Words and Territory
I started exploring the relationship of language and territory via visual representation in the Spring of 2021 as part of my project for the class of Arts-Based Research Methods with Dr. Gene Feller at CUNY Graduate Center.
I created several versions of the Americas paraphrasing The Map and the Territory by Yásnaya Elena Aguilar Gil, a Mixe linguist. This author reflects on the US/Mexico border. The map says “Words have no border. Words inhabit the air. The boundaries are imagined. Do not naturalize colonial life/history. Here is where we live. Countries are the way of managing capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy.”
In 2022, a version of this exploration was published as the cover for the Journal of Latin American Geography, 21(1) under the title A Glottopolitical Approach to the Americas.
Acknowledgements
- Dr. Gene Feller for his guidance in exploring art-based methods. His class was key for me to connect different ways of creating knowledge that I had been exploring all my life.
- Professor Vicky Ramos, for her continuous conversations and guidance about illustrations. Thanks for all the conversations around this project.