Mexterminator vs. the Global Predator

In Mexterminator vs. the Global Predator, Guillermo Gómez-Peña poses as a “spoken word brujo-poeta” and explores fear of immigration, the digital divide, censorship, interracial sexuality, and the side effects of globalization and the War on Terror in the US Latino community. Continually developing multi-ethnic narratives from a border perspective, Gómez-Peña creates what critics have called “Chicano cyber-punk performances” and “Ethno-techno art.” In this performance, cultural borders are moved to the center while the alleged mainstream is pushed to the margins and treated as exotic and unfamiliar, placing the audience member in the position of “foreigner.” Gómez-Peña uses multilingualism, humor and hybrid literary genres as subversive strategies.

Adrian Arancibia opens the evening with a spoken word performance titled “¡avisale!..exile in aztlan.” The piece is a personal narrative of a Chilean immigrant searching for identity and the experience of finding chicanismo. Arancibia a former member of the Taco Shop Poets is a part of the next generation of performance and spoken word artists who are redefining transnational identities and spoken word as a genre.

Gómez-Peña’s and Arancibia’s performances give two different views of the contested terrain known as the US/Mexican border each telling a story of realities, each a warrior in cross cultural identity and issues.