The reason I chose tortillas was because when I was growing up, making tortillas was a communal process. Toda la Familia (All of the family) would gather around one another to share their stories and troubles while making these. There was no pressure on how to make them perfectly, as long as you helped out. Historically, Tortillas have been a stable food in Mexican culture. tortillas were estimated to be first developed around 10,000 B.C. and had become a staple food for many Meso, Aztec, and Mayan societies as it acted as their main source of energy. In a way, it was this very ancestral tool of sustenance that was forming our conversations and providing a space for participants to share their stories.
Tortillas y Escuchar (2021) is a relational aesthetics collaborative project that gives marginalized peoples a space to speak about their experiences while making clay tortillas at the same time. The project is a response to the discrimination I was facing on campus as a Chicana representing places and POC in my artwork. This work was first produced on the SMU college campus. Student’s stories were listened to and experiences of racism on campus were discussed as well as how we can impact change, grow from these experiences, and know that we are not alone.
