Rossana

 An Audio Guide into the Magical Worlds; in Conversation with Rossana Romero

Rossana Romero: ‘Hi! My name is Rossana Romero and welcome to an audio guide for the painting “ ‘I do not know if it is a memory or un sueño, pero aveces siento el Rio Magdalena en mi cuello.’ ” This is a 48 x 48 inch oil painting on canvas I created in 2021. 

As I move forward with recording an audio guide to my paintings and sculptures, I am seeking peers that I respect and admire to have a conversation with me and ask their own questions on the work that I am making. I am creating my own space where we dissect the work for an open dialogue, in hopes that it will continue the conversation of the research that is referenced within the art. 

Today I have my friend Ava asking me questions, 

“Go ahead and introduce yourself and can you tell me why you chose this piece. “

AVA: Hi! I am Ava, I am a PhD in  empirical visual aesthetic in Vienna and also a performance artist model. I run a publication called AVA GANZA that writes about where art and science kiss.

AVA: Just want to say, Thanks for sharing your work in this medium. I’m excited to expand and talk about the painting I saw at Presa House, a gallery in my hometown of San Antonio Texas. The work in question entitled ‘I do not know if it is a memory or un sueño, pero aveces siento el Rio Magdalena en mi cuello.’ is a beautiful portrait of a woman in the landscape. I want to go through the work and address some specific elements. 

Let's dive deeper into your relationship with water. 

Yes you are a Cancer, but can you tell us a bit more about what water in general means for you as a flowing life force and what this particular Rio is?

Rossana Romero: 

Yes, I am a cancer sun. 

I do think that I have a close relationship with water due to my astrology sign but consciously, I think I use the moon more often to portray that part of me. 

The moon shows up just as often as water does in my work. 

Water has become a very layered meaning to me within my work. I use water in many ways, to say different things. To explain different types of stories.

Since this painting was finished in 2021, I have since then created many worlds in water to show that they are separate, surreal dream-like places, compared to the worlds that are filled with trees, and land and hills. I do combine worlds, but it is more as if I am blurring the lines together, in duality. 

Water to me, can range from death and rebirth. 

Water kills you, drowns you, suffocates you, flips you around, and can rob you of everything. 

Water gives you life. You are made of water. The entire world is made of water, water is the blood of the earth. 

I used to have dreams of floods, of world floods, of water taking me under and I could feel the water rushing over my face, and I never felt this fear of drowning, just relief. 

I make work with water to relive that feeling, the feeling of anxiety, when your feet can't touch the floor anymore, and you feel the water up to your ears, nothing for your hands to hold onto, 

you learn to let go. 

Which, My paintings have always helped me learn to let go. 

I was also always raised around water, I was always swimming, my parents always went to pools, the beach, the rivers, after school I was always finding a creek with my friends. 

I have always been in water. 

So it does feel natural to me to have a need for it to be in my work,

but I also have this other relationship with water where I have seen it with my own eyes take down communities, and neighborhoods. 

I have seen the way water can fully destroy us when the government and the systems above us allow it to. 

I grew up in Houston for a majority of my life, and was a witness to hurricane Katrina in 2005, hurricane Ike in 2008, and I accidentally happened to be there during hurricane Harvey in 2017. All three of those hurricanes had extreme impacts to the structures of Houston, and the south in general. 

Water can be diabolical.

But water can also be your reflection of what you want to see, when you have decided to not swim underneath the surface, 

you only see what you want to see and not the currents and the life that is flowing under. 

Water has a depth that allows me to fill it with secrets, and stories, and stillness in a big chunk of space. 

Especially with this piece, where I am recreating what I think the Magdalena river looked like during the banana massacre in 1928. 

The Magdalena is an artery for Colombia, the veins and heart to the country, the river that feeds and nourishes the country. The Magdalena is how our communities and the animals and ecosystem we share survive, and have survived for so long. 

All bodies of water in Colombia lead to el río Magdalena.

The river is a witness to change and time, it is a witness to how we destroy ourselves and our ecosystem by contamination,  bodies being tossed in the river, the pollution from the companies coming from outside the country, leading to animals and indigenous communities going extinct. Wildfires and sources of food that are no longer available. 

