Woman's Art Inc.

Ana Mendieta: "Pain of Cuba, Body I Am"

Author(s): Kaira M. Cabañas
Source: Woman's Art Journal, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Spring - Summer, 1999), pp. 12-17
Published by: Woman's Art Inc.
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 P0RTRAITS
ANA MENDIETA
"PainofCuba, bodyI am
By Kaira M. Cabafias
ropic Ana,' as she liked to be called, was born in Havana,
Cuba, in 1948, into an aristocraticfamilythathad played
a significant role in that nation's history. Like many
Cubans in the late 1950s, the Mendieta familyoriginallysupport-
ed Castro's struggleagainstBatista's rule. However, once he was
in power, the rumorsof Castro's communistidentificationwere
confirmed,and Ana's father,Ignacio, quicklybroke with Fidel
and engaged in counterrevolutionary Ignacio Mendieta's
activity.2
involvementin the Bay of Pigs led to his 18-yearconfinementin
one of Cuba's politicalprisons.
As the Mendieta familygrew increasinglyconcerned over the
futureof theircountry,theydecided to send theirchildrento the
United States under the auspices of Operation Peter Pan.3 On
September11, 1961, Ana, 12, and her sisterRaquel, 15, arrivedat
Miami InternationalAirport,but unlike manyof the other chil-
dren sentto the United States,the Mendieta sistershad no family
there.Afterspendingtheirfirstfewweeks in refugeecamps,they
were sent to Dubuque, Iowa, where theymoved fromorphanage
to fosterhome to orphanage.
In the Midwest,the girlsexperiencednot onlya new environ-
ment but a new sense of difference,compounded during their
adolescence by the intense racial climateduringthe Civil Rights
Movement.Althoughtheirskinwas "white,"Ana and Raquel be-
came targetsof racism.During highschool in the late 1960s,their
classmates called Ana "nigger"and told her, "Go back to Cuba,
you whore."4 These experiences exacerbated their feelings of
alienationand displacement,and, accordingly,both women later
began identifying themselvesas "non-white."5
The girls were reunited with their mother, Raquel, and
youngerbrother,Ignacio, in January1966, but it was not until
1979 thattheirfatherwas able to join the family,now settledin
Cedar Rapids. Ana had developed an interestin paintingand stud-
ied at the University of Iowa, receivinga B.A. in artin 1969 and an
M.A. in paintingin 1972. Soon after,though,she gave up painting
because "itwasn'treal enough.""Asshe laterexplained,"The turn-
ing pointin myartwas in 1972 when I realized mypaintingswere
not real enough forwhat I wanted the image to convey-and by
real I mean I wantedmyimagesto have power,to be magic."'7
Mendieta enrolled in Iowa's more experimental,multimedia
M.F.A. program,where she was exposed to such visitingartistsas
RobertWilson,Vito Accioni,and Nam JunePaik. Their emphasis
on processand the bodyand the relationshipbetweenartworkand
viewercontributedto the redirectionof Mendieta's style.Photog-
raphyand video also became integralcomponentsin documenting
her increasingly ephemeralworks.
In the climate of the 1970s, feminism,performance,earth-
works,and video all founda place in Mendieta'swork.The exten-
sion of her art into real time and space positionedit in "a web of
references,not necessarilylocated in onlyone form,medium,or
site."sThis makesit difficult to analyzeher work,whichis situated
between media. Nevertheless,a keyto its understandingis found
inithe followingpoem (c. 1981):
SWOMAN'S
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Pain of Cuba
bodyI am
myorphanhoodI live
In Cuba whenyou die
theearththatcoversus
speaks.
But here,
coveredby theearthwhoseprisonerI am
I feel deathpalpitatingunderneath
theearth.
Andso,
As mywholebodyisfilledwithwantof Cuba
I go on to makemyworkuponthe earth,
to go on is victory.'
Mendieta gave formto the pain of exile and establisheda feel-
ing of connectedness."Pain of Cuba, body I am" is the individual-
collectivebodyof Ana Mendieta as she communicatesher person-
al experience and critiques the inheritedsocial relationswhere
women and ethnicOthersare viewed as objects.
