SUMMARY STATEMENT
I remember that first book I read from a Chilean Psychologist in 2011. I was 19 years old, and the name was ‘Lessons of Seduction’ by Pilar Sordo. A book that talked, among other things, about the first menstruation of your life. It hit me, and many years later, that impact transformed into SÍIHIL.
I’ve been working consciously on SÍIHIL since 2019. A body of work related to menstruation, understanding it as the origin of life. In 2019, I lost my period due to a hormonal imbalance, and when I got back my period, everything changed. I was, in a way, born again.
There are other topics explored here such as introspection, body reconciliation, depression caused by hormonal imbalances, psychological processes, vulnerability, boundaries between what's public and private, the longing of motherhood, healing, the connection between the mind and the body, and in the end, the need of going back to the origin.
EXTENDED STATEMENT
Key Words: menstruation, healing, motherhood, feminine, moon, self discovery, cycles, mother nature, mental health, depression, hormonal imbalances, vulnerability, symbolic, poetic, abstract, document, documentary, body, body reconciliation, autobiographical, reproductive health.
“No one would be anything without the reproductive health of a woman, it is important to take care of it, it is preservation, it is transcendence.”
I come from an island that is part of the Mayan territory called Cozumel. It used to be the home of goddess Ixchel, the goddess of the moon, abundance and fertility. Nowadays, people go to Cozumel with the hopes to conceive. SÍIHIL is the Mayan word for birth. Birth understood not only as to give birth, but as the origin and the beginning of life itself.
When I started to develop this project, I found on Facebook memories that when I was a teenager I’d vent publicly about how much I hated my period and everything involved. I must admit that being a woman was not something I was thrilled about. Now, looking back and being more aware of how the mind impacts our physical selves, I try to speak to it in a much more loving way. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I got sick after being at war with my body for such a long time. But that’s just the beginning, there’s still so much to learn and it is our responsibility to educate ourselves in these topics, to make them visible, to normalize them and to change the narrative. I hope this work contributes to that.
Síihil is a search for the re-meaning of menstruation through entering my interior, rediscovering myself as a woman, reconciling with my own body, understanding it, exploring it and honoring it. It became a way to find, with each menstruation, an opportunity to be reborn and to discover the cyclical transformation of our own self through this biological process. I try to project that internal world into the external world that presents itself to me where the crude is combined with the symbolic, the poetic. This fusion takes me to areas where I find visual metaphors that remind me of this natural process. I wish to establish a constant union between these two worlds.
By telling my own story I try to open the conversation and invite you to tell your own.
It is also important because it is the manifestation of an internal need to make this transformation visible in order to make it less taboo in the everyday, to make the private public and turn it into a meeting point with the otherness, a point where we can recognize each other.
There is so much to say about menstruation, but I would like to leave with this wisdom in hopes it may stay with you that someone once told me: “No one would be anything without the reproductive health of a woman, it is important to take care of it, it is preservation, it is transcendence”.
Síihil, de la lengua Maya ‘nacimiento’, ‘dar vida’ ‘dar a luz’.
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My work tends to be autobiographical with the idea of starting with myself from a vulnerable position, because I'm convinced vulnerability is the first step to build healthier societies. When I was studying Filmmaking, teachers used to tell us all the time that any story that we wanted to tell, it needed to be one that we really knew and understood on a deeper level. Psychological therapy has been my best teacher for this, it has allowed me to discover myself, forgive myself, understand myself as well. It has been the best yes I’ve done in my life. Taking care of my mind is what has allowed me to live personally and professionally. It is my biggest cause.
My autobiography is the story I know best. That’s a fact. And this is only the first project derived from it.
I've also discovered that when you share your own, others can start sharing their own because they feel safe. I believe in the idea of going from personal to universal as a way of connection and more opportunities to impact and make deeper social changes. That’s the path to healing. That’s the path I want to leave as a person and as an artist.
