Flood
1. n . a very large amount of water that has overflowed from a source such as a river or a broken pipe onto a previously dry area
2. n . a very large number of people or things
3. vt to send a very large number of calls, letters, or complaints to an organization (usually used in the passive)
4. vi to feel a particular emotion, sensation, or memory suddenly and intensely
5. vt to supply too much of a product to a market, pushing prices down and keeping them low
6. vti to shine strongly so that a place becomes filled with a bright or glowing light (literary)
Eugene Rodriguez has a way with words: cutting to the chase, revealing what has been hidden, and interrupting conventional practices and belief systems. From the start, his focus has been on the Latino family, but in a way that stands out from other Latino visual and media artists, whose work often locates political resistance within cultural traditions. In Straight, No Chaser (1995), for example, Rodriguez combines the American avant-garde film (and Warhol in particular) with the Mexican telenovela in order to produce a stylistic hybrid suitable to his subject: redefining the traditional notion of the Latino family in order to account for gay desire, sexuality, and relationships.
Rodriguez seeks neither integration ("we are just like you") nor radical alternatives ("we are nothing like you"), but rather the messier in-between where a common ground must be based on difference-in-dialogue. This common ground – like the genetic diversity of the wetlands – is quickly drying up in our current political climate and media culture. If politics has been reduced to red-and-blue states, and the media to black-and-white viewpoints, Rodriguez's work emphasizes chiaroscuro, surrealism, and silence gazes. Indeed, if Rodriguez has a way with words – especially in the titles of his works – the work itself often does away with words, avoiding the expression of clear-cut positions, motivations, and outcomes.
What is most noticeable about Rodriquez's films, videos and paintings is that they are rooted in the vignette. He does not tell master narratives – the reassuring myths for our times or about our nation, culture, foreign policy – but rather presents us with brief scenes that suggest a before and after, but that leave the details and the outcomes open for discussion. We need such discussion; we need it to flood our society, and our emotions.
In Flood (2006), Rodriguez provides three vignettes, exploring: the decadence of celebrity culture; masculinity in a time of war and surveillance; and the post-apocalyptic couple. These distinct vignettes feature Latino actors, but the stories are global, speaking to a world overrun with certainty, yet riddled with contradictions, turmoil, and darkness. Latinos have been described as a flood overflowing into the United States . What if, Flood suggests, Latinos flooded the nation with a glowing light, or a memory, that things could be different?
Chon A. Noriega
Director and Professor
UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center
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