In 1973, Mendieta was foundbent over naked, tied to a table
and covered with blood, her apartmentin disarray.This staged
presentationof the aftermath ofviolentrape was her responseto a
seriesof rapes on campus. Mendieta recalled:"When a youngstu-
dent at the Universityof Iowa was found murderedafterhaving
been brutallyraped...I starteddoingperformancesas well as plac-
ing objects and installationsin public places in order to bringat-
tentionto thiscrimeand all sexualviolence.""'
The audience for Mendieta's performance,postnamed Rape-
Murder, was composed of students fromthe M.F.A. program
whom she had invitedto her apartment.Her bodywas the subject
and object of the work.She used it to emphasize the societalcon-
ditionsbywhichthe femalebodyis colonized as the object of male
desire and ravagedunder masculineaggression.Mendieta'scorpo-
real presence demanded the recognitionof a femalesubject. The
previouslyinvisible,unnamed victimof rape gained an identity.
The audience was forcedto reflecton its responsibility; its empa-
thy was elicited and translatedto the space of awareness in which
sexualviolencecould be addressed.
SweatingBlood, a video performance,also from1973, depicts
Mendieta withher eyes closed in a trancelikestate.Blood risesto
the surfaceof her skin,then slowlycollects and drips down her
forehead.Her body here representsan affirmation of selfas sub-
ject. In addition,the "associationof video withtelevision,together
withtelevision'ssocial functionas the mostpopular source and in-
terpreterof informationand entertainment,"underscores how
representations are used to construct the female body as an
object." Thus, Mendieta attemptsto decenter the culturalhege-
monyof dominantrepresentations.
Mendieta's early use of blood, citingits power, locates works
such as SweatingBlood withinher interestand beliefin Santeria,
ARTJOURNAL
an Afro-Cubanreligionthatattributes
blood withashe: power or life force.12
Mendieta's trancelikestate in Sweat-
ing Blood resemblesa stateof posses-
sion common to Santeria practice.
Mendieta claimed connection with
the "goddess of sweetwater,"'3 the
Oricha Ochun in the Santeria pan-
theon.Ochun, a symbolof femalesex-
uality,owns the riversand rules the
blood, and it is fromher thatthe say-
ing "The blood thatruns throughthe
veins" is derived." By linkingherself
to and perhaps being possessed by
Ochun, Mendieta presenteda female
subject in control of her own repre-
sentationand sexuality.
In her February1974 performance,
Blood Writing,Mendieta dipped her
arms in blood and wrote "SHE GOT
LOVE" on a white gallerywall, elicit-
ing associationswith sexual violence.
"She" is denied agency by the verb
"got," thus becoming the object of
"love," here an aggressiveand unidi-
rectionalattack.The sentence, when
juxtaposed to Mendieta's actual body,
drewattentionto the artistas subject.
Blood Writingalso may have been
relatedto eventsin Mendieta's family. Furnace,
Only monthsbeforethe performance,
she had become aware of vio-
lence in her sister's home that
had led to her divorcein Decem-
ber 1973.15 The circumstances
paralleled Mendieta's perfor-
mance: marriage,conceived as a
bond of mutual and reciprocal
love, becomes bondage when fe-
male subjectivityis denied and
"she" becomes the object of mas-
culine aggression.
A related work, Body Tracks
(Fig. 1), was performed (and
filmed)forthe firsttimein March
1974.16 Here Mendieta, dipping
her armsin blood and then drag-
gingthemdown a whitewall from
a standingto a kneelingposition,
became a "livingbrush."The ac-
tion recallsYves Klein's 1958 An-
thropometries, in which he used
the female body, overpainted
withIKB blue, to make images at
his direction. In contrast,Body
Tracks is Mendieta making art
withher own body, critiquingan
art world directedby men. Afro-
Cuban drumscan be heard in the
background of the Body Tracks
performance,the music under-
scoringMendieta's conceptionof
herselfas "colored."`'Music is an
SPRING/ SUMMER1999
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integralaspect of Cuban culture,and
Afro-Cuban elements in traditional
Cuban music include the drumming
styles, chants, and melodies. These
features are preserved in Santeria,
where "music, particularlyrendered
on the sacred bata drums,servesas a
criticalorganizingaspect of mostritu-
als and ceremonies."18
The Santeria aspects of Body
Tracksand SweatingBlood presentan
overlap and contingency between
Mendieta's concern forthe condition
of women and ethnic Others. The
practice of Santeria in the United
States providesan infrastructureto a
community of refugees-ashe in a
struggleforsurvivalin a dominantso-
cial orderwhere exiled Cubans' expe-
riences are subsumed,theirpractices
misunderstood.A "disturbing"Cuban
ritual witnessed in Miami was de-
scribedin a 1981 Newsweekarticle:
Two whiterobedwomenstoodon a
riverbank,softlychantingas a third
womanrubbeda chickenoverher
nakedbody,slaughteredit and threw
Fig.1. AnaMendieta,
BodyTracks, 1982 performanceat Franklin itsremainsintotheriver'scurrent.'9
NewYorkCity.Photo:Courtesy
EstateofAnaMendieta and
GalerieLelong,NewYork.
