Works on VIDEO
A farcical narrative that plays with the documentary form and takes on the subject of cultural assimilation. The story follows Alex Herrera who had taken on a false identity - that of Alejandro, an alter-ego persona, through whom he is able to make friends with. These new friends come from a more "upper class" milieu and take Alejandro out with them to fine restaurants and invite him along on trips to Europe. The video follows the course of Alex's double-life as it leads him to a crisis, an ego collapse which threatens all his new friendships and his sense of self.
This video was designed as a therapeutic, cathartic experience. The character Alejandro was developed with the intent of stirring up emotion in me that would result, when showing and viewing the video in feelings of embarrassment and expressions of laughter. Twenty years later, it still works on me today. The idea was to create a character and play this character and to take a major stretch as I pushed my ego, my personality out of its comfort zone. Alejandro would be outgoing with a proud, gregarious personality, a "lady's man," comfortable with his sexuality, and walking around with his chest out all the time - mostly unlike myself.
I also wanted to take on race, class, cultural appropriation and assimilation issues through stories from my own life as a Chicano man. The video is a hybrid of genre - a vehicle that mixes fact and fantasy as a way to get to deeper truths in a lighthearted way.