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In 2015 I began a series of research projects and performances centered around Christopher Columbus as a symbol of European imperialism and white supremacy, and the lasting impact of his “discovery” of the Americas.

For GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM (Santa Maria) ,  I traveled to the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Portugal, France and Spain with the replica of the boat La Santa Maria. Wearing a jumpsuit with embroidered letters spelling the titular phrase, I navigated public spaces while carrying the boat for 2 months and 9 days, The performance concludes with the return of Columbus’s boat to the Atlantic Ocean in the exact location where Columbus departed in 1492, suggesting the closing of a circle and completion of a journey.

“At one point he takes a nap, the ship resting atop his chest. Buoyed by his breath, the ship lifts gently up and down, as if carried on the wave-beat of the sea. It is a striking moment in which the oceanic and the body are reminiscent of each other, each composed primarily of water, each carrying complex and reiterative histories of transit.”

Rebecca Schneider, Back and Forth and Back:
The Many Returns of Emilio Rojas.

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GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM (Santa Maria)