For Mendieta such practices com-
municated a critique of the ob-
jectification of ethnic Others
and conveyed her emotional
need to identifywith an exiled
community.
During Bird Transformation
(1972) at Old Man's Creek in
Iowa City,Mendieta rubbed her-
self with blood and rolled in
white feathers,transforming her-
self into the Santero sacrificial
white cock. In a similar film
piece, she stood naked holdinga
sacrificialchicken whose contin-
ued movementsspilled blood on
her. The act of sacrificeis inte-
gral to Santeria initiation rites,
and Mendieta communicatesthe
pain of exile and displacementin
these ritual performances.Like
the uprooted Santeroswhose rit-
uals reconstituteties to the com-
munity,Mendieta, in a shared
bodilyexperienceof ritual,places
herselfin a communitythathelps
her feelwhole.
Ritual also expresseshow cul-
ture is written on the body.
Mendieta draws attentionto her
own body as a locus forcultural
Fig.2. AnaMendieta
at work(late1970s). Photo:Courtesy
EstateofAna experience.As the vieweris con-
Mendietaand GalerieLelong,NewYork. frontedwith an enigmaticritual,
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 One aspectofoutdoorSanteriaritualpracticeis describedas
going"monteadentro."One searchesfora monte,uncultivated
land,on whichto perform a ceremony,andadentromeansto go
"goingbackto theroots,""a
inside.Monteadentrothussignifies
kindof spiritualmeditation.Mendietadescribedit: "Thereare
manyplaces I have gone to timeand timeagainjust because I
feelconnectedto them...whenI finda siteI have thingsto do
there,workrituals."26
The titleof Incantaci6na Olokun-Yemayd(1977; Fig. 3), from
the SiluetaSeries,revealsitsdedicationto a SanteriaOricha,or
createdandphotographed
goddess.Thissilhouette, inOaxaca,doc-
uments theimprint ofMendieta'sbody in thesand andis surround-
ed bytheshapeofa hand.The workrepresents re-
a metaphorical
turnhome;itexpresses theneedforherbodytojointhelandwhere
shecamefrom inordertoestablisha connection:

I camefroma tropicalcountryand I have a pictureofmyself, seven

monthsold, crawlingaroundon thesandybeach. We had a house
there,and I wouldbe outsidefrom7:30 a.m. to 2:00 in theafter-
noon... out in thewaterand thesand. I learnedabout mybody
Fig.3. AnaMendieta, (1977),earthand bodywork,
a Olukun-Yemay6
Incantaci6n fromdoingthat.Now I continueto use mybodyto communicate
ofAnaMendieta
andGalerie withtheworld.27
Oaxaca,Mexico.
Photo: Estate
Courtesy Lelong,
NewYork.
Interestingly,thegoddessOlokun-Yemayai is invokedifone wants
a culturalgapis exposed.Mendieta'sperformances denythe"con- a childor needsa home."Yemaydi is theownerofthe sea and is
ceptofa monotone meltdown pot,"in whichit is assumedevery- syncretized withthe Vir-
one wouldend up white."20 Whileherskinmaybe white,hercul- the
ginRegla, protector of
turalexperience is not. HavanaBay.
