Uncrating Josefina Aguilar: 'Autohistoria and Autohistoria-Teoría' in Feminist Curating of a 'Muñecas' Series

Historically, minority women artists and scholars of color have been ignored by the White patriarchal canon of art education and the arts. I uncrate Josefina Aguilar's 14-piece clay "muñecas," which have been stored away in the Palmer Museum of Art for more than two decades, to demonstrate this lack of exposure. I position my own Latina history with Aguilar's in an attempt to examine the cultural sequestering of such artists by making visible how I operate from nepantla, a liminal space described by Gloria Anzaldúa. Using Anzaldúa's concepts of "autohistoria" and "autohistoria-teoria," I lay a theoretical framework of transcultural feminist curating, and I interweave the "testimonio" I have used to decolonize art education, art, and curating. As a witness to the Palmer Museum of Art's neglect in not showcasing Aguilar's works, I expose how women's life histories are often crated and stored in private spaces and seldom opened and appreciated.