Lingua Franca (2024)

Two-channel video installation in English and Spanish exploring bilingualism, the Cuban diaspora, and mother-daughter relationships. Features performances by the artist and her mother.

A lingua franca refers to a language that is used for communication between speakers whose native languages are different. “Lingua Franca” examines the relationship between language, culture, and perceived identity through the Cuban diaspora in the United States. In the fashion of Gillian Wearing’s “2 into 1”, the artist and her mother become reflections of each other by lip syncing to each other’s voices discussing their experiences related to bilingualism. Both mother and daughter speak their respective native tongues in the voiceovers, but they switch places as they move their lips to the sounds of their counterpart’s voice. They effectively become a new entity of shared understanding crossing cultural boundaries and highlighting the effects of immigration within the domestic sphere. Thus, the piece itself becomes a lingua franca for communication between mother and daughter as well as between the artist and the viewer.