La Pata Sola, 2024

This photo series is collaborative community project for “Face For The Algo”,
a 2024 calendar spread with different artists creating individual portraits.

The calendar proceeds went to @lovetheeverglades, @miamiworkerscenter, @wecount!, @transsocial, & @palestinianyouthmovement 

In collaboration with artists Agua Dulce as subject and Sabrina Diaz as project manager, I considered how a figure as iconic as La Pata Sola could be reclaimed in this project. What if we take an urban legend of a demonized femme, and instead shift her narrative to empower resistance. Many regions of Colombia where this folk In our white supremacist hetero-patriarchal cis-male led society, that which opposes these identities is brought into question, negated, and made to look evil.

Patasola is a figure in Colombian lore; she’s portrayed as a beautiful woman who lures men into the forest and then reveals her true demon self to kill them. Many regions have different origins of how this woman became a monster. She’s used by many as a folklore to scare women into fidelity and piety - however, if you read deeper into her story, topics of sex trafficking, male infidelity, misogyny, and control are all evident. If this is what she opposes, why would we not glorify the demon. Why wouldn’t we want to celebrate the grotesque. To decolonize is to uplift that which the white man has deemed unlovable, & in turn, loving that within ourselves.

Read more about the legend of La Pata Sola here!

https://www.todacolombia.com/folclor-colombia/mitos-y-leyendas/patasola.html

Or wiki for the various versions from the different regions of Colombia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patasola
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