Voices en Español

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Maya Escobar is a young American artist who has found a provocative way to examine stereotypes, particularly stereotypes related to Latina and Jewish women. Maya’s dad is Guatemalan and her mom is Jewish and Maya grew up in the Midwest of the United States. Combine all that together and you’ve got an artist with a one-of-a-kind perspective on identity and ethnicity in the 21st-century.

Maya tackles this subject of ethnic stereotypes head-on in a piece of performance art called “Acciones Plásticas.” She writes:

“I created a multi-faceted “doll”, assuming the role of designer and distributor myself, and even posing as the actual doll itself. My product is “marketed” in five distinct styles: The Orthodox Jew©, The JAP© [Jewish American Princess], The Chach©, The Sexy Latina©, and The Mayan©. Each doll is a satirical characterization of the many roles that have been projected upon me, and into which I have, to some extent, inevitably fallen.

As “ethnic objects,” the dolls are removed from their original context. Much like actual commercial dolls or other artifacts of popular culture, the viewer observes them without consideration of relevant socio-economic issues, heritage or cultural practices.”

You can read more about Acciones Plásticas over at Maya’s web site and find the full series of the videos over on YouTube. But here’s a sample featuring The Sexy Latina© “doll.”