VIDEO
“for me, this was a love letter to my mom, but its also to all parents of first generation students. our parents’ happily ever after puts everything into perspective in the simplicity of the things they wish for. throughout my life, my mom has had this undying almost unbelievable hope and faith in our future. because of that, “utopia”, hers & mine, seems to be within reach.”
“Short film on Bloomfield NJ’s Central American “Pupusas to Go.” I think this project came from me feeling that sometimes in academia, the language we can use can be so entirely alienating, seems like it defeats the very purpose to begin with, and sometimes you just need to be reminded of the community in front of you: flourishing, in motion; existing. It’s like we just forget about all the love in between!”
“I wanted to make a video that captured the love I have for the place that I grew up in. I wanted to capture the effortless beauty of the city and the people in it. I went back to the places that held special signifigance to me and did what I would normally do, but with my camera in hand. I hope to watch this when I am older and feel this moment in time the same way.”
Miranda Santiago, ‘Untitled’, 2023
“The Zapatistas, a Mayan revolutionary group based in Chiapas, Mexico, have been globally recognized as an example of radical proletariat revolution. Distinctively, their Mayan “worldview” that conceptualizes the utterance of “I” and “us” in a unique way provides complex approaches to ideas of subjectivity and singularity. The performance aspect of my research begs the question: What might a Mayan “us” and “I” look and act like? The Mayan value of a unified "us" holds strong ties to the past but also lays the foundation for the continued practice and recognition of these values in the future. Archival preservations of the Mayan "us" continue to flourish in current-day Chiapas, Mexico, and other parts of Mexico.”