Description
The complexity of the U.S.-Mexico border is rooted in a fixation on establishing a clear separation of land that is unsafe and safe, between them and us. Chicana cultural theorist Gloria Anzaldúa states, “A border is a dividing line, a narrow string along a steep edge. A borderland is a vague and undetermined place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary. It is in a constant state of transition” (Anzaldúa 1987, 3). In her 1987 semi-autobiographical work, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, she examines the U.S.-Mexico borderland as an in-between space that allows for physical, emotional, and creative transformation through the lens of nepantla, a Nahuatl term for the “space between, in the middle of, or in the midst of.” Recognizing that collective landscapes, specifically that of the U.S.-Mexico border, are separated through policy and physical barriers, filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu (b. 1963, Mexico City, Mexico) explores the permeability of the U.S.-Mexico border desert landscape through his mixed reality immersive installation, Carne y Arena (Virtualmente Presente, Fisicamente Invisible) (Flesh and Sand: Virtually Present, Physically Invisible) (2017). This thesis analyzes the use of virtual reality technologies as immersive storytelling tools in Carne y Arena through a social history of art and scholar Gloria Anzaldúa's reinterpretation of the concept of nepantla as a liminal space of transformation. González Iñárritu’s Carne y Arena makes visible the perils Latin American migrants face when crossing the Southwest desert in an experiential presentation. Through a socially conscious lens, he depicts real-life individuals and their stories with humanity and empathy. Carne y Arena draws attention to the dehumanization of Latin American migrants and transforms the U.S.-Mexico border landscape into a political theater of imagination, empathy, and memory.
Details
Title
- Virtuality and Performativity: Nepantla within González Iñárritu’s Carne y Arena
Contributors
- Zacarias, Deliasofia (Author)
- Fajardo-Hill, Cecilia (Thesis advisor)
- Hoy, Meredith (Thesis advisor)
- Gonzalez, Rita (Committee member)
- Tompkins, Cynthia (Committee member)
- Arizona State University (Publisher)
Date Created
The date the item was original created (prior to any relationship with the ASU Digital Repositories.)
2024
Subjects
Resource Type
Collections this item is in
Note
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Partial requirement for: M.A., Arizona State University, 2024
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Field of study: Art History