Scripps Presents: The Ovarian Psycos

When I first watched the documentary about the Ovarian Psycos earlier this year, on which ever local PBS stations it was, my focus was on the bikes. "Cool, a social movement centered around bikes," I thought. I will not say that the fact the women had a deeper purpose wasn't quickly obvious - it was. But it was secondary to the cool scenes of urban riding.

When Scripps Presents brought a couple of the Psyco chicas - Xela de la X, and Andi Xoch (along with moderator Martha Gonzalez, of musical group Quetzal) - to Claremont for a discussion following a screening of the documentary, I put my anthropologist hat on in preparation for a second, more critical, viewing, one that would hopefully take me beyond the cinematography, dramatic music, and spinning wheels.

I kept noticing a recurring theme - of subjugation and, as some of the audience would later say, victimization, largely by way of identifying with indigenous cultures of the Americas. As I noticed this I also thought the women must surely be from multiple backgrounds, rather than singularly indigenous. The community with which they identify is a, largely, Latino / Hispanic one meaning that identity should be only half, or some such percentage, from the subjugated and oppressed. The other half, of course, coming from those who committed the subjugation and oppression. 

Being able to chose which side of themselves to identify must seem like a luxury to someone who can only relate to one or the other. Worse, I think, denying or downplaying the side of the oppressor does a disservice, is akin to living a lie in a way. Look, we in America are almost universally a mixed bag, the mutts of the world and those same "almost everyone's" can look back down the branches of their family tree to see both oppressed and oppressor. It is hard to validate saying you are from an oppressed group when you are also not from an oppressed group. If you know what I mean. I, apparently, was not the only listener to notice the dichotomy, and someone voiced, roughly, the same thought.

At one point, near the end of the film, Xela is singing a song before a large group ride, one that sounds very much like it is from a North American indigenous culture, rather than one from Mexico. Later, during the discussion period, she stated that she did not know from what indigenous culture she is descended, which sounds very much like the cultural appropriation  many people today, including the Ovarian Psycos, rail against.

I only bring those two points up because they asked us to critically examine what we saw and heard. Even though I kept seeing Latino, I kept hearing indigenous. Maybe, once I had the oppressed/oppressor idea in my head I was more inclined to notice other instances of it  to the exclusion of anything else. I don't know.

When all was said and done, I guess those criticisms don't account for much; after this second viewing I found the story of these women and their struggles just as compelling the second time around.

I have much respect for the Ovarians, what they protest, what they promote, and if searching back through history provides inspiration for living life daily, meeting those goals, more power to them. To ultimately reach those goals, however, I believe will require them to bridge the two sides - the oppressed and the oppressor - in both our modern society, and their personal lives. That is something we should all strive to do.

Keep riding, OPB, keep riding!