We recently connected with Hugo Ximello-Salido and have shared our conversation below.
Hugo, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
As part of my ongoing effort to celebrate and explore Mexican culture through art, I have been greatly inspired by Muxe – one-of-a-kind individuals who are assigned male at birth but grow up to dress and behave in ways traditionally associated with women. While there is some overlap with the transgender community, Muxe exist within a particular cultural context in Oaxaca, Mexico. They are not transgender women, as they don’t identify as women; they identify as Muxe. The Zapotec culture, concentrated in Oaxaca, is dominantly Catholic today and yet accepts Muxe as a vibrant and even necessary part of the community.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
As a native Mexican, culture and tradition are a vital part of my heritage. As a Mexican-American, I am fascinated by the dialogue between different cultures and traditions. As an artist, I explore personal experiences, emotions, and connections through the lens of my past and present in order to create a vibrant future. Through my work, I strive to increase social awareness of the many parts of my intersectional identity and experience as a Mexican-American member of the LGBTQ community.
My early work focuses on the legacy of Mexican culture and its collision with the American experience. Major inspirations include Mexican colonial style, “La Catrina” (the elegant skull), and other culturally significant symbols such as La Loteria Mexicana (Mexican bingo), papel picado (perforated tissue paper), and Talavera. I use a variety of materials, including acrylic paint, ink, gels, sand, papier-mâché, spray paint, and more to modernize, revive, and reinvent the Mexican art that inspires me.
Through each piece, I seek to convey a unique yet universal sense of being, feeling, or thought. I hope to challenge stereotypes, commercialization and commodification, and the arbitrary barriers we create between our shared humanity. My point of view emerges from varied perspectives on language, cultural differences, race, cultural bias, and more. My process is meditative and expressive, an expulsion of demons and a dispensation of beauty.
By crafting original artworks inspired by Mexican folklore, diverse communities, and daily experiences, I endeavor to bridge the gap between past and present as a modern, Mexican-American artist.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
As a young boy growing up in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Hugo Ximello-Salido felt early on that something about him was unlike most of his peers. Experiences being teased
and bullied for his uniqueness sensitized him to the ways in which various groups
perceive differences and respond to them. It wasn’t until later that Ximello-Salido
would realize what this difference was.
He first experienced Oaxaca, Mexico as a 15 year old, when he traveled there with his
father during a crucial time in his discovery of his sexuality. The vibrant culture he
experienced in Oaxaca informed his journey to self-acceptance and made a lasting
mark on the way he perceived the world.
Years later he visited Oaxaca again – as an adult and a self-taught artist, now living in
the American Midwest – and met the Muxes for the first time. He encountered Felina
and Rubi in Juchitan, and although he had little prior knowledge of Muxe and their
culture, he was immediately struck by the enigmatic beauty and power that they
brought to their daily lives.
He remembered his journey to Oaxaca as a young man and was immediately
inspired to celebrate and share in this unique and vital community – a fusion of
Zapotec culture and colonial influence that created a place where gender fluidity
could blossom, where self-expression could create beauty, and where art and life
could converge.
This meeting was the beginning of a new journey – an effort to learn about Muxe
culture, appreciate its singular history and contemporary expression, and to help
share its beauty with the world. The result of that effort is a new documentary film
featuring Oaxaca and its singular Muxe culture.
: Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
Through educating the American public about the unique experiences of Muxe, I hope to honor this aspect of Mexican culture in a way that also broadens the horizons of the viewer, connecting art and culture to inspire thought and discussion about sexuality and gender both here and abroad. I also aim to subvert the commercialized model of Mexican art and better represent its full spectrum, from folk art to “fine” art and beyond.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.hugosalido.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hugoximellosalido/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hugo.xs.7
- Other: www.hugogaban.com www.luminousart.org
Image Credits
photo: by Destiny Defie