UNITED STATES OF AMNESIA is driven by a visually dynamic magical realist Latino voodoo aesthetics, and José Torres-Tama plays the role of shamanistic time traveler.
Torres-Tama conjures the past to address the present in a system that seduces you to forget, and inhabits the role of a “Shamanistic Time Traveler” with invocations, spoken word, and performance rituals—where the sacred and profane converge. Peppered with biting sardonic humor, he addresses a forgotten legacy of anti-immigrant laws such as Operation Wetback (1954), Arizona’s SB 1070 (2010), and the Zero Tolerance Policy (2018). In addition, he connects these odious laws to other laws such as The Three Fifths Human Compromise (1787) and the Fugitive Slave Acts (1793 & 1850) to Indian Removal Act (1830).
All such laws were set up to propel white supremacy and inhumanely diminish Black and indigenous people. These laws have actually influenced the current anti-immigrant laws, and have been redirected to dehumanize immigrants while their labor is still exploited.
Torres-Tama reminds us that the current anti-immigrant hysteria gripping GrinGolandia for 20 plus years since the 9/11 tragedy is nothing new in a system that readily demonizes the “immigrant” other to justify the exploitation of their labor.
He proclaims the UNITED STATES OF AMNESIA seduces people to embrace forgetting, and dares us to remember that blind nationalism has led to a resurrection of white supremacy—while the recent pandemic unmasked serious fault lines of a crumbling capitalist empire.
“The most radical thing an artist can do today is dare to remember in a culture submerged in amnesia, lies, and misinformation!” — José Torres-Tama
