Changes of fortune No. 1 - Regina Gunapranata

Regina is new to Mexico City. We´ve known each other for a couple of years now. We met in Paris back in 2016. Nicole Bello, who introduced us, is a good friend of us both and we gathered back in the days of Chambre Noire, a little bar in the 11th arroindisment in Paris.

Even tho I never really hang out with Reggie, because of our Parisian busy life, I could feel we had a lot of common interests in arts, her style and her way of being was something that I always felt very at ease with, and this made her very interesting.

When I heard she moved to Mexico City, and I had just arrived too, I invited her over to get coffee with and chat about life (I had also seen her project, one of many, Body Found, a poems and illustrations book that talks about women. I loved it).

On April 18th she came over with her boyfriend, Sebastian and we had lunch over some interesting life insights, since times are tough because of COVID it was nice to get together and just have some laughs and cooking done.

I wanted to know more about Body Found, for me the whole ideas depicted beautiful pictures of a very delicate subject… Women’s sexuality and body acceptance. As most of us have experienced negativity around this, I thought this book was perfect to understand more about how we all women feel. So I decided to ask her some questions about it.

Here you can read more.

O - How did you started Body Found, actually why did you started it?

R - Back in 2016, I was living in Paris, and my younger sister had just moved to Sweden. My sister and I have always been writers, but around this time we started sending each other tidbits of poetry and prose. As we sent each other more and more pieces, it seemed that the pieces were having a real earnest conversation with one another. I just had this aha moment where I thought — we have to compile these into a book!

O- Whats the meaning behind the name?

R- The pieces we wrote are very raw and honest pieces based on our own experiences as women finding our bodies. The name speaks to the fact that so very often we all go on a journey of coming back and of finding ourselves, our bodies. 

O- Did you ever felt a challenge with it? Like people reacting a way you weren’t expecting? 

R- We definitely had our hesitations about publishing the book. We grew up in a very conservative and religious family and in a lot of the text, my sister and I write openly of exploring our sexuality and finding pleasure. We kept thinking about our mom and how she’d take the work!

O- Did you ever felt vulnerable about talking of women bodies?

R- Being born a woman makes us vulnerable. For this very reason we so often avoid talking about our experiences as women, and having a female body complete with breasts, period, vulva, womb etc — as if doing so could add more insult to the injury. In the end, we felt that being radically honest and vulnerable was more important, and we were convinced other women would connect with our stories.

O- What has been something that’s surprised you to realize after staring Body Found?

R- So many people reached out to us on in appreciation of our raw honesty. It affirmed our suspicions that most women don’t have the space to openly and safely talk about their experiences as women. 

O- If there was one thing you could advise to any other girl, what would it be?

R- I think, especially during these wild times we’re living in, stay soft and vulnerable, and where you can, practice radical honesty with yourself and others.