Pixelated genealogy: family archive and heteronormativity in the short documentary Red Snapper (Behua Xiña’)

Abstract

This article offers a microanalysis of a sequence from the documentary short Huachinango rojo (Behua Xiña’), directed by Cinthya Lizbeth Toledo (2021), to examine how audiovisual imagery challenges the heteronormative genealogy inscribed in Zapotec family photo archives. The scene–pixelated portraits of brides behind a white curtain while a voice-over recalls “when virgins arrive at marriage”–is interpreted through theories of visual culture, archive, performativity, and the politics of the image. The analysis reveals how pixelation, sound, and the symbolic dimension of the composition subvert the idealization of family lineage and the violence exerted on women’s bodies. In dialogue with Didi-Huberman, Rancière, Hirsch, Glissant, and Zunzunegui, the short film is argued to operate as a device of critical memory and symbolic emancipation in communal contexts.