Mothering

In Mothering I seek, through images, to make visible what surrounds the maternal experience and what we do not want to see.

It is possible to distinguish between motherhood, which refers to the institution, and mothering, which refers to the subjective experience of women. In real life, both institution and experience; motherhood and mothering are intertwined and in permanent tension since motherhood as an institution conditions and restricts maternal practice and experience.

Esther Vivas, Wayward Mom.

Based on my own maternal experience, I became aware of how motherhood was invisible in society. I realized that women do not have the freedom to give birth, breastfeed and raise children as we decide. There is a model of motherhood, and therefore childbirth, breastfeeding, and parenting that patriarchy and capitalism impose on us based on their interests. Overseeing a child, being a mother or father, implies a high degree of personal, emotional, material, and social commitment; values that are not on the rise in a society where individualism, competitiveness, independence, and private property dominate.

In Mothering I seek, through images, to make visible what surrounds the maternal experience and what we do not want to see, such as animality, the offering of the body, the value of deciding how to be a mother, as well as the support network of women that has been historically invisible, because men have become the protagonists of our childbirth, breastfeeding and parenting. I also want to recognize and make visible the daily struggle that implies a constant confrontation with established social standards. These maternities that do not follow the system constitute a defensive project to live in a different way and, at the same time, are an offensive attempt to reorganize everyday life based on other parameters.