In 2007 I was studying art at The University of Texas at Austin. I began making self-portraits of myself as a roach in an imaginary space I called Borderlandia. Roaches have been used by artists and writers like Oscar “Zeta” Acosta and Anzaldua to describe Mexican-Americans. In “Self-portrait As A Roach Sleeping” a brown roach lays on its side with one hind leg raised towards the sky. It rests at the base of a green wall painted on a dark, blue, brown and green background. The roach is decorated with bright colors of blue, yellow and purple.
Gloria Anzaldua writes in Borderlands:
Faceless, nameless, invisible, taunted with “Hey cucaracho” (cockroach). Trembling with fear, yet filled with courage, a courage born of desperation. Barefoot and uneducated, Mexicans with hands like boot soles gather at night by the river where two worlds merge creating what Reagan calls a frontline, a war zone. The convergence has created a shock culture, a border culture, a third country, a closed country.
You only need to change the name of the president and this description is as accurate today as it was thirty years ago. In this painting I identify the roach in order to counter the faceless, the nameless, the invisible. I describe fear and anxiety by the shaking leg. It is decorated with bright colors to create pride and mark it as a defiant, courageous Hero of Borderlandia. She is a guide to show us the way.