In “Through her,” I lip-sync my mother’s voice as she/I read a text touching themes of colonialism, otherness, queerness, and piles (both physical and metaphoric). I’m in the diaspora, while she is on the island, so this action challenges the liminal spaces between the mainland and the colony. Through this action, I’m interested in exploring what it means to embody through language, to acknowledge a lineage, and to physically become the container of a history that often goes unseen.

I walk to the middle of the space. My face is covered with a mask made out of blue tarp, which became a recognizable symbol in a Puerto Rico post-Hurricane María. Audio begins to play, and we hear the sound of crickets. My mother, in Puerto Rico, begins to speak as I lip-sync her words to the audience. The recording eventually stops, and I slowly leave the middle of the space. The lights go dark.