Mi Vida Trans, an altar of voices presenting,"CHEST."
Mi Vida Trans creates a sanctuary for trans survival visible through art, ritual, storytelling, and embodied care
About Mi Vida Trans
Mission Statement
Mission Statement
Mission Statement
Mi Vida Trans is a trans-led traveling art installation and ceremonial healing practice that makes trans survival visible through portraiture, storytelling, and embodied ritual.
Rooted in lived experience anD GUIDED BY ANCESTRAL PRACTICE, MI VIDA TRANS CREATES SACRADE SPACE WHERE TRAUMA IS WITNESSED AND TRANS LIVES
Vision Statement
Mission Statement
Mission Statement
We envision a world where trans survival is not hidden, criminalized, or treated as a problem to be solved, but honored as sacred, cultural, and worthy of care. Through Mi Vida Trans, we work toward communities where immigrant, Indigenous, Chicano, Black, and trans masculine people see themselves reflected with dignity, complexity, and wh
We envision a world where trans survival is not hidden, criminalized, or treated as a problem to be solved, but honored as sacred, cultural, and worthy of care. Through Mi Vida Trans, we work toward communities where immigrant, Indigenous, Chicano, Black, and trans masculine people see themselves reflected with dignity, complexity, and wholeness.
Our vision is for healing spaces rooted in ancestral knowledge, embodied practice, and collective care—where art becomes altar, storytelling becomes medicine, and trans lives are met with consent, presence, and respect. We imagine Mi Vida Trans traveling across communities as a living practice that interrupts harm, restores connection, and helps build futures where trans people not only survive, but belong, lead, and thrive.
Meet the Artist
BIO
About the Artist
Meet the Artist
Based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Ocelotl Mora is a trans artist and curandero originally from San Antonio, Texas. His work is born from lived experience — de lo vivido, de lo que duele, y de lo que sana.
Rooted in cultural memory and survival, Ocelotl centers transmasculine and nonbinary people, especially those grounded in Mexican, Chicano, Indigenous, Black, and immigrant communities. His work makes space for our historias to be witnessed con dignidad — not erased, not reduced, not explained away.
Working primarily in photography, he creates self-portraits and intimate installations woven with storytelling, ritual, and embodied practice. His art lives where gender, cultura mexicana, and ancestral memory meet — using image and ceremony not just as documentation, but as medicina.
Grounded in rasquachismo — making something meaningful con lo que hay — his practice honors ingenuity, care, and ancestral resilience. It resists spectacle and instead builds sacred visibility.
His installations have been exhibited in Albuquerque, San Antonio, Salt Lake City, and Miami, creating spaces where trans bodies are witnessed not as problems to be solved, but as sacred, complex, and worthy of reverence.
Ocelotl is the creator of Mi Vida Trans, a traveling art installation and ceremonial healing practice, and the forthcoming exhibition Mi Vida Trans: CHEST, centering chest visibility as a site of healing, resistencia, and affirmation. Through his work, he expands sacred visibility and invites collective healing rooted in dignity, embodiment, and cuidado colectivo.
Art Portfolio
La Trans Cena
My Sacred Closet - From Trauma to Creation
My Trans Generation
La Trancena explores a lifetime of transitions and the grit it takes to survive medical and personal trauma. It is a story of reclaiming identity—not just from a broken healthcare system, but from a faith tradition that loved the child but hated the person I became.
My Trans Generation
My Sacred Closet - From Trauma to Creation
My Trans Generation
My Trans Generations is designed as an immersive ceremony. Much like entering a sweat lodge, we begin with the breath and the wisdom of our elders. Through intimate written stories and striking portraits, this project honors 12 Trans men, Transmasculine, Non-binary, Latinx, Chicanx, and Two-Spirit individuals. Ranging in age from 15 to 54, these participants first gathered as a monthly emotional support group—now, they share their journeys with you.
My Sacred Closet - From Trauma to Creation
My Sacred Closet - From Trauma to Creation
My Sacred Closet - From Trauma to Creation
My Sacred Closet, I share the intimate intersection of gender-affirming procedures and ancestral healing. Following the cycles of the Nahui Ollin Teotl, I document my recovery from medical trauma as a spiritual evolution. This installation features the altar and the labor of heart-work performed within my closet—a space I once feared, but ultimately transformed into my most sacred refuge. It is here that I learned to move from survival to sacred creation.
Storytelling through Digital Art
Storytelling through Digital Art
My Sacred Closet - From Trauma to Creation
The Silent Years: A Trilogy of Digital ArtThis collection consists of three series born from the isolation of a transition without a support system. In a season where I found it impossible to use my voice, I turned to my camera to document the struggles that words could not carry. These digital works serve as both a witness to my pain and a bridge to the community I was searching for.
CHEST
Storytelling through Digital Art
Colaborations
Collective Breath: A 12-Month Transmasculine CohortCurrently in progress, this initiative facilitates a year-long sanctuary for Trans and Non-binary folks to navigate these difficult times together. Our monthly sessions balance the "heart-work" of storytelling with practical support through non-traditional medicine workshops. This dual approach ensures that participants aren't just sharing their struggles, but are being equipped with holistic tools for survival. The journey is documented through a multi-media archive of writing, audio stories, and portraits, centering community as the ultimate form of medicine.
Colaborations
Storytelling through Digital Art
Colaborations
Work that I have collaborated on or participated in.