“Bridging Gaps and Building Communities”: Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz's Ask Chuleta and Afro-Latinx Identity beyond the “White Box”
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Published:December 2024
Kerry Doran, 2024. "“Bridging Gaps and Building Communities”: Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz's Ask Chuleta and Afro-Latinx Identity beyond the “White Box”", Nuyorican & Diasporican Visual Art: A Critical Anthology, Arlene Dávila, Yasmin Ramirez
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This chapter delves into the web series “Ask Chuleta,” created and performed by Nuyorican artist Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz between 2006 and 2013. Chuleta, a young female artist from the Bronx, records confessional-style vlogs on YouTube to bridge gaps and build communities within the art world. She challenges the mainstream art world’s biases and hypocrisies, particularly in terms of race, gender, sexuality, class, and ability. By invoking the legacy of Puerto Rican artist-activists, Chuleta positions herself within a radical lineage, using her Afro-Latinx identity to resist normativity and white supremacist ideologies. Her unapologetic mannerisms, appearance, and language disrupt prevailing standards, aligning with frameworks like José Esteban Muñoz’s “disidentification” and Jillian Hernandez’s “aesthetics of excess.” Chuleta’s presence and content on YouTube challenge the confines of traditional exhibition venues, yet underscore the mythology of Web 2.0’s inclusivity. This chapter reveals how Chuleta’s chusmería tactics parody white supremacy and disidentify with dominant paradigms.
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