This piece is a proposal to re-imagine traditional Güegüense costumes through a cochona (queer) lens, to honor the memory of LGBTIQ + artists and activists in recent history in Nicaragua.

The vest of the Macho Ratón Costume shows Güegüense and Macho masks that intertwine their tongues in a passionate kiss inspired by the artistic work of the indigenous queer painter Leoncio Sáenz (1935-2008). The apron of the Güegüense Costume shows the first mural to honor dissident sexualities in Nicaragua before Spanish colonization made by Fundación Nimehuatzin, CEP-SIDA (Circa 1990). This mural was made to respond to some accusations made against LGBTIQ+ activists in the early 1980s, making it clear that sexual dissidence was not a bourgeois disease or invention of the US internationalists, but rather a reality originating within our indigenous Central American roots.

The costume making was created in collaboration with indigenous Navajo artist and biologist Sierra Pete.