Adorned with rattles - Koyoltzintli
In the absence of a Codex or Quipu how do we know the use of ceremonial sound instruments—objects once abundant across the Americas/Abya Yala?
To create these images, I draw on a variety of sources: archaeological records, field studies, and the early writings of Franciscans and Jesuits documenting their first encounters with Indigenous peoples. I also gather knowledge from my family, the land of my ancestral homelands, and a lifetime of listening to elders around the fire, observing how certain ceremonies sustain the vital energy of life.
These photographs seek to build a diasporic archive, while questioning how we produce images for the present that are rooted in a future-past. In doing so, they subvert the colonial use of photography, offering a counter-narrative that challenges its historical role in shaping perception.
It is said that the first Vulva emerged from the ocean. As she woke up from eons, she felt the sand beneath her, the water ebbing and flooding. She was delighted and astounded; the world of the land seemed so different from the world of the ocean. She could not float anymore, nor create at will, for a while she stood by the shore, looking up at the sky feeling the breeze. However, immobile, and with cravings, she decided to ask the birds to gather for her a drop of fresh water, a dollop of the finest sand and a shell full of soil, with these, she will make a form that can carry her.
