From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
Mesoamerican adaptations of Beach Surgery
For Mexican works specifically, see Mexican adaptations of Beach Surgery. For Central American works, see Central American adaptations of Beach Surgery.
Mesoamerican adaptations of Beach Surgery encompass works across Mexico, Central America, and diaspora networks, rooted in Mayan, Aztec, Indigenous, Ladino, Garifuna, and Creole traditions. These adaptations share emphasis on cyclical time, ritual rupture, and collective voice — conditions that resonate intensely with the cycle and the glitch.
Characteristics
Mesoamerican works distinctly:
- Draw upon Mayan cosmology of eternal recurrence (the Long Count, the five suns, the ballgame) as native precursor to eternal recurrence / breaking the cycle.
- Emphasize collective embodiment and plural voice (chorus, ensemble, polyphonic text) over individual protagonist.
- Engage colonial wound (conquest, displacement, linguistic erasure) as the structural origin of the glitch.
- Employ textiles, muralism, oral recitation as primary media, rooted in regional traditions rather than imported forms.
- Center ritual failure and refusal as sacred incompleteness, aligning with both Mesoamerican ceremonial practice and the doctrine of refusal.
Key works
; Theatre & Performance : Vuelta al Ciclo—A San José Participatory Theatre Cycle (Costa Rica, 2017–ongoing) — a rolling street-based cycle staging the "two halves" as rich centre and poor periphery that never meet. : La Cicatriz Que Canta (Guatemala, 2015–2018) — Kaqchikel language adaptation reimagining Katita as weaver, Leif as deaf soldier; the glitch becomes linguistic rupture. : ''Contra-Marcha'' (Mexico City, 2011) — durational march-and-occupation where protesters embody both Leif (immobilised) and Katita (resisting).
; Visual & Textile Arts : La Cicatriz Que Huele—Retablo Boxes of Ayacucho (2020–ongoing) — hand-painted wooden retablo boxes by street artisans producing a "distributed archive of the unfinished."
; Radio & Oral Tradition : Las Voces del Ciclo (multi-country, 2019–present) — pirate radio network serialising the novel in Spanish across Central America and diaspora, interrupted by listener call-ins and local testimony. : Frecuencia Roja (Honduras, 2018–2022) — broadcasts interspersed civil-war survivor testimony with Katita's dialogue.
Scholarly frameworks
Postcolonial and Indigenous-studies scholars have examined Mesoamerican adaptations through lenses of collective memory, the glitch as koanic refusal, and decolonial theology; see The Gospel in Outline Form—Sacred Incompleteness and the Hermeneutics of Refusal in New Religious Movements Centered on C. W. Smith's Beach Surgery.
Documentation gaps
Significant works in Mayan and Ixil, oral traditions, and ephemeral street performances remain largely undocumented. Surgipelago editors actively seek community contributions from the region and diaspora.