TORITA-ENCUETADA

Elyla's video-performance, Torita-encuetada (2023), an anti-colonial ceremony, explores liberation from the colonial yoke through a fire ritual rooted in a Nicaraguan cultural practice called “Toro encuetado.” Serving as a poignant act of political remembrance, the ritual dance or mitote calls for a return to earth-honoring practices and for the decolonization of mestizaje of sexual and gender diverse identities in Mesoamerica. Collaborating with Nicaraguan filmmaker Milton Guillen and music by Susy Shock and Luigi Bridges, the filmed ritual delves into the encounter of ancestral corpodivinities from Nicaragua's Pacific region, inviting viewers to witness the intersections of culture, anticolonial artistic praxis and the sacred. Committed to challenging societal norms, Elyla transforms the “cochón” (queer) utopia into a revolutionary artistic practice of the now.

Dedicated in honor of indigenous Mangue-chorotega cultural leaders and guardians of ancestral knowledge, Gustavo Herrera and Cristian Ruiz (1977-2022), the artist’s friends, collaborators and guides.

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