Guadalupe Maravilla
In 1984, at eight years old, I immigrated alone to the United States from El Salvador in order to escape the Salvadoran Civil War. I was part of the first wave of undocumented children to come to the US from Central America. I became a US citizen at twenty-seven. In 2016, I changed my name from Irvin Morazan to Guadalupe Maravilla, in solidarity with my undocumented father, who adopted the surname “Maravilla” as his fake identity.
I create and choreograph fictionalized performance rituals, objects and drawings that incorporate my pre-colonial/ mestizo Central American ancestry, personal mythology, and autobiography. Through multidisciplinary, my work traces the history of my displacement and generates new visual memories for the entangled genealogy of border crossing stories. Drawing from my own healing experiences with illness, trauma, migration, and political strife my work incorporates sound rituals and human-to-human connection as vehicles for mutual healing and exchange.
Mutual aid for undocumented families, money distribution during COVID19, NY, 2020
Spirit Level Workshop, Sound Bath for undocumented families, NY, 2019
Disease Thrower Performance (Performance cancelled due to COVID19), New York, 2020
Disease Thrower #7, Sculpture/ Performance/ installation, ICA/VCU, Richmond, Virginia, 2020.
Disease Thrower #4, Sculpture/ installation, PPOW, New York, 2020
Walk on Water Performance, Queens Museum, Queens, New York, 2019
Guadalupe Maravilla
All images courtesy of the artist.
Guadalupe Maravilla ‘s Instagram
To donate to Maravilla’s mutual aid work, Venmo @Lupe-Maravilla