Towards a (re)conocimiento prohibido:
Rae (The protagonist)
- Naming the pilgrimage: How is my desire for Selena an intellectual, spiritual and sexual act of (re)conocimiento?
- Steps towards my goal: Re-mapping of Selena’s body, life, and legacy along the historical, social and spatial corners that make up the trialectic of Selenidad. Ultimately, this re-mapping of Selena’s body, life and legacy will inform a re-mapping of my own life and a completion of my own trialectic. This new map of both my life and Selena’s, includes a thirdspace, and othered, queered space in which my (re)conocimiento towards Selena is made legible.
- My trip to the historic site of Selenidad will allow me to map, (de)map and (re)map her life as it’s been imagined by fans at commemorative sites in Corpus Christi.
- As a detective, I weave through and between the historic and social sites of Selenidad, ultimately ending my pilgrimage off map, inside an othered space: the Motel, the site of her death and the vortex that takes me into a queer, borderless, utopian spatiality. Added onto the map is a thirdspace, a sphere of becoming, in which utopian futurity is performed and embodied in the present moment.
- Mapping the trialectic of Selenidad creates a thick map, just as it constitutes an act of (de)colonial cartography. This re-mapping of Selenidad life simultaneously reveals the alternative, conflicting, ambiguous narratives that frame her life and afterlife.
- Spaces:
- Mid-City, Los Angeles (imagined)
- Corpus Christi (historic)
- Selena Museum
- Seaside Memorial
- Mirador de la Flor
- Fiesta de la Flor
- The Knights Inn
- Hamburger Mary’s, Long Beach, Los Angeles (spatial, thirdspace, othered space)
Rae (The protagonist)
- Age 26
- Occupation: graduate student; archivist at the University
- currently curating a queer Selena archive; to include an an interactive mapped version of Selena’s life and legacy. The archive and map will showcase artifacts from Selena’s past that challenge the dominant narrative of her life story.
- Objects of interest: eggs, clothing, motel
- Location: Los Angeles
- Gender: fluid (femmes it up for mom when at home)
- Sexuality: emotionally and physically desires women; wouldn’t mind fucking a man again, but not sure if I’d still like it
- Addictions: gum, Red-eyes (coffee with shot of esspresso), pharmaceuticals (amphetamine to wake up! klonopin to sleep!)
- Strength: social chameleon; knows how to navigate and charm different social circles
- Weakness: approval seeking to a fault
- Language Skills: Native English speaker; Semi-Fluent Spanish speaker
- Language Background: September 2003, Freshman year Spanish 101, Tamalpais High School
- 9 years of learning Hebrew and Judaic Studies at Brandeis Hillel Day School (1993-2003) left me with a deep distrust for religion and complete certainty that I was inept at learning foreign languages.
- Day 1 of Spanish 101 was a revelation. I wasn’t bad at learning a new language. In fact, I was quite good at learning a new language. So what was the difference? Hebrew felt dead, while Spanish felt alive. Hebrew was confined to a patriarchal biblical text, while Spanish jumped off the page and into my ears and out of my mouth. Hebrew was for the classroom, while Spanish was for my life outside.
- Born April 16, 1971
- Died March 31, 1995
- Nickname: The Queen of Tejano
- Age: 76
- Race: Mexican-American (second generation)
- Religion: Jehovah Witness
- Occupation: Singer, song-writter, record producer
- Motive to stop Rae: Exposing a queer counter-narrative to Selena’s life (through mapping) would mean economic ruin for AQ. AB has made a career off his daughter’s body since her birth, a method of patriarchal exploitation that has continued posthumously. If Rae succeeds in generating an alternative map of Selena’s life, one that makes visible a queer, thirdspace, it would narrow her fan base and therefore, endanger the profitability of her legacy.