A hand projected on a screen in Thorne Hall auditorium placed a black, cross-less rosary over two teddy bear keychains that were lying face-up, head to head, on a table.
The hand belonged to performer Balitrónica Gómez, a core member of the performance troupe La Pocha Nostra.
According to the troupe’s website, “Balitrónica [Gómez] is a cyborg-feminist poet, performance artist, hereditary witch, 2nd Degree, Cabot Priestess, and co-Artistic director of La Pocha Nostra.”
The troupe brought a show to Occidental Sept. 10, “The Mex Files: A Divination Ritual & Duet,” which was attended by over 100 people and including attendees affiliated with La Pocha Nostra. Three local artists who attended the Sept. 10 show — Yunuen Rhi, Shaghayegh Cyrous and Paula Graciela Kahn — all said they had been a part of one of La Pocha Nostra’s world-renowned ‘La Pocha Workshops’ which mainly take place in San Francisco, Mexico City, Oaxaca and LA.
La Pocha Nostra refer to themselves as a nonprofit ‘transdisciplinary arts organization’ which provides support for artists from a large variety of backgrounds, emphasizing collaboration across borders. They cite a quote from Spanish newspaper El Pais on the same page, who claim the group is ‘the most influential Latino performance art troupe of the last 10 years.’
According to Media Arts & Culture (MAC) professor Katarzyna Marciniak, being familiar with the work of artistic director Guillermo Gómez-Peña, she personally invited La Pocha Nostra to come show some of their recent projects.
In addition to the live performance, La Pocha Nostra presented a screening of some of their experimental films for the Occidental community. This took place in Choi Auditorium Sept. 12.
“I used to say I perform therefore I exist,” Gómez-Peña said, “Now I can say, I make shitty movies therefore I really exist.”
Gómez asked the audience if any of them wanted to give confession before the show. 30 of them obliged, speaking in hushed voices as individuals from the audience slowly proceeded one by one down the red aisles to her table on the stage.
Gómez-Peña suddenly appeared, standing at the edge of the stage. He was standing completely still, turned towards Gómez.
The last of the confessions were announced, and then Gómez-Peña moved his head up to the ceiling, his eyes cast downward. The audience stayed silent as he walked with intention to a podium right-stage.
“I promise,” Gómez-Peña said, clearing his throat, “No animals, aliens, children or white people were harmed in the making of this project.”
Then Gómez put on one of her four pairs of sunglasses, took a sip from a Diet Coke on her table and sent a black ball into the roulette wheel.
“36 Red,” Gómez said.
She drew a tarot card.
“The Wheel of Fortune,” Gómez said.
Gómez-Peña peered down at a table filled with scripts.
“The word neighborhood comes to mind,” Gómez-Peña said, “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, it’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, would you be mine, said the border control.”
He sang for the next couple minutes to ‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,’ a tune from ‘Mister Roger’s Neighborhood.’
“Would you be mine, said your local police,” Gómez-Peña said.
The Harris-Trump presidential debate took place at the same time as the show, and members of the audience Emma Tiedemann (senior) and Isaac Ramirez (senior) said that Gómez and Gómez-Peña’s improvisations seemed to have the debate in mind.
“Politicians have hijacked our imaginations with fear, [which is] maybe worse than taking our civil rights,” Gómez-Peña said.
Contact Grace Gonsalves at gonsalves@oxy.edu
