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(mysterious music)

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Someone told me,
when I was a younger artist:

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"If you don't see the art that you like,
just invent it yourself."

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(chimes)

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[Guadalupe Maravilla & the Sound of Healing]

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I grew up playing on the
steps of the pyramids

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in El Salvador.

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I knew I had a deep
connection to the Mayans

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and the architecture and their art.

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(horn blowing)

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Especially the sculptures--

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those sculptures,
they were these giant steles

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carved out of a rock--

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and how they told stories.

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But they're also objects
to perform rituals in.

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But I'm really not interested in

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imitating what they were doing.

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I was interested in learning about ritual,

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but reinventing, creating my own.

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(mysterious music)

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[Socrates Sculpture Park,
Queens, New York]

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The sculpture at Socrates,

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it was my first outdoor sculpture,

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made out of recycled aluminum.

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(wind blowing)

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The sculpture itself,

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they're a continuation of
my "Disease Thrower" series.

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["Disease Throwers," 2019–2020]

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So they're headdresses,

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they're shrines,

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and they're healing instruments.

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The materials of the sculptures

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is an opportunity to go
back to Central America,

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go back to Mexico,

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and collect materials from these lands

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that I crossed as a child.

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(mysterious music)

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My work is autobiographical,

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and it's really important to understand
where I come from.

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I was born in El Salvador, in San Salvador.

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There was a revolution that
was starting when I was born.

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My first few years,
it was kind of a happy time.

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And then the war started to escalate.

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(gunfire)

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My family had to flee
El Salvador immediately.

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And then I was kind of by myself.

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When I was eight years old, they told me

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I was going to be reunited with my family

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in the United States.

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But I'm going by land.

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--Plant them anywhere randomly.

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So my journey started in El Salvador,

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and then I went to Honduras,
to Guatemala,

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and all the way through Mexico.

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This went on for almost
two and a half months.

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"Tripa Chuca" is a game
that I grew up playing

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with other friends and a piece of paper.

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[Tripa Chuca:
A children's game in which players draw lines
between pairs of numbers to create abstract patterns.]

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I used to play when I
was crossing the border,

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when I was eight years old.

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I used to play with the coyote.

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I used to play with other kids.

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So this has always been
a really important game.

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And this is why I always mark
my spaces with this game.

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I was very lucky

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because the border was very
different in those times.

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It was 1984, but even
those kids that I was with,

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some of them didn't make it.

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I still think about that.

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It could have went so many different ways.

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(mysterious music)

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I was born December 12.

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My birthday is very significant for me

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because I was born on
the twelfth month and the twelfth day.

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For the longest time,
I was looking at the calendar

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and I was just like,

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"Wow, I'm going to have a birthday"

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"that's going to be all twelves in 2012."

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And that's when I found out I had cancer.

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Yeah.

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(camera shutter)

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(mysterious music)

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In the middle of radiation treatments,

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it was really an empowering time
for me

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because that was the first time
I was exposed to a sound bath.

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(mysterious music)

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I was losing a lot of water
because of the radiation.

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They said it's
really good to replenish

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the very little water that you have,

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so sound therapy may work.

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(mysterious music)

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For the first time,
I realized sound is medicine,

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and if I overcome this experience,

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I want to learn how to play,

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to share that

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with others that are going
through that struggle.

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I started my own healing workshops

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for undocumented immigrants.

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When the pandemic hit,
I came across Juan Carlos Ruiz,

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the pastor at the church in Bay Ridge.

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He was feeding over three thousand people
per week.

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So I decided to collaborate with him

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and then just bring all my
healing work into the church.

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(chiming)

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[Woman, in Spanish]
--At some point, did you ask yourself
why this was happening to you?

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[Maravilla, in Spanish]
--Yes, I think about that all the time.

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--Having cancer was a really difficult period,
but it's also been a great teacher.

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--Everyone has their own trauma.

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--And that trauma is different for everyone.

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--For me, the trauma of being separated
from my family when I was a kid,

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--the trauma of the civil war,

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--all of that manifested in an
energy in my stomach

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that became cancer.

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(gong lightly ringing)

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["Planeta Abuelx"]

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Today's a very special day,
because in a couple hours,

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we're going to have
over three hundred people show up.

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I put an invitation out
for anyone that has cancer

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or anyone that is a cancer survivor

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or anyone that has dealt
with a cancer loss.

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At some point after overcoming cancer,

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I did see art a lot different.

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There was a point when I was like,

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"Oh, do I continue being an artist?"

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"Or do I just go into a jungle
with a 'curandero' for 10 years"

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"and disappear and just learn."

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I was very conflicted,
which direction to go in.

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But I'm more interested
in creating my own path.

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And my own path is using art and healing,

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and combining the two.

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(chiming)

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(horn blowing)

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(horn blowing)

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(glass ringing)

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From my experiences

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healing is not always a pleasant thing,

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where everything is
perfect and clean.

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Healing can be very
difficult and challenging.

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But having a community
that has gone through

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similar experiences can
be really empowering.

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(gong rings)

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Making these elaborate "Disease Throwers,"

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it's not just about telling
a story from my past,

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but it's also about
how this healing ritual

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can continue even in the future,

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(fire crackling)

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long after I'm gone.