UCLA

In this thesis, I examine how diasporic Salvadoran artist Beatriz Cortez engages with archival records and pre-Columbian history to situate the trauma of war and migration in conversation with centuries of Indigenous neglect and erasure in Central America. Through the use of archival materials, contemporary artists can access buried histories, propose alternative interpretations, and recover what has been suppressed. Throughout her artistic career and her collaborations with the Kaqchikel art collective Kaqjay Moloj, Beatriz Cortez has developed a different relationship with archives and objects that moves away from notions of the past as dead and inaccessible towards the active transmission of knowledge, according to Indigenous epistemologies. I examine the works Armor for Rufina Amaya (2014) and El Altar de Kaqjay (2021) and identify how they function to disrupt and counter official histories that perpetuate singular, disconnected narratives and communicate the shared experiences of Indigenous and Central American diaspora communities. I argue that engaging with archives creates opportunities for audiences to participate in the recovery of historical memory and Indigenous knowledge.