We were lucky to catch up with Felipe Senyaotl Monjaras recently and have shared our conversation below.
Felipe Senyaotl, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
An ongoing photography project im currently working on is called ‘Masewalmeh’, or ‘The common people, in the Nawatl language. One of over 64 native languages in mexico. Nowadays, it is used as an umbrella term for ‘indigenous person’ from mexico. My goal for this project was to capture indigenous mexicans, in the modern day and in modern settings. An aspect of being indigenous in america is that you are constantly ‘policed’ by people, even your own, about how indigenous you are. This policing is born of the spanish caste systems and the invention of words like ‘Latino’ which was created by french imperialist Michel Chevalier who wanted to create an umbrella term that would unite colonized subjects under a generic “Latin” identity that centers whiteness and erases indigenous identity.
My desire for this project is to show that there is no singular indigenous experience. Natives can live in cities, not just reservations. They don’t all wear feathers and have tribal tattoos. Experiencing colonialism differently than others does not erase your indigeneity. I seek to show these people as they are. Without judgement. They’ve had enough of that as it is.
“We all have different lived experiences as indigenous people, and all these experiences are valid. To suggest otherwise is surrendering to colonialism.” – Ruben Tlakatekatl Arellano, Chicano scholar, Activist, and Professor of History
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I first wanted to be involved in movie making at the age of 10. Watching films like Amores Perros, Dark Crystal and many others inspired me to get behind the camera, tell stories and explore creative concepts.
From the early stages of my career, I caught on that as an masewalli/Chicano I would have a tough time jumping into the industry. Though I had the same qualifications as any other film student, my first few years obtaining work as an PA & freelancer in film/TV was complete silence from employers. After a few years, my parents told me about the discrimination they’ve faced based solely off of their names associated with their race and ethnicity, so I opted to change mine on resumes to “Phil’ as opposed to “Felipe”. I also created my all-American white voice for phone interviews. The name change itself was enough to receive call backs for positions.
It’s what you have to do.
Early on i wanted to learn everything about production. Grip work, camera operating, editing,etc. I managed to gather experience in all these facets and managed to become a one man production crew. Early in 2013 I saw a huge need for smaller scale productions for advertising agencies. Social media moves very fast and to be able to produce digestible content, you need a team to be small and nimble enough to create a content calendar within a span of a week or less. My experiences in advertising and creating photo & video content for multiple brands really honed my skills in being able to produce from concept stage all the way to final output.
Something important ive learned is that, quantity CAN have quality, but only if a team takes the time to create it in the concepting stage. Often times, we see social media as a place to throw huge amounts of content at but consumers expect authenticity & depth. Generic content does little for your brand identity, they need to see something uniquely YOU.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Being able to fully realize the images or concepts in my head to something tangible is the reward. The expression of the self.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
Definitely wish youtube started alot earlier than it did! There’s a huge backlog of content over the last 15 years that is basically a free film school. Channels such as Aputure, B&H photo video,Fstoppers and many more are a treasure trove of information.
Contact Info:
- Website: senyaotl.com
- Instagram: senyaotl