Which, I can also add that this is not something that just happens in Latin America but also all over the world, we see parallels of this in the United states every day. 

Water has a big way of explaining that to people.

AVA: Absolutely, I particularly like this evocation of diabolical and the river as a witness- particularly with the personal anecdotes you have shared! Could you tell us a little more about the technical process of how you created this glorious Magdalena river in this work. If you look closely, viewers at home, there are subtle reds, yellows and whites to create this symphony of agua.

Rossana: 

Yes, so I guess talking about the technical process is always a little challenging for me to explain because I never really remember how I make my work. 

It just happens, I just allow it to happen. 

I shut down, and I wake up and the work is basically done. 

I like to play with the colors, to make the illusion of one color. 

The river is green and blue, but a swampy green that has reflections of the sun and reflection of the trees,

the little rays of light that come through the tall trees surrounding the river in the painting, 

where at moments you can see the depths and the darkness of what is laying at the bottom of the river. 

You need more than one color to achieve that and you need more than one color to tell the many layers of the story. 

The river also represents the artery to an ecosystem, so in my own way I painted this river as if veins of blood were to be running through it. 

AVA: That makes sense, I really like that. 

Who are the characters in the background of this ecosystem?

Rossana: There is the pig and a pregnant women in the background 

The land shows the coffee crops, the banana trees, and a pregnant woman hiding in the back of the jungle with her pig. 

During the massacres, pregnant people who were either connected to the liberal party or were innocent bystanders and not openly out loud for the right wing military, were killed, and farmers' animals were slaughtered so that the farmers could not make more money or have food to eat. 

When the right wing groups were killing the left wing groups, the government told them to kill pregnant people connected to the liberal party and to stab their bellies, 

so people started running to the mountains and hiding and giving birth in the jungles. 

They told them to kill farmers' animals and to slaughter their meat. They told them to slice off men's testicles so they can stop reproducing. 

This is where the term Corte Corbata started, and I’ll explain that a little later, due to the massacres the right wing militia wanted to make a point and leave a statement so they began to murder people with corte corbata so that witnesses knew who killed them.

The Corte Corbata is tied to the right wing militia.

The pig is also a double reference to the right wing military killing pigs from farmers and a quote that stood out to me in the book from Open Veins of Latin America by using a Pig with wooden leg in page 227,

‘ “aid' works like the philanthropist who put a wooden leg on his piglet because he was eating it bit by bit.’

AVA: Oof, well that insight of the wounded space from a horror history of the background I can now connect to some of the other iconography that is perhaps more directly violent. Now these other objects that are floating in the water. Let's name them.

Rossana: 

In the Magdalena river you see, 

the machete, bananas, coffee, and a snake and the red tie

The anaconda in the painting represents the son of the river, a symbol of immortality, wisdom, and knowledge. 

The anaconda has outlived all of us, because it never dies, it just sheds its skin. 

The river calls back trauma, history, and cycles, but it will never be the same mass of water. 

The snake will never have the same skin it was born with. 

Bananas and Coffee are a source of currency, they sink in the river.

Banana trees being cut down and falling into the river is a reflection of the amount of labor that comes from banana and coffee plantations, and the amount of lives that are sacrificed for little profit or no profit. 

the machete and the red tie are both references to massacre and genocide,

 The tie sinking in the Magdalena is a nod to how the right wing militia would kill and mark people, which would be called Corte Corbata, and how they would use the river to hide the genocide. How their evidence would contaminate the river, and poison the artery that feeds and pumps the entire ecosystem and country.

This piece and then the rest of my series of work started with a research I began on the colonization of South America from the 1400’s to now. 

The work I have been making since then are results of the inspiration I have gotten from history, from books, from tales through older generations and from academia research papers. 

This painting in particular stemmed from the Banana massacre in Ciénaga, Colombia in 1928. 

The United fruit company realized the produce that was thriving in Santa Marta and created a banana plantation there. When the workers decided to ask for normal requests in return, like 8 hour work days, breaks through the day, 6 day weeks instead of working every day, and compensation instead of paying them with bananas, the United Fruit company which is now Chiquita, waited for the entire village to leave church one Sunday and massacred the whole town with military snipers so that no one in the village would be able to tell anyone what happened. 

