ORGULLO
Flag: 36 x 60 inches
Projection: 36 x 60 inches
Video Projection, Polyester, Thread, Nails.
2017
LINK: https://vimeo.com/239186013

While reading Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Politics of Performance by José Esteban Muñoz I started thinking more deeply about the labels that I identify with, focusing on the label “Colombian” rather than the more generalized label of “Latinx/e”. While researching, I realized that there is no such thing as a “Colombian pride flag”. The flags I found while searching for “Colombian gay flags” were representing a binary of the two identities, instead of a fusion. The lack of a recognition and representation for Queer Colombians took on a metaphorical interpretation for me. Therefore, I designed and created a flag for my simultaneous Colombian + Queer identities. This series is about stating my existence not just as Queer Latine person but also specifically as a Queer Colombian and confronting the ideology that being Queer means that I cannot fully love + belong to my country.
Through Muñoz’s writings, I have come to understand that Disidentification is the process of making new inclusive and specific identities possible through the fragmentation of normative identities. My Latinx/e-ness and browness exclude me from the typical Queer narrative. My Queerness excludes me from the typical heterosexual, patriarchal, Colombian narrative. Disidentification is a survival tactic of marginalia and an act of resistance that creates, functions, navigates and invents in the face of assimilation. Through disidentification, QTPOC create places on the margins in which we can exist in an empowered way, and therefore, win.