Mendieta'sbodyis boththesubjectand objectof herperfor- In an untitledSilueta
mance;herbodilypresencedemandstherecognition ofa subject from1980(Fig.4), execut-
as she makesvisibletheviolenceand imagesthatcontribute to ed in Iowa,Mendietacov-
women'ssubjugation.Mendietabroughtattention to the rarely ered her silhouettewith
discussedissueofsexualviolence;herbodyin performance was a gunpowderand set it on
bridgethatalteredthesubject-object relationsofknowing. fire,whichshe laterdis-
Duringthemid-70s,Mendietamovedfromthedirectpresen- coveredevokeda Santeria
tationofherbodyto a morefocusedsearchforidentity and con- practice."Later I found
nectedness. The SiluetaSeries(1973-80)beganwithher1973visit out thatin certainrituals
to MexicowiththeUniversity ofIowa'sSummerProgram, during the Santeros make five
whichsherediscovered herLatinroots:"Plugging intoMexicowas piles of gunpowder, light
likegoingbackto thesource,beingable to getsomemagicjustby them,and iftheyburn,it
beingthere.""1Mendieta'sfirstSiluetawas performed in an an- meansyes to a question,
cientZapotectombin Oaxacathatyear.She laydowninthegrave and if it does notburnit
site,surrounded byflowers thatseemedto growoutofherbody, meansno."29
an imagereminiscent ofFridaKahlo'sRoots(1943;PrivateCollec- Thisimage,whenpub-
tion).For Mendieta,"theanalogywas thatI was coveredbytime lishedin Heresies,was ac-
andhistory."22 companied by a text in
The SiluetaSeries,at 200 Mendieta'slargest, encompassed rit- whichMendietadescribed
ual processesin whichtheartistplacedherbodyin communion the legend of the Black
withvariouslandscapes(Fig.2). In eachpiece she leftan imprint Venus as an anti-slavery
of the silhouetteof her bodyon the land and documentedthe symbolrepresenting the
processwithbothstillphotographs and film.Mendietasaid that "affirmation of a freeand
she"feltbestwhenthecreative processwasphysical.... Whenthe naturalbeingwhorefused
wholebodyis partofa pieceI feelone."23 tobe colonized."" The im-
WithherSiluetasMendietaconflated landwithhome.Sucha is
age thereby activatedby
personal mark on the land a
representedmythic wholein Mendi- Mendieta'stextand rein-
eta'sattempt to reconstitutetiesto herhomeandassuagethepain forcesthepersonalandso-
ofexile."[I was] trying to finda place in theearthand trying to cial nexus of her body.
definemyself," she explained.24Whenshe steppedawayfromthe The legend of the Black
work,the feelingof displacementreasserteditself.While the Venuspresentsa contem-
SiluetaSeriesrepresented Mendieta'scontinued searchforidenti- porarymetaphorforthe Fig.4. AnaMendieta,EarthandGunpowder
tyandbelonging in thesplitexperience ofexile,herincorporation continuedoppressionof SiluetaSeries(1980), Amana,Iowa.
from
ofSanteria practices embodieda community ofexperience ofexile womenandethnicOthers. Photo:Courtesy EstateofAnaMendieta and
andethnicOther. Each Silueta contains GalerieLelong, NewYork.

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elementsof transformation-fire, rivers,oceans, and othernatural
sources of energyhighlighting the forcesof creationand destruc-
tion in the world-and suggests"numerousmetaphorslinkingso-
cial relationsand questionsof nationalidentitywithacts of repre-
sentation."" Further,the Silueta Series expands the vocabularyof
earthworks'engagementwiththe land. Workingwith and within
the forcesof nature,Mendieta recreatedher formon an intimate,
personal scale: "I'm fivefeet tall so I... measure thingswith my
body. I starteddoing imprintsto place myselfand mybody in the
world."2'(In contrast,Michael Heizer's power-laden1969 Double
Negativedisplaced24,000 tonsof earthin a forcefulattemptat the
communionof man and the universe.)
