side a/ jibarita girl side b/ r arrastrá, 2017-2018
original composition, 7" vinyl record, acrylic on wallpaper, wood, yoga mat
Commissioned by the Arizona State University Museum






From the exhibition text:

For Soul Mining, an exhibition looking broadly at the influence of Asian labor and culture in the Americas and the body and soul of forced migrations with artists from Latin America, the United States and Asia, Córdova was commissioned to record and produce a 7-inch vinyl record of Jibarita Girl, a reworking of of Iggy Pop’s China Girl produced and recorded through her music project, XUXA SANTAMARIA for her video and performance work, Echoes of a Tumbling Throne (Odas al fin de los tiempos). In Córdova’s version, the lyrics are reworked and the song sung in her native Spanish. She changes the colonial heterosexual, white perspective in the original song to a womxn/femme to womxn/femme relationship where the focus is two Jibarita girls (girls from the country), one wanting offerings of the first world, while the other is begging her not to leave having been there and paid the price of colony, isolation and American violence . As Córdova mentions, “Our version takes an appropriative and feminist approach.". Sonically, the song takes it out of the realm of rock and roll and into the world of dance music, particularly latin freestyle. For this exhibition, Córdova produced a scroll with lyrics from her version.

side b (r arrastrá) of the 7" takes as curatorial prompt the r language test Chinese immigrants were subjected to at border and responds with an experimental sound piece about the 'r arrastrá' from Puerto Rico, a rolling of the r similar to that found in French. Though taking the r test as jump off, Córdova points to a different linguistic check Puerto Ricans, especially those from the rural west coast of the island, are subjected to as the 'r arrastrá' is considered an aberration and pointed out to denote a class distinction via both a self imposed and external (La Real Academia Española for example) colonial lens.

This piece was commissioned by the ASU museum for this exhibtion, curated by Julio Cesar Morales and Xiaoyu Weng. It has been exhibited at the Arizona State University Museum and the Vincent Price Museum.

Córdova is selling her portion of the 7" and donating the proceeds to hurricane relief in her native Puerto Rico.