#mlotek

Variations is upsetting precisely because of its exposed artifice. If Andre, as the only witness to Ana’s final moments, can continue to change his story of what happened that night, then we should be able to do the same, Rasmussen seems to be saying. As viewers and admirers of Mendieta’s work and life, don’t we have a right to our own versions? The death of Ana Mendieta was a tragedy. But the legacy of her death, violent and mysterious, is a true travesty. With her death, Ana is relegated to the multiple unexplained acts of violence seen around the world, just another number on a statistics sheet; or, worse, she’s fodder for the ripped-from-the-headlines school of crime fiction, the “based on a true story” effect, designed to produce an artificial chill at the gory descriptions of what might have happened. Ana dies and dies and dies every time her story is mentioned, but her life, the incredibly strong, clear, focused, ambitious life she lived, becomes a footnote.