Unearthing Undercover

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Notes

1 In Latin America, the term campesino usually refers to peoples of Indigenous origin and/ or African descent who live on parcels of land, often working for a landlord.

2 Cocorote is located in the foothills of the Cordillera de Mérida at the northern tip of the Andes in Lara State, Venezuela. It is interesting to note that this hamlet rarely appears on conventional maps and not at all on online maps. Lara State was an important region for revolutionary activities because of the strong campesino participation; Cocorote had especially committed support. Being situated at a crossroad made it a critical undercover meeting point.

3 I propose that this work resonates with Bloch’s notion of ‘anticipatory illumination’ inspired by his Marxist analysis of hope that looks at the act of art creation as stakeholder for (re)imagining the future and rekindling the political imagination (1988: 41). Borrowing words from Krista Tippet, hope here ‘isn’t about optimism; it’s not about wishful thinking. It’s about insisting that we can be agents of change’ (Tippett 2021).