A Very Anxious Feeling: Voices of Unrest in the American Experience - Catalog - Page 39
CECILIA VICUÑA
Luis Gómez
This is totally at odds
but I live in Manhattan
part of the year
and I have always been fascinated
by the holes in Manhattan
you know, you walk by and there are these
tremendous holes
sometimes water comes jumping
out of it
hand goes up with thread cascading down from it
as a geyser, you know, and it’s because the water pipes have exploded—
they are from the 19th century
and of course sometimes water is rushing down:
sometimes people are falling in
sometimes people are coming out
In any case, there was this man
called Luis Gómez
and this happened only a few blocks
a block and a half exactly away from my home
And Luis Gómez
he was an illegal worker
And he was working in one of these holes
And then apparently
he went into having
a nice nap
And another worker came
and without noticing
that Luis Gómez was there
came and threw all the rubble
on top of Luis Gómez
and killed him
And nobody notices
and the hole was covered
and everything was okay according to the
workers
except that Luis Gómez
had a brother
and the brother came later and asked
where is Luis Gómez
nobody had seen Luis Gómez
And somebody had the hunch
I believe it was his brother
that he might be in there
so they started to dig a hole
and there he was
he was crushed like a little mummy
puts hands wrapped in thread against her head, gesturing sleep
a little body
inside the hole
So this is for Luis Gómez
____________
Excerpt from performance at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center,
Buffalo, NY, September 27, 1998
Published in Spit Temple: The Selected Performances of Cecilia Vicuña
Translated by Rosa Alcalá, Published by Ugly Duckling Presse, 2012
Courtesy of the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong,
Seoul, and London
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