The smell of lingering PEMEX gas fumes, fresh masa on comals, along with echoes of traffic
horns resonated in the studio as my interview began to take flight. I had the honor of
interviewing La Golondrina, Rita Ortiz, a multidisciplinary artist whose work transcends genre
and boarders. I opened with a poetic offering, by reading Coral Bracho’s Desde esta luz, a piece
whose sensory lyricism, spiritual depth, and metaphysical textures echo and parallels Rita’s
artistic voice. Bracho’s dreamlike language and delicate attention to presence helped set the tone
for what would become a layered exploration of film, poetry, memory, and voice. After watching
the short film and hearing about how the idea came about for Aldebaran, Rita’s haunting
cinepoem, left me navigating a dreamlike liminal space, between the astral and the ancestral.
She balances visual silence with poetic narration using symbolism of máscaras, or masks. It was
moving how the film invites us to confront what lies behind and beyond identity and the
subconscious. Rita described her process as one that honors rhythm, mystery, and visual
invocation. It was a treat to hear her sing, Paloma, joining in spirit as her spirit took flight toward
emotion. The folkloric depth in her voice carries memory like plumas de ganzo, down feathers,
both soft and heavy. As she read from Boleador de Zapatos, and El Buen Morir we both took
part in sharing how Mexico is so enriched with visual and olfactory visual language, and how
poetry becomes an altar, word offering of smells, sounds, and ritual. La Golondrina, a name
representative of transmigration, memory, and return is rooted in the crossing of demarcated
boarders, spiritual, and linguistic. Every thread in her practice expands the possibilities of how
art can heal, hold, and set free.
