I was born in Patagonia, but there’s nothing in the formal aspects of my painting that would suggest I’m from there. I grew up watching Cartoon Network, reading comics, manga, and art books, which gave my work an appearance that could be called international—or at least non-local.
This wasn’t something I questioned while living in Chile, but upon arriving in London, I began to wonder what it means to be a Latin American painter—since “being here, I am from there.”
The story of Jemmy Button came to mind: a Yaghan native named Orundellico, who was bought for a mother-of-pearl button by Captain Robert FitzRoy of the HMS Beagle, earning him the name Jemmy Button. During an expedition to Tierra del Fuego, Patagonia, Jemmy and three other natives—York Minster and Fuegia Basket on the left, and Boat Memory, who died during the voyage, on the right in the painting—were taken to England, where they were taught English customs, language, and the Catholic religion. The hope was that upon their return, they could serve as interpreters and evangelists.
After a year of English education, presentations in British society, and a return voyage on the Beagle with Charles Darwin aboard as a new crew member, Jemmy was reunited with his family. However, he found he had forgotten his language and was rejected and even attacked by other tribes, left in a liminal space of loss—belonging neither here nor there.
Jemmy Button’s complex story, summarized briefly here, resonates as a metaphor for the loss of local identity under the influence of a dominant culture. For me, it symbolizes my own journey from Patagonia to England, where I have come to learn the “language and customs” of painting.
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