Response to Pablo Simental on Laura Aguilar

Pablo wrote about how strongly he relates to Laura Aguilar's art as a queer Chicano. He writes about the relationship he has to his own body and the ways in which other people's ideas of it have impacted him personally. He says that Laura touching her big beautiful body made him realize how detrimental his thoughts towards his body have been. Every space and every person we come in contact with will tell us about our body more than we feel we are allowed to. I think about the ways in which my family's words have impacted the ways that have shaped my relationship to my own body. The idea that someone is allowed to take up space is a radical one. It's not something I would have ever heard from my family growing up. "Siéntate bien" is what I would always hear from my mom and dad and my tías. I would hear my tías constantly talk about their own bodies very unfavorably. They would always talk about some imaginary diet they were on. I think it is so traumatizing to think of your body in ways that demand it to work for you and your vision of what an ideal body should be. Skinny, tall, fit, and ABLE especially. There are so many aspects of our physical bodies that are out of our control and I have personally learned the hard way that mobility isn't ever guaranteed. A part of Laura Aguilar's pieces that I really enjoy is that in several of landscape ones she just sits and takes up space. We can't constantly demand of our bodies to move. Sometimes we just need to be.