For a long time this wasn’t history, it was just a myth for surrounding towns because the United States and the Colombian government lied about the event, and the amount of people who died. The numbers would change on how many people were massacred, then the facts would change, then it eventually just never happened. This event had a domino effect on Colombia and the entire Caribbean. Plantations started forming everywhere, for sugar, banana, avocado, coffee, flowers. This led to communities in the villages that were being affected to begin forming groups to protect their village, that later led to liberal and conservative parties, that eventually led to civil wars, guerrillas, corrupt politicians and cartels. 

You choose one of the paths out of survival and necessity, so this led to years of violence and bloodshed and to the migration of having to flee from our homes, our roots, our land. 

Indigenous people are and were constantly being uprooted and moved around because the soil is rich and because Chiquita wanted to expand and wanted to enslave Indigenous and Black people for free labor. 

This story has not stopped, and the domino effect still continues. 

But, I think it was important to explain the river and the main root of why I even created all these references because that is the only way to tell this story.

AVA: This context is integral in understanding your practice and I just really admire how diligent you are in your research and putting in these kind of, you know, histories in the work. So I want to unpack a little bit, Why is colonization so important to your work? 

Rossana: 

I am not sure people realize this, and I hope eventually they do. But my work isn’t about identity or understanding my culture, I have always understood where I come from and who I am. 

But colonization has become important to my work because it has allowed me to heal and understand where my pain comes from. 

My work is about love and understanding and revealing why it skipped me. 

I didn't know what love was, what it felt like, what it could be. 

What it meant to be safe, to be heard, to be held, to be protected, and to be a priority. 

To really understand what love really means, I needed to understand why I didn't have it. Why didn't love feel safe around me. I didn't know why I felt isolated, alone, and empty. And history helped me understand it was a cycle. 

And that priority was always survival. 

But understanding history and the consequences of colonization made me empathize with the adults who could not provide me the softness I needed. 

And it made me understand also, that our parents will always believe they're doing their best and giving their best and loving their best, more than their parents did and more than their parents even had the privilege to. 

It was a dark hole I could not understand, until I learned the history of where it began. 

It became easier to digest, the hole became smaller, and I learned to find empathy in something none of us chose for each other. 

Once I realized, the only way to figure out why I didn't know love, was to understand why my parents didn't know it either. It became clear that it was a systemic cycle and not a choice. 

And we were running on survival. 

The more I study about colonization, and the history of Latin America, the closer I am to understanding my own hurt and those before me. 

History allows me to heal wounds that always kept me angry. 

It allowed me to find forgiveness. 

It also allowed me to change who I was pointing my fingers to, as well. 

Using history and my yearn for nostalgia I start developing my own world and combining history with magic realism, I use the dysmorphia of the memories that I have that feel blurry to create a new narrative on love. 

Through my work, I aim to shed light on the erasure of history, the exploitation of people and land, and the lasting effects of colonization, 

But I want us to know those lasting effects not only include physical and political consequences but also the mental and emotional obstacles that we carry through generations. 

AVA: Thank you for this vulnerable insight . How do you reconcile collectors that might support your work but then negate current imperialistic happenings? What advice might you have for artists that are painting about colonialism but afraid to name it to their audiences? 

Rossana: 

:) I don't. 

My work is not meant for them if that is the case. 

And I don't have advice for anyone who is afraid to name it. If you fear your audience, you’re not ready to have these discussions. 

I know that it is cold of me to say. 

That is a little cold of me to say, and I understand that it is not easy to want to be in the art world while also calling out capitalism and the pain it has caused our communities. I am torn constantly on survival and empathy, 

wanting to be embraced by the art community but knowing I am confronting their morals. 

I think the best thing we can always do as a community is to continue learning, unlearning, and choosing your morals. 

I also know that my work will not be easy to discuss in spaces that refuse to discuss reality, but my work is to open a dialogue for those who are experiencing the consequences of colonialism and dont understand where those consequences stem from. 

