Mi Vida Trans, an altar of voices presenting,"CHEST."
Mi Vida Trans makes 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 traveling art installation and healing practice created by trans artist and curandero Ocelotl Mora that makes trans survival visible through ritual, embodied storytelling, and ancestral practice. Rooted in lived experience and guided by the Nawi Ollin Teotl Method, the work centers immigrant, Indigenous, Chicano, Black,
Mi Vida Trans is a traveling art installation and healing practice created by trans artist and curandero Ocelotl Mora that makes trans survival visible through ritual, embodied storytelling, and ancestral practice. Rooted in lived experience and guided by the Nawi Ollin Teotl Method, the work centers immigrant, Indigenous, Chicano, Black, and trans masculine communities—honoring healing as layered, cultural, and embodied, and creating spaces of care, reflection, and collective healing where trans lives have been erased or targeted, in collaboration with community healers and allies.
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
Based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Ocelotl Mora is a multidisciplinary artist, caregiver, and trans curandero of Mexican descent, originally from San Antonio, Texas. His work emerges from lived experience, cultural memory, and survival, centering trans masculine, transmasculine, and nonbinary people—particularly those rooted in Mexican, Chicano, Indigenous, Black, and immigrant communities.
Working primarily in photography, Ocelotl creates self-portraits and intimate portraits that are woven with storytelling, ritual, and embodied practice. His work explores the intersections of gender, identity, and Mexican cultural traditions, using art as both documentation and medicine.
Ocelotl embraces the Chicano aesthetic of rasquachismo—the practice of making something meaningful with limited resources—as both a creative strategy and a political stance. Through this approach, his work resists spectacle and instead honors ingenuity, care, and ancestral resilience.
His installations and portrait series have been exhibited in Albuquerque, San Antonio, Salt Lake City, and Miami, creating spaces where trans bodies are seen 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 healing practice, and the forthcoming exhibition Mi Vida Trans: CHEST, which centers chest visibility as a site of healing, resistance, and affirmation. Through his work, Ocelotl seeks to normalize trans embodiment while honoring the sacredness of gender-diverse journeys and the power of collective care.
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.