Film Image
Border Brujo
Isaac Artenstein
Producer: Cinewest
1989
Color
60 minutes
US
English

Border Brujo

Border Brujo is a ritual-linguistic journey across the U.S./Mexico border written and performed by artist Guillermo Gómez Peña. In the guise of a cross-cultural shaman, Gómez Peña shifts into 15 different personas, each speaking a different language. The personas are symbolic of the borders between North and South, Anglo and Latino; myth and reality; legality and illegality; art and life. Border Brujo assaults and exorcises the demons of dominant cultures. He articulates fear, desire, trauma sublimation, anger and misplacement embodying ruptured and defiant communities with multilingual dexterity and humor.
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Reviews
"Darkly and often brilliantly funny, derives much of its searing wit from Pena's ravings against injustice and stereotypes. Much of the humor is also language bound ensuring bilingual (or multi-lingual) viewers the greatest comedic feedback.", 4 Stars. - Dan Schifrin, Daily Bruin
"Gómez-Peña possesses a clinical accuracy in naming the exact spots where the colonial wounds hurt the most. This is evident in the video El Border Brujo, 1989, an enthralling and multitudinous monologue in which Gómez-Peña embodies a series of characters, accents and grievances, all while drenched in Mexican tourist trinkets: mariachi hats, Mayan pyramids, and Aztec calendars." - Gaby Cepeda, Artforum

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