One of Mendieta's few extantSiluetas was formedon a tree in
Miami. The treeand itslocationhad special meaningto Mendieta:

The Santerosuse a treethatin Spanishis called Ceiba and in Eng-

lishis called a cottonsilkwoodtree.It has verylongrootsthatstick
out. In Miamithereis a treelikethatwhichtheSanteroshave
claimed,and thepeople do thingsto thattreewhena healertells
themthattheyhave to makea sacrifice.WhenI was thereI decided
to do a piece on thetree.I was in theCuban sectionand collected
humanhairfromthedifferent beautyshopsso I knewthatit was
Cuban hair. ThenI made an imageofa figureon thetree.A root
was stickingout so thefigureappeared to be eithermaleorfemale
beingscrewed.Therewerealso threeknotson it thathappenedto
look likefemalegenitaliaso I surroundedthemwithhair thatI
glued on.... The last timeI saw thetree,people had added coconuts,
chickenwings,all kindsofofferings. For a whiletheyput a figure
of Santa Barbara underneathit,cut an openingin whatwould be
theface and stucka shell in themouth.Theyhave reallyactivated
theimageand claimedit as theirown.w"
Here is an exampleofhow "personalassociations, education,political
and environmental contexts,class and ethnicbackground...allexert
pressureson the interactionbetweeneye, mind,and image.":3The
workis locatedin the gap betweenartistand cultureand reinforces
thedialogiccharacterofthisspace in theproductionofmeaning.
Aftercompletingher M.F.A. in 1978, Mendieta moved to New
York City,workingas a waitressto help pay the rent.The follow-
ing year the documentationof her Silueta Series was exhibitedat
the A.I.R. Gallery,a woman'scooperative.Like manyartistsin the
1970s seekingto workoutside the commercialart gallerysystem,
Mendietahad onlythese photographsas evidence of herwork.
The year 1980 markeda turningpoint in Mendieta's life: She
was awarded Guggenheimand NEA grants,and, withan invitation
fromthe Cuban government,she fulfilledher long-awaiteddesire
to returnto her homeland.She recalled:
I was afraidbeforeI wenttherebecause I feltI've been livingmy
lifewiththisobsessivethingin mymind-what ifI findout it has
nothingto do withme? But theminuteI gotthere,it was thiswhole
thingofbelongingagain."
In August 1981, at Janlco State Park,Havana, she began the Ru-
pestriansculptureseries,whichshe describedas takingthe Silueta
Series "to its source."''"i Moving away fromreferenceto her
oewn
body, she exploredthe goddess imageryof the Taino, the indige-
nous inhabitantsof the Antilles. She carved the formsinto the
limestonerock formationsat the park,and forthe firsttime used
paintto bringout the outlinesof her carvings,therebyestablishing
a "connectionwiththe regionsnativeinhabitants whose cave paint-
ingsare some ofthe scantremainingevidenceoftheirexistence."3'
Mendieta soughtto emphasize the legacy of culturaldomina-
SPRING/ SUMMER1999
Fig. 5. Ana Mendieta, Guabancex (Goddess of theWind) (1981), fromRupestrian
Series, carved limestone,
JarucoState Park,Havana. Photo:CourtesyEstateof Ana
Mendieta and Galerie Lelong,New York.
tion that destroyedthe Taino culture and its belief system.In
preparinga book of twelvephoto-etchingsofthe work,she wrote:
Few people have had a destinyas cruelas theTainan whichin 1492
greetedChristopherColumbusin theirislands.
In a matterofa few yearsdue to theinequalityofweapons,over-
poweredby hunger,sicknessand hard labor and strippedoftheir
nationalidentity,thefewsurvivorswererapidlyassimilatedby the
conquistadors.Fromthattragiceventlittlehas been saved.
So itfollowsas a Cuban Americanand culturalinheritorofthe
Tainan cultureI wantto makea smallpublication,a collaboration
you mightsay betweenthemand I."
The images were givenTainan goddess names: Guabancex (God-
dess of the Wind) (Fig. 5), its oval shapes and graceful curves
workingwith the natural form of the cave, Guanaroca (First
Woman), and Atabey (Mother of the Waters), forexample. The
photographicdocumentationof the RupestrianSeries was exhibit-
ed at A.I.R. galleryin November1981.
Lucy Lippard defined essentialistfeminismof the 1970s and
1980s as based on the "beliefin a femaleessence residingsome-
wherein the body ofwomen,"withan emphasison "bodyidentifi-
cation and biologicallyderivedforms"to communicatethe female
experience.":'Thus, according to Gloria Orenstein, essentialists
posit an "intuitive-body knowledge";"'theirartencouragesthe glo-
rificationof women. The search for a female mythologyand
iconographyin prehistoricmatriarchiesalso resultedin the image
ofthe Great Goddess as a symbolforfemaleawakening.
