dímelo @oscmdiaz
In "Dimelo @," La Nueva Link speaks with different Latinx creatives / professionals to highlight their contributions, work and get them on your radar. Up next, a conversation with co-founder and curator behind @Nulatinx, Oscar Diaz.
Oscar Diaz (they/them) is a queer and trans artist, event and cultural producer, and curator from the borderlands of Tijuana, MX and San Diego, CA.
Their primary body of work (@oscmdiaz) documents communities in joy and resistance through photography. As co-founder and curator of @nulatinx they seek to uplift and connect emerging Latinx artists and challenge the monolithic lens of Latinidad from its extraction of queer, trans, Black, indigenous, and marginalized folks. They’re also an organizer for @_bodyhack_, a monthly fundraiser cultivating mutual aid among queer and trans artists in support of sex workers, prison abolition, and the trans community at large.
Their works in progress, a photo book titled PUTERIAS and a curatorial debut titled CONTRA NATURA, weave into their foundational work with an archive of conspiring gender and sexual dissidents.
Name: Oscar Diaz
Hustle: Artist, Curator, & Cultural Producer
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Social handles: @oscmdiaz / @nulatinx
LNL: Let’s dive in, tell us a bit about your work with NuLatinx?
O.D: @NuLatinx (curated by @thecurlyvshow and I) is a home for power, cultura, and diaspora -- for artists, organizers, poets, photographers, designers, and all-around creatives. It’s a platform for our community to be inspired, to connect with each other, and create bridges between the diverse networks of cultural production happening in the many lands of the people we highlight.
LNL: What inspired you and Curly to create this account?
O.D: Well, it’s really an opportunity for us to challenge the limitations of #Latinidad, specifically the marginalization and erasure of our siblings who are Black, indigenous, queer, trans, fat, disabled, and other-ed through the monolithic lens which is typically displayed. If we were to envision a future utopia, this is the community that’s actively paving their own paths, deviating from norms, and illuminating expanded modes of being that are nestled above and beyond a deprived definition of Latinidad.
LNL: This type of archival work is critical for the Latinx community. What are the types of creatives you highlight on NuLatinx?
O.D: From queer and women-led resistance (@jorlyfloress) against U.S. imperialism in Puerto Rico and visual responses to migration ( @m_u_x_x_x_e_gusto) and border militarization, the folks we highlight are speaking about the issues impacting their lived experiences. There are connections around global anti-Blackness, and also Black excellence through poetry, photography ( @esemismoale y @carolininwonderland), music, literature, performance, food, and fashion (@dyonyoficial). Our community definitely champions a diverse means of expression, not limited to illustration (@nerdybrownkid), drag, film, and mixed media. Of course, there are celebrations of heritage across all of these features, yet almost all are actively responding to simultaneous matters of queerness, gender (@bbysatan666), fatness (@chairbreaker), disability, (@jocyofthedragons), love, intimacy (@exorquidea), and the many nuances and complexities within our community.
LNL: What is the best advice you’ve heard so far?
"These times are daring us to reimagine how we navigate our lives and in our communities. As we steer in and out, like crafting threads, we must shift towards collective care, joy, and intimacy. We know the present is not enough and that the margins have been in a crisis of necropolitics. So, how can we fold, spiral, and entangle ourselves beyond mere survival? That’s the challenge and the guiding light I’ve been seeking.
LNL: What’s your mantra / your favorite dicho?
O.D: Throughout my childhood my Mom would always tell me to contribute my “granito de arena” and sometimes when I’m reading queer theory or abolitionist texts with academic jargon I’ll come across something like, “Gestures atomize movement/s,” and it hits me. Trust the Moms, womxn, and femmes in your life. Your “granito de arena” is atomic so continue to radiate the vibes you want to manifest.
Follow Oscar’s work with @Nulatinx aqui.