My work is for those who want to heal.

My work is for people who live in anger, and sadness, and survival and don’t have an understanding as to why the cycle continues. 

Education is a privilege. 

If my work makes someone uncomfortable, I think I have done my job. I personally believe I am not confrontational enough.

AVA: In addition to the theme of colonization, let's pivot a little,  are there any mythologies you are tapping into in this piece? 

Rossana: Yes :)

In this piece, my cousin Juanita is my model holding a banana, symbolizing the exploitation of workers and land. 

While I was painting her, which I do do this with most of my models especially as of recently, I think of different Gods that could embody them, 

I thought of Lilith, Madremonte, and Henri Rousseau's painting "The Dream," all of which embody the type of power I wanted to convey. 

The title, ‘I do not know if it is a memory or un sueño, pero aveces siento el rio Magdalena en mi cuello.’ The title is a nod to the painting ‘The Dream’ and to my experience being part of the diaspora, remembering Colombia as a deep dream. 

Remembering it in my throat, in my belly with the food I eat, the songs I sing, the dance I form. It feels very far and close to me. 

Sort of like love, when the only love you know is cold and quick and only appears when the water is still that you feel this need to tiptoe around it so you do not disturb the monsters hiding inside of it.  

Which leads me to La Madremonte, also known as Mother Mountain or Mother of the Forest, she is a spirit found in Colombian mythology, She is the protector of the forest and the natural life.

She is usually regarded as protective of nature and the forest animals and is very unforgiving when humans enter their domains to alter or destroy them. 

She is known for being an enforcer of the laws of nature, always surrounded by animals and is often seen bathing, she is known to scare cow thieves, slackers and killers of innocent animals.

She rules the winds, the rains, and all the vegetation, and her role is to protect nature. She punishes those who invade her territory, by making them get lost. 

AVA: Why do you think it was important to use your cousin as the model for this story? 

Rossana: 

I tend to use my family in most of my work, it was never intentional at first but the more I try to expand to others that aren't within my family, as models, I always find more inspiration within my family. Maybe I have so many family members to choose from that I don't run out of muses, but I also feel there's an attachment with my paintings that once I paint you there's a bond for life. Which obviously that bond is easier to commit to when it is with family. 

For as long as that painting lives, we are both alive together with the work.  

Am I ready for that commitment? 

Maybe that's dramatic also, 

my paintings are my children. 

I am also painting with this longing of love, so there is also that part. 

I tend to always look for love within my family and love within my muses.

If I am painting you, then I have a love for you that I want to commit to for as long as that painting lives. 

AVA: Lastly I just want to say that the execution of the fields and the trees are so intricate, very well done. Do you find the creation of this work meditative? If so, What is coming up as you are recalling the landscape of your home? 

Rossana: 

Yes, Thank you! 

Yes i do, I love to make tedious detailed work because I tend to get lost in it. It is a dream that doesn’t end, only when I choose to wake up. 

It feels meditative in a way where I am allowing myself to think of every single thing possible in my mind, the same way someone does when they meditate or when they close their eyes to go to sleep, every single thing goes through my mind in those hours of painting. 

It feels like my own version of hypnosis therapy. I start to recall memories I forgot all about. It feels like I'm tapping into my inner child and allowing space and stillness to remember memories I have pushed down, and due to the long period of time that I am painting, I am creating stillness to sit with those memories, moments, feelings. 

I carry a huge weight of sadness when I think of this beautiful land that awaits me and remembers me while I recall all the terror it has seen.

I hope it remembers the touch of my palms and the smell of skin when I get to see it and touch it again. 

AVA: Well gracias amiga for walking me through and giving me such rich insight. Very impressive, your language and the work, and this is so important and I am so glad we sat down to do this because now I have a totally new vision of what the work is! 

Thank you Ava and every one who has listened through this interview and audio guide. I am excited to continue this journey and bring in more people who have questions and would like to continue the conversation. Please reach out through email if you would like to participate in asking your own questions. 

You can find more about Ava’s work in her newsletter https://avaganza.substack.com/, and her instagram https://www.instagram.com/a.v.a/