The Goddess on Wheels: Maria R. Palacios

This article discusses the performance work by disability activist, Maria R. Palacios who is a Latina feminist writer, poet and spoken word performer. Using narrative inquiry as a method of investigation, performances by Palacios are analyzed within the context of sexuality and disability studies. Specific performances are reviewed under the framework of the nonprofit organization Sins Invalid: An Unshamed Claim to Beauty in the Face of Invisibility, and include the following pieces by Palacios: Maria Full of Sin (2008), Testimony (2009), Hunger (2009), My Sexy Disability (2010) and Vagina Manifesto (2009). As a performance project, Sins Invalid notes in its mission statement that its ‘performance work explores the themes of sexuality, embodiment and the disabled body’, and the performances are designed to inspire visions of beauty and sexuality that disrupt heteronormative, as well as ableist, paradigms. A portion of this work will be centered on the Sins Invalid website focusing on entries in the form of blog postings dedicated to the performances by Palacios. Additionally, her autobiographic and culturally focused spoken word pieces and poems, such as Making Love to Woman in a Wheelchair (2007), will be thematically analyzed regarding her embodied subjectivity as a sexualized and self-identified disabled Latina. In conclusion, an examination of how performance, in conjunction with narrative research, provides a critical lens regarding visibility and the embodiment of dis/abled women of color for future studies is shared.