Que la tierra les sea leve: Negotiating the Pandemic in Mexico City
Jesus Maya and Paloma Villegas
Medium: Digital Storytelling and Video (2021-2022)
Issues: Borders, Community Building in Mexico City, COVID 19, and Pandemic
Project Links
Description
Que la tierra les sea leve: Negotiating the Pandemic in Mexico City is composed of two videos analyzing life during the pandemic in a vecindad (apartment building) in the heart of Mexico City. In 2021, the collective, Compitas con Chile produced a video titled “Que la tierra les sea leve.” It explores how a group of children living in the La Merced neighborhood in Mexico City navigated the pandemic with their family and community. La Merced is a hub of markets and businesses visited by a large number of people from around the city and country who purchase goods to sell in their towns and neighborhoods. It is also often represented as ‘dangerous,’ and ‘loud.’ In the video, the children are cognizant of the daily health risks their family engaged in to make a living selling food to local residents and business owners during the pandemic. Yet, they also express the ways living in la vecindad allowed them to resist the alienation produced by COVID-19 as well as the negative representations of their neighborhood. During the time the video was created, Compitas con Chile also recorded themselves cooking and playing games, sharing their experiences across borders through social media.
The second video provides a more detailed analysis, examining the geographic bordering of stay-at-home orders and police enforcement, its effects on working-class residents of La Merced, and the community building in which the collective engaged.
The videos seek to question who creates knowledge and how. We are not trained media artists but use these tools to visibilize community building in one small geographic space during the pandemic. The pandemic is a strong manifestation of coloniality and its continued effects vis-à-vis access to health care, dignified work, and mobility. Compitas con Chile centers the experiences of children who are often not centered or included as subjects of resistance particularly when they come from working class backgrounds. It was also a way for the residents of la vecindad to come together in creative ways when their mobility was affected. The videos include images taken by the Compitas con Chile collective. The narrative was written by the collective, including Maya who is also a poet. Que la tierra les sea leve: Negotiating the Pandemic in Mexico City seeks to contrast their community building with the necropolitical impetus of pandemic responses and bordering practices.
Prior Showings:
Este video-poema fue parte del concurso “Creación de video-poemas y video-ensayos: La vida en la pandemia” que organizó el programa de Literatura del Centro de Promoción Cultural, el Departamento de Formación Humana y la Licenciatura en Comunicación y Artes Audiovisuales del ITESO 30 de abril, 2021 / This video poem was part of the contest: “Creation of video poems and video essays: life during the pandemic,” organized by the Literature program of the Center for Cultural Promotion, the department of Human Formation, and the department of Communication and Visual Audiovisual Arts of ITESO, April 30, 2021
Bio
Jesús Maya es un poeta y organizador comunitario mexicano que escribe acerca de vivir en el barrio, migrar, y mantenerse conectados con comunidades diversas. Sus poemas aparecen en el libro La Tolvanera (Latin American Researchers of Ontario, 2011) y las antologías Iguana Escribir El Exilio (Enana Blanca 2007), Lumbre y Relumbre: Antología Selecta de la Poesía Hispano Canadiense (Editorial Antares 2013), Changing the Face of Canadian Literature (Guernica Editions, 2020) y San Ecatepec de los Dementes (Editorial Corazón de Diablo, 2022). Sus escritos también han sido musicalizados, inspirado un cortometraje, y publicados en periódicos, revistas, libros académicos, y sitios de internet. He is also a founding member of the Compitas con Chile collective.
Paloma E. Villegas es migrante y profesora de sociología en California State University San Bernardino. Además de investigar y enseñar sobre las intersecciones de la migración, ciudadanía, fronteras, raza y genero, también practica la pintura, escultura y poesía. Es la autora del libro North of El Norte: Illegalized Mexican Migrants in Canada (University of British Columbia Press, 2020).
Jesús Maya is a Mexican poet and community organizer who writes about what it means to live in a marginalized urban neighborhood, migrate, and maintain connections with diverse communities. His poems appear in his book La Tolvanera (Latin American Researchers of Ontario, 2011) and several anthologies including Iguana Escribir El Exilio (Enana Blanca 2007), Lumbre y Relumbre: Antología Selecta de la Poesía Hispano Canadiense (Editorial Antares 2013), and Changing the Face of Canadian Literature (Guernica Editions, 2020) and San Ecatepec de los Dementes (Editorial Corazón de Diablo, 2022). His writing has also been musicalized, has inspired a short film, and been published in newspapers, magazines, academic books, and internet sites. Tambien es miembro del colectivo, Compitas con Chile.
Paloma E. Villegas is an immigrant and Assistant professor of sociology at California State University San Bernardino. In addition to researching and teaching at the intersections of migration, citizenship, borders, race, and gender, she also engages in artistic practices including painting, sculpture, and poetry. She is the author of North of El Norte: Illegalized Mexican Migrants in Canada (University of British Columbia Press, 2020).