How to Disappear Completely

"How to Disappear Completely" highlights the failure of existing U.S. racial categories to holistically recognize the identities of multiracial individuals, who consequently experience internal conflict. The subject of the piece is Ellen Ochoa, a biracial Mexican and white astronaut and the first Latina to travel to outer space. The evenly divided black and white images in the background represent Latinx and white racial categories, respectively, and act as opposing forces attempting to pull Ochoa into their distinct regions. The categories' inability to fully embrace Ochoa and her biracial identity results in her demise - the fragmentation of her portrait. Now mutilated and nearly unrecognizable, Ochoa's walleyed gaze reveals her inner despair at the policing, politicization, and dissection of her complete self.

That there /

That's not me /

I'm not here /

This isn't happening

"How to Disappear Completely" - Radiohead