Yali Romagoza is an interdisciplinary artist born in Cuba whose work offers a distinctive perspective on migration and the traumatic impact of political and cultural displacement on the female body. Rooted in her diverse background and education as an Art Historian and Fashion Designer, Romagoza employs various mediums, including performance, video, installations, drawings, and costume design.
As a Cuban immigrant, she created an alter-ego, Cuquita La Muñeca Cubana, to establish a cultural home within the U.S. art scene, where she often feels excluded or underrepresented. Through this alter-ego, Romagoza explores the liminal space of belonging and non-belonging, addressing feminist marginalization while satirizing misogynistic and racist stereotypes that impact Latinas in the U.S. Cuquita La Muñeca Cubana references "cuquitas cubanas," paper doll cutouts distributed in Cuban magazines during her childhood. Unlike playing with Barbies, Romagoza played with Cuquitas, and this memory inspired her to use Cuquita La Muñeca Cubana as a means of rendering herself visible within the U.S. cultural context.
Having endured the trauma of living through Cuba's economic depression as a child, known as the 'Special Period,' Romagoza found refuge within herself, coming to understand her body as a space for survival. Her work builds upon this autobiographical narrative, offering a platform to share her experiences of vulnerability, displacement, and otherness. At the same time, her art raises critical questions about the erasure of Latina migrant artists within the mainstream art system, encouraging audiences to reflect on issues of discrimination and social injustice.
Her background in fashion design allows Romagoza to expand the aesthetic of Cuquita La Muñeca Cubana by creating unique costumes that redefine the character's physicality and the spaces she inhabits. Using collage techniques, Romagoza transforms into Cuquita—cutting out eyes and lips from print media and affixing them to her face, applying paint to her skin, and donning colorful wigs. This act of disguise, which enables her to "disappear" and embody "others," liberates her from assumptions about race, origin, and cultural identity.
Through Cuquita La Muñeca Cubana, Romagoza has found the visibility and acceptance she has never fully experienced, neither as a person nor an artist. Her work boldly confronts cultural stereotypes while exploring identity, survival, and the power of transformation.