Monument to Santa Anna's Leg in Palestine (2018)
In this video and installation work as proposal for a monument, Latinx artist Jose Luis Benavides and I search for Santa Anna's missing leg. The Mexican general Santa Anna not only lost his wooden leg to U.S. forces during the American invasion and occupation of Mexico in the Mexico-American War, but Santa Anna also lost half of Mexico's territories to the U.S. at the end of that war in 1848. Sharing in the trauma of Mexico's stolen lands in 1848 and the 1948 Nakba in Palestine, we film their our journey to Springfield, IL (USA) where a military museum keeps guard of Santa Anna's wooden leg in its odd fortress as a macabre trophy of U.S. global imperialism.
Nice Legs, 10:43 minute video
2018 Monument to Santa Anna's Leg commissioned for The Lasting Effect, Qalandiya International, ‘Solidarity’.
2020 Monument to Santa Anna's Leg as part of 'On Collaboration & Solidarity' (Jun 25 - 26th), a conversation with lifelong human rights South African activist Albie Sachs and independent curator Reem Fadda, hosted by Dar Jacir for Art and Research in Bethlehem. | FB event.
2024 Monument to Santa Anna's Leg: Nice Legs at Evergreen Project: Mutual Insurance Building, Roman Susan, Chicago, IL.
Ongoing A Heavy Anchor Beneath the Ocean: Prosthetic Land, Loss, and Solidarity