I have a show coming up where I am focusing on two things that come up in my work- integrating duality and reciprocity. One of the phrases that I have mentioned before is one that I stumbled across from a poem, “I Am You Or You Are Me / In Lak’ech” by Chicano playwright Luis Valdes.
You are my other me.
If I do harm to you,
I do harm to myself.
If I love and respect you,
I love and respect myself.
Tú eres mi otro yo.
Si te hago daño a ti,
Me hago daño a mi mismo.
Si te amo y respeto,
Me amo y respeto yo.
“In Lak’ech” is a Mayan greeting meaning “I am you, and you are me,” symbolizing unity, interconnectedness, and mutual respect between people and nature. In my pieces where I am thinking about this reciprocity I often have mirrored plant imagery.
What if the holy trinity is you, me, we?
Maybe we wouldn’t be in such a mess of divisiveness and cruelty.