Film: Zozobra

(Short excerpt from original)

Zozobra, 2021

video 10:07

Concept and directed by María Cristina Tavera
Cinematographer Xavier Tavera

Edited by Seth Dahlseid

Chicana feminist, author, and artist Gloria Anzaldúa is well-known for her concept of the borderlands. She refers to the U.S.–Mexico border not simply as a physical boundary but also how it incorporates the psychological aspects to describe one’s identity. She uses the Náhuatl term nepantla to more succinctly describe the spiritual dimensions of the border experience.

My film titled “Zozobra” refers to the emotions experienced during Nepantla: the uncertainty and anguish, the restlessness of feeling a lack of belonging to some place, due to the cultural uprooting. This is a common circumstance for immigrants or even Chicanos who are born in the U.S. as Mexican-Americans who experience spiritual insecurities due to a loss of identity due to the intersectionality of feeling “in between” of not belonging to either country. “Ni de aqui, ni de alla”