Detailed Biography

A startling transformation takes place when Eliza Barrios, Reanne Estrada and Jenifer Wofford come together: these normally sedate, introspective women go from observing their own private rituals to making themselves a collective public spectacle known as the MOB. That's the acronym for Mail Order Brides, the name the three of them have gone by since they first coined it for the title of their group exhibition at Los Medranos College in Pittsburg, California, in 1995.

MOB has attracted a local following for their lively performances, photo shoots, lectures, karaoke videos, and now their Market Street Kiosks (in conjunction with the San Francisco Art Commission's Art in Transit Program), that lampoon Filipina stereotypes—particularly that of the mail order bride. They always appear in "drag," that is, make-up, attire and wigs that conform to these stereotypes. Frequently, they structure their performances around food.

Offering a feminist take on the Filipino obsession for beauty pageants, MOB delivered one of their most memorable spoofs as the "Pinays on Wheels"—note the acronym, P.O.W.—in Oakland's 1997 Lunar New Year Parade. Gussied up in wigs, gowns and beauty contestant sashes, the MOB and several other Filipina-American women autocaded through Oakland's Chinatown, just floats away from the "real" Miss Oakland Chinatown. From atop Barrios's truck, which was covered with Astroturf© and flowers and trailed a long tuille train, some of the women smiled and waved, while Barrios and Wofford circled on motorcycles below.

Estrada remarks, "MOB is not so much about making fun of the traditional role of the Filipina, but recontextualizing it. One of the reasons we picked up on the Mail Order Brides moniker was in response to how Filipina women are viewed, especially by the media. We wanted to turn this around on its head. Most Filipina women are not meek or subservient, but have a strong sense of self, and this can be traced directly to our pre-Hispanic matriarchies."