Gómez-Peña’s Mex Files: The Crying Opera

Portrait of Guillermo Gómez-Peña — Guillermo Gómez-Peña, courtesy of the artist.

A man sits upright at a table wearing a black hat, sunglasses, and an open black jacket with yellow shoulder pads exposing his chest with tattoos. A stack of white paper sits on the table along with a vase of flowers, an intricate ash tray with skulls, candles, and a plastic alien head labelled with the text “Alien Pops.” The room is red behind the seated figure, with artworks, photographs and carved items decorating the walls. A prominent neon sign that reads "La Nostalgia BAR” sits above the seated person.

The series Gómez-Peña’s Mex Files: Audio Art and Strange Poetry from the US/Mexico Border are a multi-lingual live radio and archived audio program by performance artist, writer, activist, and MacArthur fellow Guillermo Gómez-Peña addressing the multiple pandemics of racism, sexism, militarism, and colonialism.

The Crying Opera is a soundscape of our times and includes highly emotional poetry drawn from the effects and impact of the multiple pandemias we are facing. You will hear layered recordings by Lumpen Radio (Chicago), Radio Nopal (Mexico City) and Dragonfly (New York) mixed with songs and poetry personally chosen by Gómez Peña and Charly Garcia.

Total composition by Charly García, el de Chicago, no el argentino. Los llantos, de muchos países.

Presented in partnership between Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Public Media Institute, and the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art. The series is an initiative of Toward Common Cause: Art, Social Change, and the MacArthur Fellows Program at 40.