Ana Mendieta was born in Havana on November 18 of the year 1948 and died on September 8 of the year 1985. Ana was best known for her performances as she was an artist, sculptor, video artist and painter. She was popular for her artistic style called “earth-body.” Ana’s father was an Attorney named Ignacio Mendieta de Lizáur and Ana’s mother was a chemist and a researcher named Raquel Oti de Rojas.

Growing up Ana and her sisters would spend their times in refugee camps before switching from institutions and foster homes. When Ana was reunited with her mother, she found out she had a brother.  Her father was reunited with them in 1979. He had spent 18 years in prison for being involved in the “Bay Of Pigs Invasion.” Ana attended an all-girls Catholic private school. Ana’s vocabulary was limited when she had studied English but had soon discovered her love of art in her junior year.

Ana was first a French major but when she transferred to the University of Iowa, she was inspired by the avant-garde community.  In college, Ana’s work focused on blood and violence toward women. Her interest in spiritualism, religion, and primitive rituals developed during this time.

After graduating, she moved to New York an was involved with A.I.R. She concluded that “American Feminism as it stands is basically a white middle class movement”, and sought to challenge the limits of this perspective through her art. The Silueta Series (1973–1980) involved Mendieta creating female silhouettes in nature—in mud, sand, and grass—with natural materials ranging from leaves and twigs to blood, and making body prints or painting her outline or silhouette onto a wall.