Miquiztli-Tecolote is an embodiment and performance crafted during the Ghostlight Residency at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre in Los Angeles. Miquiztli-Tecolote in Nahuatl-Spanish roughly translates to the Skeletoned Owl or the Owl of Death. It is part of a postcolonial cosmology formation informed by Yoli’s Nahuatl ancestry and commitment to re-indigenizing as a cosmic frijole remembering how to belong.

Inspired by Mexican-Indigenous ceremonial and performance traditions, Miquiztli-Tecolote was also a ritual and initiation into the ways of the Abuelas y Abueles (Grandmothers and Grandparents) who make love to the moon. Miquiztli-Tecolote is a reflection on the night, Mictlan (the underworld), the knowledge of black sage and elderflower, and the power of owls. In Nahuatl Cosmological understanding of the worlds, there are numerous planes that align themselves along the directions. One of these planes is the underworld called Mictlan. It is associated with all that is underneath, death, regeneration of life, trauma, and the journey our souls have to take when they die. Through the embodiment of Miquiztli-Tecolote, Yoli begins to build a relationship with the moon and Mictlan whose power we have collectively been taught to fear by colonialism in the same way colonialism has taught us to classify the power of femme and trans indigenous ancestors as “evil and of the devil”.
This embodiment is a testament to transforming the internalized colonial fear of Yoli’s own ancestral lineages and to replace fear with an embrace of power.

As part of this performance, ritual, and exploration; Yoli created the costume including the winged-staff. Constructing the winged-staff, made of palm leaves and cedar branches, was done in the embodiment of Miquiztli-Tecolote and supported in discovering who they are and how they choose to exist. The winged-staff was part of a larger body of exploration that seeks to create sculptures made from materials of the Earth, that can performatively be activated, and then given back to the Earth as an offering.

As part of the set design, Yoli played with lighting and sound in the theatre space. Along with this, for each day of the residency they constructed an altar space before stepping into the embodiment of Miquiztli-Tecolote. In Curanderismo altars, also called “La Mesa De Negociones” (The Table Of Negotation), is a medicine practice to dialogue with spirit(s) and the aires (the winds). The altar was a crucial technology from which Miquiztli-Tecolote emerged.