José Villalobos: A Blind “America”
CALA Alliance participated in Trans Queer Pueblo’s second Queer ARTivisimo Cuerpo–Sexo–Poder. The event was a celebration of the journey towards bodily autonomy. Considering ongoing attacks against reproductive justice, the event centered the stories of struggle and triumphs of Trans and Queer BIPOC communities in Phoenix and the Southwest. BIPOC, women, migrants, femmes, and LGBTQ+ people are constantly fighting to access the right to make decisions over their bodies. Laws, stigma, violence, and fear limit the body starting at birth. Cuerpo–Sexo–Poder invited audiences to break these limits in community through art and celebrate the right to autonomy.
As part of the event, the CALA Alliance invited multidisciplinary artist José Villalobos to present a new performance piece, A Silenced “America”, 2022.
José Villalobos, A Silenced “America” in Trans Queer Pueblo’s Queer ARTivismo: Cuerpo-Sexo-Poder, May 20, 2022. Organized by CALA Alliance and Trans Queer Pueblo with Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix Center for the Arts, and Performance in the Borderlands. Phoenix Center for the Arts, Phoenix, Arizona. Photograph courtesy CALA Alliance © Alonso Parra/Lamp Left Media
“We are forced to see and exist in a blind ‘America.’ Where the voices of immigrants, women, queer, and people of color are silenced and erased. A blind ‘America’ that refuses to see the root of all its evil lies in the hands of its own white supremacy.”
— José Villalobos