Because of her use of earthand body, Mendieta's Silueta and
Rupestrianseries oftenare considered essentialist,althoughthis
categorizationlimitsthe understandingof thiswork.The Siluetas
are groundedin Mendieta'sfeelingsof displacementand in Sante-
ria and are not a call fora returnto a matriarchalorder.Although
deeply associatedwiththe earthand nature,Santeriais holisticin
its beliefin the universalenergyrunningthroughall beings,mat-
ter,space, and time.
The 1970s feministidentificationwith the Great Goddess
posits that "women see themselvesas the Great Goddess," and

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that woman is transformed"into the virtualincarnationof the appreciatingthe beauty of her work,one must gaze not only on
Earth Goddess" as a source of empowerment.41 The emphasis in "the familiarities
and unfamiliarities,on the neutraland theexotic"
Santeria,however,is on a pantheon of gods and goddesses who but on the area between,"thatfertile,liminalgroundwhere new
are ownersof the landscape. Mendietaherselfasserts,"I believe in meaningsgerminate."'5
water, air, and earth. They are all deities."42 The image of the Mendieta's focuson the body as both subject and object alters
Silueta and the personaland culturalcontentthatinformsthe se- the subject-objectsocial relationsof knowing.She positionedher-
ries therebyillustratesideas about how "imagesactivelyoperatein self,a female and ethnic Other,as a subject and recognizedthe
the gaps between knownculturesand contributein sometimesin- contingencybetweenthe individualbody and the social body;her
directwaysto expose barriersbetweenthem."43 art takes us across the borders of individualand social, self and
AlthoughMendieta'sRupestrianSeries maybe linkedto essen- Other,subjectand object. Mendieta critiquesthe historicallegacy
tialistfeminismbecause it incorporatesuniversalfertility goddess of patriarchalideology that controlswomen and ethnic Others
forms,the workneverthelesspayshomage to a decimatedculture. throughitsbinarysocial positioning.
The use of essentialistlanguage to evaluate her work duplicates "Pain of Cuba, body I am" embodies the experience of Ana
the fixityof patriarchalcategories;it demonstrateshow "society Mendieta. A Cuban-American,her experienceof exile is embod-
will impose a certainselectionand priorityof meaningupon the ied in the space between."5This space between,where Mendieta's
multiplicityof meaninginherentin a givensituation."44 body is located,is a space forthe renegotiationof concepts,social
Mendieta's retrieval of the female body form became a relations,and the productionof meaning.It is a criticalspace, a
metaphor for the retrievalof Cuba fromcolonization. She ex- fluidspace, and a multiplespace. It is a space of possibilities,a
pressed her continuedfeelingsof differenceand dislocationin the space of education and learning. "The interestingthing,"said
introductionto Dialectics of Isolation: Exhibitionof Third World Mendieta,"is thateducationis about un-educatingyourself."52*
WomenArtistsofthe UnitedStates(1980):
NOTES
Duringthemidto late 60s as womenin the UnitedStatespoliticized I thank Dr.KristineStilesand AmyVickers fortheirguidanceandsupport
themselves and came togetherin theFeministMovementwiththe during theformation ofthistext.Also,I thank theAnaMendietaEstateand
purposeto end dominationand exploitationby thewhitemale cul- GalerieLelong, NewYorkCity,forpermission toreproduce imagesandto
ture,theyfailed to remember us. Americanfeminismas it standsis usetextual resources.A versionofthispaperwas first presentedfora Per-
basicallya white middleclass movement.45 formance Artseminar taught byKristine Stilesat DukeUniversity,
Fall1995.
1. LuisCamnitzer, inNew ArtofCuba (Austin: UniversityofTexas,
The whitepopulationofthe UnitedStates,diverse,but ofbasic 1994), 89-99,describes TropicAna as a "punon a tropical country as
European stock,exterminated and put aside theBlack as wellas the herplaceoforigin, butalso on thesqueezingofitseconomy." TropicAna
othernon-white culturesto createa homogenousmale-dominated is also a linguistic
metaphor thatlocated Mendieta's in
identitya different
societyabove theinternaldivergency.46 geocultural region.
