American art” and out of mainstream institutions.
Q:
What has this work taught you about yourself ?
A:
The importance of having diverse stories and perspectives shown on the museum’s walls (or in this case, digitally).
Q:
What is the best advice you’ve ever received? A:
I’ve been fortunate to have many mentors, making for a cache of incredible advice. Difficult to pick one, but I would say it’s when you are so focused on something, remember to look up and look around. Don’t lose sight on why you are doing what you’re doing.
Q:
What is one thing people would be surprised to find out about you?
A:
I had a very non-traditional arts background. I was an athlete all of my life, and in college I played D1 (Division I) water polo and swam. I only arrived at art history in my junior year in college.
Q:
Please describe your ideal San Diego weekend. A:
When it’s warm (and COVID-19 aside) I do like being able to go to the beach or spend time in the park. Certainly, always nice to see exhibitions at spaces like Bread & Salt and Best Practice.