Kimberly M. Benavides
Mamá, Homenaje Series, 2021.
Mamá, Homenaje Series, 2021 © Kimberly M. Benavides
There were many moments during Quiara Alegría Hudes's play, My Broken Language when I was struck by that pang in my heart, that pang that you feel from being seen and having your hurt revealed.
During one scene, the incomparable Daphne Rubin-Vega, struggling with her ability to communicate in Spanish or English, cries out to the Orishas in her mother’s room for a middle way. Stepping closer to her mother’s altar she turns to the audience and says, “in Spanish, altar means throne.”
No matter where my family and I lived growing up, there was always an altar in our home. A place, usually the top of a dresser or a bedside table where relics of catholicism sat next to pictures of family and other offerings. The altar was bendito and no matter what my attitudes surrounding religion came to be as I grew up, I extended my respect.
In Kimberly M. Benavides’ Homenaje Series, I ask myself what makes a saint. Being virtuous, offering your life for others, being worthy of imitation? Next to the portrait of her mother, an airline ticket from Delta is propped up behind a saint holding a child, offering your life for others.
Papá, Homenaje Series, 2021 © Kimberly M. Benavides
In English, homenaje means tribue. In her own staging of the altar, Benavides enshrines her parents with gratitude, respect, and admiration. In so declaring that our parents are too worthy of imitation.
Growing up, we erected thrones in our bedrooms and living rooms. We made altars where there weren’t any. I may not believe in God but I do believe in the protective power of my mother and father’s bendicion.
Mamá and Papá, hallowed be thy name.
Amen.
Artist Bio
Kimberly M. Benavides is a Central American artist and educator based in Washington, D.C. She is the founder of the popular La Horchata Zine.
Beautiful ❤️