Storyteller and filmmaker Claudia Medina was born in the qathet region, and like many, left as a young adult to explore the world. She eventually returned after 25 years of working and travelling in Europe, Latin America and other places around the world.
Three-channel installation
This past November, audiences immersed themselves in a three-channel video and two-channel sound installation titled Naguala, which was created by Medina, with original compositions by musician Sophia Sanford and hosted at Crucible Gallery in Townsite. The idea for Medina’s newest video work began while connecting with her family roots in Mexico.
Medina travelled over many years to her mother’s hometown of Tecómitl, located on the south edge of Mexico City, one of the few places left where the indigenous language of Nahuatl is spoken by the Nahuas community. Prior to the arrival of the Spanish the people who lived in the area had, and still have, a rich and respected cultural tradition of medicine healing and knowledge.
“I would go and spend a lot of time there [Tecómitl],” said Medina. “My work is definitely inspired by a lot of aspects of the culture, especially in that community.
“My first film is based on my grandmother, who was a traditional healer. I spent a lot of time with her; she was one of the last people who practiced the way she did.”
Family roots
Medina’s grandmother died before she could make the documentary, but she ended up writing a script that was an amalgamation of stories based on her. She kept hearing about naguals or shapeshifters in this particular region of Mexico.
“That area of Mexico has a very rich history and I always knew that the town was considered the town of naguals,” explained Medina. “My relatives have stories about somebody who they knew who was not well, or they worried about encountering them [naguals]; my grandparents had crazy stories.”
Shapeshifters
This piqued Medina's curiosity about the shapeshifting entity that was often accused of killing children or causing people illness.
“It kind of led me on this deep dive because there has to be more to this since it’s so part of the culture,” said Medina. “There are statues of naguals and the imagery is so prevalent in the culture.”
Medina met a relative connected to her family, who told her more about it.
“He revealed what I suspected,” said Medina. “What happened in many cultures was when the Spanish arrived, they saw things like healers as a threat and labelled them as such.”
Once Medina dug through all the obfuscation created by the Spanish about Nahuas culture, she realized that the community was once home to a place of learning.
“It was kind of like a university in a sense,” said Medina. “There were realms of study: body movement, mathematics, cosmology, plant medicines, how to use language, words and song as a way to transport.”
Medina said the project was fun to do, and was hopefully a visceral experience for the audience.
“I started working with non-narrative stuff quite a few years ago, and it just allows for a different way of entering into a story,” said Medina. “It breaks down the idea that you have to have a beginning, middle and end. I created a character that is the intermediary, that would bring people into this experience.”
Stillwater Bluffs
Filming took place in various locations around the qathet region, including Stillwater Bluffs, south of town.
“”That’s one of my favourite places in the world; I feel like it’s kind of profound and magical,” said Medina. “At the core of it is that the human is not at the top of the hierarchy, but in a role of coexistence with everything else, in a relationship. That’s something that can resonate with most.”
Medina said naguala delves deep into the rich Mexican traditions of nagualismo and explores the mystical realm of the naguala, where the boundaries between animals, plants, earth, cosmos, reality and the supernatural become blurred.
Spring show
In the spring the three-channel video installation will be shown at qathet Art Centre, but with a bit of a different configuration.
“Originally, I had envisioned that the visuals would be surrounding the audience, which wasn’t really possible in that space [Crucible Gallery],” said Medina. “I’m looking at different places to bring it [naguala]; I would love to bring it to the town [Tecómitl].”
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