2. HeideRauchand FedericoSuro,"AnaMendieta'sPrimal Scream,"
Mendieta affirmedher criticalpositionvis-a-visthe historical Americas (September-October 1992),44-45.
legacyofdominationand oppressionthatdenies womenand ethnic 3. Operation PeterPanwas backedbyProtestant, andJew-
Catholic,
Otherstheirexperiences.Her wordsdo not conveya biologicalde- ishwelfare groupsintheUnited States.Incooperation withtheCIAand
terminism thatunitesall womenbut ratheremphasizethe different StateDepartment, weresponsored
flights totakechildren outofCuba.
socioculturalcircumstanceof her body. InscribingMendieta's art 4. JaneBlocker, "TheUnbaptized Earth: AnaMendietaand thePerfor-
with the fixedlanguage of essentialistfeminismimpoverishesits manceofExile"(Ph.D.dissertation, University ofNorth Carolina,Chapel
meaning,or in theirappropriationof Mendieta,essentialistfemi- Hill,1994), 15.
nists'colonizetheworkand consequentlywhitenitscontent. 5. Ibid.,16.
In 1983 Mendieta was awarded a year-longfellowshipat the 6. AnaMendieta, interview byLindaMontano,ThePerformance Bible,
AmericanAcademyin Rome.47In thisnew environmenther work unpublished interviewswith155 artists.Courtesy oftheEstateofAna
changed form.Workingindoors,in her firststudio,she continued Mendietaand GalerieLelong, NewYorkCity.
to use natural materials,combining sand, earth, and binder to 7. QuotedinJohnPerreault and PetraBarreras del Rio,AnaMendieta:
make earthreliefsculpture,latercarvingand burningfreestanding A Retrospective (NewYork:NewMuseum ofContemporary Art,1987),28.
tree trunkswith gunpowderto reveal anthropomorphic imagery. 8. Hal Foster,"Re:Post,"inD.R.Godine,ed., ArtAfter Modernism:
Althoughshe was creatingobjects, Mendieta maintaineda con- Rethinking Representation (New York: New Museum of Contemporary Art,
ceptual continuitythroughher use of naturalelementsand tools. 1984), 196.
On her returnto the United StatesMendieta marriedMinimal- 9. Printed inNancySpero,"Tracing AnaMendieta," Artforum(April
ist sculptorCarl Andre.She continuedto make her home between 75.
1992),
New York and Rome forseveral months,until,on September8, 10. ArleneRaven,Crossing Over:Feminism and theArtofSocialCon-
1985, Ana Mendieta met an untimelydeath. Her fall fromthe cern(AnnArbor:UMI,1988), 157. Performances dealingwithviolence
34th storywindowof the apartmentshe sharedwithher husband againstwomenwerebegunfirst in 1972 at Cal Arts.Fordocumentation
caused substantialmedia attention.48Her lifeended, but her work see MoiraRoth,TheAmazingDecade: Womanand Performance Artin
survivesas testimonyto her personalsearch and criticalreflection America 1970-1980 Astro
(LosAngeles: Artz, 1983).
on the humancondition. 11. MarthaGever,"TheFeminism Factor:Videoand itsRelationtoFemi-
Mendieta reflectedon her feelingof differenceas an adoles- nism,"inDougHalland SallyJoFifer, eds.,IlluminatingVideo(San Fran-
cent in the United States: "When I finallylearned the language cisco:Aperture/BAVC, 1991),230.
and talkedto otherpeople, I foundthatwe would look at the same 12. Santeriais a complex,dynamichybrid ofYorubareligion and
Her art
event,talk about it and would see it totallydifferently."49 Catholicismthatdevelopedintheearly-1i
6thcentury whenslaveswere
pleads withthe viewerto perceivedifferently. Her searchforboth brought toCuba and forcedtoembraceCatholicism. TheAfrican gods
identityand connectionparallels her search for meaning.While soonfoundtheir equivalentsinthe of
characteristics Catholicsaints.This

0 WOMAN'SARTJOURNAL

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form ofdisguisedsymbolism undoubtedly contributedtothemaintenance 31. Gever,"TheFeminism Factor,"231.
oftraditionalYorubapractices and beliefsamongtheCubanpopulation. 32. Montanointerview.
