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Mexican Cowboys and Indian Lowriders (1996) Photo/Foto: HIDVL
  • Title: Mexican Cowboys and Indian Lowriders
  • Holdings: video (HIDVL)
  • Duration: 02:31:01
  • Language: English, Spanish, Spanglish
  • Date: May 1996
  • Location: Performed at the Holter Museum, Helena, Montana.
  • Type-Format: performance, multimedia, installation
  • Cast: Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Roberto Sifuentes, Tyler Medicine Horse, Susan Stewart, Bentley Spank.
  • Credits: Guillermo Gómez-Peña, director, producer ; Arnie Molina, producer ; La Pocha Nostra, producer ; Holter Museum, producer.

Mexican Cowboys and Indian Lowriders (1996)

An experiment in "reverse anthropology," this performance/installation creates an inverted world where Chicanos and Native Americans occupy a fictional cultural center and the "Anglos" are nomadic minorities and tribal peoples with exotic customs and costumes. The resulting diorama is an experimental Indian trading post and curio shop of sorts, incorporating fictitious museum labels, racist pop archeology (Indianabilia, Mexicabilia, "Western" souvenirs), "authentic" Cowboy an Indian art, and the display of the troupe of collaborating performers as "stuffed humans" or "cultural specimens."


Video