Elyla

Elyla (Fredman Barahona, b. 1989, Nicaragua) is a performance artist and queer activist based in Managua. Their practice critically examines the masculine lineage of the Sandinista Revolution, narratives of national identity, and the experience of being a queer barro-mestiza in a religious and conservative society. Through performance, video, and ritual actions, Elyla investigates the relationship between gender, sexuality, Indigenous ancestry, political history, and cultural identity. A central concern of their practice is the concept of *mestizaje* and its exclusionary implications. Elyla addresses how the idea of a supposedly inclusive national identity has historically contributed to the erasure and commodification of Indigenous and Black identities. In response, they coined the term *barro-mestiza* as a way of distancing themselves from conventional understandings of mestizaje and reclaiming their Indigenous ancestry. The term connects queer struggles with the memory of *barro*—land and soil—and with what KADIST describes as trans-ancestral struggles and precolonial corporealities. Their performances frequently activate the body, landscape, costume, masks, and ritual as sites through which historical and contemporary forms of violence can be confronted and reinterpreted. In *Ofrenda* (2020–21), for example, Elyla works with an Indigenous mask associated with celebrations in Monimbó, Nicaragua, transforming it through a ritual action that addresses the transgender body, the violence embedded in mestizaje, the ideology of whitening, and the erasure of ancestral heritage. More recent works such as *Tierra retumbante* (2024) extend these concerns into the landscape, engaging with the Masaya Volcano as a site where Indigenous, colonial, political, and spiritual histories intersect. In 2013, Elyla co-founded Operación Queer, a collective operating across the fields of academia, art, and activism. The collective took a public position against the persecution of sexual dissidence under the government of Daniel Ortega. Elyla’s early practice developed through actions in public space that challenged authoritarian restrictions and the censorship produced through political persecution and fear. Their work continues to use performance as a means of confronting dominant narratives while creating spaces for queer, Indigenous, and trans histories and forms of solidarity. More recently, Elyla’s practice has expanded through collaborations and performances that connect queer and anti-colonial perspectives across different cultural contexts. *Mirroring Lengger-GalloGallogina* (2023), presented at the Pinacoteca de São Paulo in 2025, forms part of an ongoing investigation into cockfighting through a queer and anti-colonial lens, bringing together performance, dance, film, and ceremonial practices. Their 2024 film *Una oración para acompañar la muerte* explores violence, death, queer affection, tenderness, and collective care, concluding with a celebration of queer and trans bodies.