4. Workshop:
Breaking and Unveiling
the immigration glossary
of severalty
Design and image by Gozalo Guerrero
Workshop with Se habla español
Noelia Lecue Francia
María Alejandra Sáenz García
Andrea Valencia Aranda
Natalia Viera Salgado
Saturday, March 24, 2018
The 8th Floor 17 W 17th St, New York, NY
This event was a participatory workshop organized by Se habla español and conceived to investigate the nature of immigrant identity and the language surrounding it in the context of U.S. contemporary culture and media, exploring terms including: alien, border, brain drain, Dreamer, immigrant, Latino-Hispanic, national, refugee, and sanctuary city, among others. Developed to launch an ongoing collective project, Severalty functioned as presentation, participatory workshop, and discussion. The event brought together practitioners and experts from different disciplines and backgrounds art, education, activism, and law to reconsider the use and effects of immigration terminology in this political moment. Presenters and workshop leaders such as Guadalupe Ruiz Fajardo, Gonzalo Guerrero, Patricia Rodriguez, Carla Stellweg, Denise Vivar, Coral N. Negron, Cinthya Santos Briones took part in a non-hierarchical conversation.
Se habla español (SHE) is a curatorial collective established in 2017 by Noelia Lecue Francia, María Alejandra Sáenz García, Andrea Valencia Aranda, and Natalia Viera Salgado. As Spanish speakers and curators, the collective works on interdisciplinary artistic projects that seek to expand the limits of language, addressing ecology, migration, identity, human rights, and memory. SHE develops through collective effort and multiple perspectives, curatorial and artistic research that take the form of exhibitions, publications, talks, and workshops. SHE responds to contemporary issues, creating platforms that enable reflections and support artistic creation.