Formoreinformation abouttheuseofSanteriainartistic see Ar-
practices, 33. Ibid.
turoLindsay,ed., SanteriaAesthetics inContemporary LatinAmerican Art 34. Lippard,MixedBlessings, 7.
(Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution,
1996). 35. QuotedinPerreault and Barrerasdel Rio,AnaMendieta,33.
13. Montanointerview. 36. Rauchand Suro,"Primal Scream,"45.
14. DavidHillary Brown, GardenintheMachine:Afro-Cuban Sacred 37. Perreaultand Barreras del Rio,AnaMendieta, 33.
Artand Performance inUrbanNewJersey and New York(AnnArbor: 38. TranscriptionofAnaMendieta'snotesinBonnieClearwater, Ana
UMI,1989), 350. Mendieta:A BookofWorks(MiamiBeach:Grassfield Press,1993), 25.
15. RaquelMendietaHarrington, telephone conversationwiththe Forreview, see WAJ(F97/W98),56.
author, December13, 1996. 39. LucyLippard, "ThePainsand Pleasures ofRebirth:
Women'sBody
16. BodyTracks was subsequently performed at StudenskiKulturni Art,"ArtinAmerica(May-June 1976), 75.
Center,Belgrade, and International Culture Center, Antwerp,in 1976; and 40. GloriaOrenstein, "TheReemergence oftheArchetype oftheGreat
in 1982 at Franklin Furnace, New YorkCity. GoddessinArtbyContemporary Women,"Heresies(Spring1978), 74.
17. Duringa telephone conversation,RaquelHarrington toldmethather 41. Ibid.,76.
sister
alwaysaccompaniedBodyTracks withAfro-Cuban rhythms.Inthe 42. Montanointerview.
filmFuegode Tierra, itis a drumcalltoOchunand was chosenbythe 43. Lippard,MixedBlessings, 7.
film'sproducers. 44. JudithBarry and SandyFlitterman-Lewis, "Textual Politics
Strategies:
18. ThomasBoswellandJamesCurtis, TheCubanAmerican Experience ofArt-Making," inHilary Robinson,ed., Visibly Female(New York:Uni-
(Montclair,N.J.:Rowman and Allanheld,1983), 137. verse,1988), 107.
19. MichaelReese,"A CubanRitual DisturbsMiami,"Newsweek 45. QuotedinPerreault and Barrerasdel Rio,AnaMendieta,17.
(June1981), 44. 46. QuotedinBlocker, "Unbaptized Earth," 20.
20. LucyLippard, MixedBlessings: NewArtina Multicultural America 47. Theyearwas also emotionally difficult
forMendieta.Bothmaternal
(NewYork:Pantheon, 1990), 5. grandparents died,and a month beforesheleftforItaly,herfatherpassed
21. QuotedinRauchand Suro,"Primal Scream,"44. away.
22. Montanointerview. 48. Forinformation concerning theeventssurrounding thedeathofAna
23. Quotedinthefilm Fuegode Tierra, directed with
byKateHorsfield, Mendietaand CarlAndre'ssubsequent trial,see RobertKatz,NakedBy
Nereyda Garcia-Ferraz and Branda Miller (Women MakeMovies, 1987). theWindow:TheFatalMarriageofCarlAndreandAnaMendieta(New
24. Montanointerview. York:AtlanticMonthly, 1990).
25. Brown, GardenintheMachine,343. 49. Montanointerview.
26. Montanointerview. 50. Lippard,MixedBlessings, 8.
27. Ibid. 51. Theconceptofthespace between, ofthe"hyphen," is describedin
28. LuisahTeish,Jambolaya: TheNaturalWoman'sBookofPersonal GustavoPerezFirmat, Lifeon theHyphen: TheCuban-American Way
Charmsand Practical Rituals(NewYork:Harperand Row,1985), 133. (Austin:UniversityofTexas,1994).
29. Montanointerview. 52. Montanointerview.
30. AnaMendieta, "VenusNegra,basedona CubanLegend," Heresies
(4:1, 1982), 22. Kaira M. Cabafias is currently Fellowin Berlin.
a Fulbright

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