Monday, November 3, 2014

And now for something completely different...


On Saturday Rebel Girl returned to her feminist performance arts roots and took to the streets of Santa Ana to bear witness to the 43 students of Iguala, Mexico who have been disappeared, as they say, for over a month now. The occasion was the Noche de Altares, Santa Ana's popular observance of El Dia de los Muertos.

Rebel Girl is wearing a costume she sewed and painted herself, made of newspapers and fliers over a thrift store petticoat.
She was stopped throughout the afternoon and evening by people who wanted photos.


There were three other altars dedicated to the missing students.  Rebel Girl was a kind of a walking altar. She didn't anticipate the response she received, but it couldn't have been better. She had to move slowly through the crowd because people wanted to take photos, many wanted to pose with her, wanted to tell her that their families were from Guerrero, that their uncles had gone to that school, that they knew people who had been disappeared, etc. They wanted to tell her what they felt about the Mexican government and how  sad and angry this event made them. They thanked her for being there. (Most of this in Spanish.)


When Rebel Girl used to do performance art protest like this, it was often in settings where one was not so welcomed. On Saturday, she was so welcomed. It seemed to be the perfect occasion for this. And she didn't have to say anything for the most part. Everyone knew what she was and why she was there and they wanted her to be there.



A demonstration has been called on Thursday November 20 at the Mexican Consulate in Santa Ana.  Meet at  Cabrillo Park at 4:00 and march to the Consulate. 


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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I saw this on BuzzFeed too:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/omarvillegas/breathtaking-photos-from-dia-de-los-muertos

Anonymous said...

On the news just now it says they were all killed.

Anonymous said...

Who is "they"?

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...