Position “C” is more uncomfortable and lasts longer, or it just seems to last longer due to our aching feet. But the good mood of those that surround me keeps it all light.

We head toward the street 20 de noviembre. Some people begin to chant as we walk, “Vo-to por vo-to, Casilla por casilla!” It’s a great parody and we all get the joke. We all laugh again. Then someone starts up with, “Norberto! Rivera! El pueblo se te encuera!” We all chime in.

There are people in the hotel balconies and rooftops, onlookers, some with binoculars. The crowd whistles at them, and les mienta la madre. Some yell out, “You’ve all got issues!” Two men get up onto a light post and start acting out a strip tease while the people below chant, “Tubo! Tubo!” (Pole dance! Pole dance!)
I felt most exposed in this and the following shots. But the atmosphere is no longer charged with nervousness. It’s just really cold.

Only women are needed for the last photo. We are all tired. We can’t hear the instructions very well and we watch as the initial symmetry is broken because the men are now dressed and can see us from a distance while we are still naked. An organized protest with banners is not the same as the spontaneous cry of chanting women, there, naked in the capital’s zócalo, “Ni una muerta mas!” and “!” Even though this is art and not a protest, especially not a feminist protest (qué flojera), there is an undeniable subtext of empowerment and in dissent of the violence that is still a part of our world.

The atmosphere among women no longer has the tension of the previous moments. We are more like sisters, united and strong. A kind of love swells within me, an immeasurable compassion for our brave bodies rid of all our masks and everyday disguises. We are not the images that we control and create on a daily basis when we get dressed and put on our makeup and do our hair… Here we are who we are.

Anyway. I’m happy. It happened and I was there. I was part of everything. More than a historical event, more than Tunick’s artistic reflection, the experience has a personal meaning for me, a personal affirmation: Do not be afraid. Because behind it all, what happened to me that Sunday morning is that I was free.

Source: melizzajean