Artist 
Marcela Gómez-Escudero

A research proposal and contribution to the first edition of Special Issues magazine.

The violence inflicted upon women is a symptom of a long-perpetuated illness in several societies across the world. Unfortunately, attention towards this alarming issue has been subdued during the current Covid-19 times. The consequence of such perpetuated practice is a catastrophic and scary number of 10 women killed every day in countries like Mexico, where these studies are focused and based on. This form of violent death upon women is typified in several penal systems as Femicide and represents the most extreme form of violence and a serious manifestation of gender-based discrimination. While some people can have the privilege of romanticising quarantine in ways of celebrating their ‘home office’, bulking up in groceries, applying sanitiser every now and then and organising endless marathons on online platforms, for others, this forced locked down represents staying at home with their perpetrators. If we are to assess a pandemic upon the extended attack of certain pathogen against multiple individuals all across the world with the potential risk of death, we might as well define femicide as such. Femicide, is a pandemic and we should find an antidote in order to address it. This is a research proposal, both in English and Spanish, that takes place in multiple forms of art. Aiming to raise attention to the increasing domestic violence in non-privileged groups, I am inviting women of different backgrounds to share their experiences and/or artistic practice on the matter. Other testimonies and investigations lead by Latin American women will also be included as well as regional statistics from official sources. Attached to this document is a manifesto I wrote in response to this ongoing crisis, inspired by the multiple social movements led by women in several places in Mexico and other countries in Latin America.

The shrouded woman manifesto
June 2020

Beneath the shroud imposed by an ill-gotten government, lie the naked bodies that are hardly recognized as such and whose flesh has been torn in the most brutal ways. Their creases forced to grant folds that do not fit and their eyes, oh, their eyes, tortured, forced into emptiness, into opacity. Bodies whose spirit was wickedly ripped, evilly, unimaginably. Bodies that pile up on top of each other, one after each other through indecipherable times and spaces. Sadly, omnipresent times and spaces. Bodies of indigenous women, of neighbours, of working women, professional women, artisans, minors, old women, probably your body and, very likely, mine. Bodies that are guilty only for being born under an archaic regime that looks down on us. And then you wonder why the rage. Why the fight, the crying and the grief. However, it must be said that, here, your questions no longer take place. And your responses are no less than unnecessary, because your gestures and actions have done everything on your behalf. Then, the very event you were not expecting, occurred; the shroud that covers our withered corpses has become some sort of skin, one that allows us to transform, to reincarnate. A type of skin that brings us back from death. And I understand that during this process in which I become animal, an imperceptible creature, this process shaping me as a woman, during which I am charmingly wicked, I am representing an interruption in the ruling of your gender. Then, yes, it is expected for you to feel the urge of attacking me, destroying me, to end everything once and for all. Fear me, for I am becoming the violet flame that will haunt you. I am becoming the threat you will always have a hard time approaching, from which you will have to run. It is also worth noting that what happens in this tribe is something very particular. It is, in fact, perverse, and it is polymorphous, and it comes with many textures and many more colours. And it is, as well, something only we can understand, something we must protect, because no one else will intervene. So, shake the comfort and joy off your body, because there is no room for them. The truth is, this tribe has a very substantial understanding since we have all suffered repression that goes beyond imaginable, beyond expressible, beyond acceptable, because when they hit one, they hit us all. And that is, precisely, what pushes us to see that our place is no longer underground, nor within the silence, nor in saying please anymore. Our place is in the demand for our freedom. It is time to demand.

<sup>You don’t have to liaise with me anymore. I know that, in my process of becoming animal, imperceptible creature, in my process of becoming a woman, I am representing a disruption to your gender’s governance. So, yes, I understand you are feeling radical about wanting to attack and end everything once and for all. I am becoming the violet flame you are already afraid of. I am becoming the menace you will always struggle to approach.

I just want to make it clear that what happens between inside this cluster is something of certain particularity, it is something perverse, it is polymorphous and comes in many textures, colours and shapes, that is to say, something only us can see and understand, something only us will be able to protect, for no one else shall intervene. So remove the joy out of your body, there is no room for that here. The truth is, this cacti tribe has a very radical understanding, for we have all been suppressed way beyond the imaginary, way beyond the talkable, way beyond the acceptable, and it is precisely that what urges us to see that our place is no longer underground, and that we will surely fight for it to change. We are not alone again. Moreover, we are rooted, and we nurture and comb each other, we love and protect each other. Yet, you don’t want to acknowledge that, it seems to be more convenient for you to keep us separate, to keep us as individuals.

And now, more than ever, I feel the great need to sharpen these beautiful thorns, which after all you know well. You know them as you fear them. You fear them and so grows your need to mute them, to mutilate them. And understand it well and understand it now, that I come with a lot of many more, the later increasingly sharper than the former. Yes, we are many and  come willing to look beyond uniqueness, we come hungry of the beautiful potential of setting each of us free, of finding each other alive. So yes, take your distance, as I, disguised in my imperceptible creatureness, might  find and I might be in hunger and I might find you delightful and might want to hug you, and I might not be able to promise you will come out this, my perverse hug, alive.
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No tienes que responder más. Entiendo que en este proceso en el que me transformo en animal, en criatura imperceptible, este proceso que me convierte en mujer, en que soy encantadoramente perversa, estoy representando una interrupción en el gobierno de tu género. Entonces sí, ahí entiendo que sientas la radical necesidad de atacar, de destruirme, de terminarlo todo de una vez por todas. Me estoy convirtiendo en la llama violeta que tanto temes. Me estoy convirtiendo en la amenaza a la que siempre te costará acercarte.

Sólo quiero aclarar que lo que sucede en esta tribu cactácea, es algo muy particular, y es de hecho perverso, y es poliforme y viene con muchas texturas y muchos más colores, y es además algo que sólo nosotras podemos entender, algo que debemos proteger, porque nadie más intervendrá. Así que sacúdete la dicha y la comodidad del cuerpo, que ya no hay lugar para eso aquí. La verdad es que esta tribu tiene un entendimiento muy radical, ya que todas hemos sufrido la represión, una represión que va más allá del imaginario, más allá de lo expresable, más allá de lo aceptable, porque cuando le dan a una nos dan a todas, y eso es precisamente lo que nos insta a ver que nuestro lugar ya no es bajo la tierra, ni en el silencio.

Y sí que vamos a luchar, y vamos a romper y a quemar lo que sea necesario para que tu premisa opresora termine. Porque ya no estamos solas, porque además nos une la misma raíz, la misma raíz que también nos conecta a la tierra. Y que estando así, unidas, nos acicalamos, nos nutrimos, nos amamos y protegemos. Sin embargo, comprendemos como esto resulta inconveniente para ti, pues tu premisa es mantenernos a distancia, individualizarnos, aislarnos.

Y ahora más que nunca siento la gran necesidad de afilar estas espinas, que después de todo conoces bien, incluso les temes, y por ese temor es que las mutilas. Y entiende bien y entiende ahora, que vengo en un bonche de muchas más, una cada vez más filosa que la anterior. Sí, somos muchas y venimos muy dispuestas a mirar más allá de la unicidad y encontrar el hermoso potencial de mirarnos libres, de sabernos vivas. Así que sí, toma tu distancia, que si te encuentro cerca y te quiero abrazar, en una de esas no salgas vivo.</sup>