Brainstorm #6 - Elena Orlando

In “Ceremony of Time,” Gonzales explores examples of Red Medicine which “collapse some
human concepts of time, and past-present-future becomes a unified moment that cycles and
repeats and expands, in a simultaneous existence” (167). Under Indigenous knowledge, the
past is not a fixed departure creating one path into the future and reorienting time is a way to
transform the future. With the “Clumsy Sky” music video, Girl in a Coma practices this
relationship with time, embedding Chicanafuturist ideas into the lyrics and imagery. This “song
captures the sensation of a decolonial potentiality where subjects such as the band and their
fans imagine and live in a time where their realities are valued and centered” (Habell-Pallan).
Within the “Clumsy Sky” video, getting to a just future is a collective endeavor. The practice of
convivencia is apparent as the concert serves as a platform for the song’s message to be
shared but also a place for social interaction. The space in which Girl in a Coma performs
has its own life and history that exists at the same time as the lyrics and the performance
itself open space for listeners to imagine the world and future differently. The space has its own
life that sustains the energy of the performance and holds the interactions of those present; this
unification of time is a technology of decolonization.