A Deep Dive into the (Collective) Self Creating Autohistoria-teoría with the Performative Alter Ego Pocahunter

This text explores how the author’s personal experiences are interwoven with her performative alter ego Pocahunter. Guided by Gloria Anzaldúa’s method of autohistoria-teoría, Verena Melgarejo Weinandt follows the path that brought Pocahunter into existence. First, as Anzaldúa’s method suggests, collective encounters and formations are fundamental to the creation of different versions of Pocahunter. Second, this method helps Melgarejo Weinandt understand her artistic practice based on her own biography as a way to position and analyze this experience within a larger societal structure. In this journey, Pocahunter focuses on how violence, especially against Indigenous people, can be contested from a decolonial and queer feminist standpoint. Finally, Melgarejo Weinandt explores how Pocahunter has been practicing what Anzaldúa calls a “deep dive” in order to create new ways and expressions of transformation and healing.