“Public
Secrets” by Sharon Daniels and “The Mestiza Way” by Gloria Anzaldúa: a new race
of all colors and a new gaze within the matrix of incarceration
Sharon’s Daniel’s
prison project deals with a complete deconstruction of the prison system as a
social system for isolating and compartmentalizing individuals through social
death. She reveals this by creating a maze-like framework that visitors can use
to explore a web-based interface that is based off of her case study of three prisons
within the Chowchilla area. This is where she examines two of the largest
female prisons within the state of California. Her web based interface is set
up in which she has set up her own voice interviews for thirty other people.
Through maneuvering the complex framework people can explore the interior
levels and exterior overlays of the prison system itself and be navigated
towards its cells and interact with inmates through clicking on audiofiles that
serve to constitute their reflections, philosophies and testimonials. It is a highly
multimodal piece that efficiently and expertly shows the non-incarcerated
members of society what’s it like from the perspectives of the members who live
within the basis of that reality and framework. And more so women who are being
oppressed.
In “The
Mestiza Way” Anzaldúa purports the notion of a new consciousness of the woman; “una
consciencia de mujer” this is being linked to the New Mestiza Consciousness,
but its overarching theme is synthesizing with the new race, not the Aryan as
she mentions earlier, but a race for Latin, African and all women of color. “Alma entre dos mundos, tres, cuatro, me zumba
la cabeza con lo contradictorio. Estoy norteada por todas las voces que me
hablan simultáneamente.” In this statement Anzaldúa is stating that her
spirit is in two worlds at once and that her head is whirring with these
contradictions. And she is being ruled by many voices at the same time. Her
claims are arguing for a new era in which women of color can be properly
represented and in which their voices and experiences can be heard and
presented accurately. We are called to question, challenge and topple the reign
of the white man and his autocracy of representing history through his own
lens, even if it includes depriving the voices and races of people, including
women and the notions of international, interracial, and intercultural borders.
Daniels’s
and Anzaldúa’s pieces work harmoniously in tandem due to how both call
attention to women and their experiences to fight, seek freedom, and
representation from institutionalized racism and oppression. Sharon Daniels
executes this through her software program of her created prison system that
serves as a matrix and portal into the experiences of women who are suffering
at the hands of this system whilst Anzaldúa’s theories ignites a spark of flame
to make us consider how women of all backgrounds and cultures deserve
representation and their ideologies to be heard and how when this happens we
will be in a new era, a new frontier. As her title suggests; we will be
entering un frontera nueva. Daniel
and Anzaldúa purport how through their own frameworks just how women can move
towards new perceptions of idealized freedom and escape the social frameworks
of oppression, misrepresentation and institutionalized racism via finding
strength and unity through their voices together.
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