This essay examines what I call the gustatory aesthetics of Chicana performance and visual artist Xandra Ibarra (aka La Chica Boom). I focus specifically on the appropriation of the Tapatío brand hot sauce across a series of works. I argue that Ibarra's pr actice lays out a politics of Latina/o anti - assimilation by playing with racist tropes. The essay first carves a genealogy of gustatory aesthetics focusing on the work of the Chicana/o art collective ASCO and performance artist Nao Bustamante's 1992 perfor mance Indigurrito . I argue that t his aesthetic performs acts of refusal by turning to ingestion as a central element of their work. I then examine in detail how Ibarra's use of the bottle draws from the complex history of Mexican food, and in particular ho w its spiciness is imagined. By sexualizing the hot sauce bottle through the strap - on, Ibarra creates a visceral project that breaks the boundaries of racialized politics.
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