Naked Latinos - A Celebration of Culture?

Filed in archive Latin Culture on May 7, 2007

From the Los Angeles Times:

"New York photographer Spencer Tunick, famous for rounding up people to pose naked in cities around the world, brought his fetching artistic gimmick here (Mexico City). His goal was to persuade more than 7,000 residents of this very Roman Catholic country to disrobe in front of God, one another and a media army perched on the roof of the downtown Holiday Inn. City officials estimated as many as 20,000 people might have taken part."

I don't get it. I've never got it. What's so artistic about naked people? It doesn't make sense to me; if you get out of your home naked, you'll probably end up in jail; not only in Mexico, but anywhere. But, if there's an "artist" to host the show and take pictures, then it's art?

"Nudity is part of human life," Liliana Velasco, 30, an anthropologist said to the LA Times. "Being naked is being in the moment, and being naked in the Zocalo gives everyone a chance to celebrate our culture."

Yes, nudity is part of human life. Depending on where you live - let's say, in a hot climate - it's a big part! However, being naked in the Zocalo is a way to celebrate the mexican culture? Since when??? I'm not Mexican, but I don't think public nudity is a big part of Mexican culture. I don't get it; what being naked in public has to do with culture?

Tunick asked the naked Mexicans to pose in the Mexican salute, which is held not at the forehead but chest-high. Oh, that must be the celebration of the Mexican culture!

"What a great moment for the Mexican art scene," Tunick said later. "The heart of Latin America is now in Mexico."

Oh, my God. Oh, please. Oh, c'amon. Get serious. You don't have to be sooo modest, my dear Tunick.

The only reason Tunick's work is considered art, is because gathering thousands of naked people in public is really transgressive; nudity is a big taboo in almost every civilized society. If 20.000 Mexicans would gathered spontaneously in the Zocalo and got naked, it would be a serious disturbance of the public order, and I'm sure the police would be called to take care of it; probably thousands of them would be arrested.

Why is the exact same situation OK, when you have a so called artist to take pictures of it? Further more, is anyone allowed to do that? What about if I want to gather naked people in the Zocalo and take pictures of them?

I don't get it, I just don't get it.

Photo: Claudio Cruz / AP