Marianna Burelli: A Multidimensional Being
Can we all relate to being a fairy from Earth? We all carry within ourselves magical powers. We often look for something that is considered “extraordinary,” but in essence, everyone around us is a reflection of our inner perception. Beauty, magic, and serendipity is felt from within—we all have these moments of magic—a divine lifeforce expressing itself through everything and everyone. Two beings can be next to each other and see things beautiful or the opposite; there is more to life than external stimulations.
Artist Marianna Burelli, a multidimensional being who is seeing life beyond physicality, says about herself, “I feel like an owl, the animal that’s been with me ever since I was 16. In fact, so many friends call me buo, “owl” in Spanish. I would say I’m very blunt, very honest, very loud sometimes, and very, very quiet other times. And I’m a splash of glitter at the same time.”
We are the ones that are carrying the sense of everything we observe, experience, and embody. This sense of identity helps us in the physical realm to tell stories and experience a sense of belonging. But all of it, with no exception, starts with us nourishing these identities through our divine, inner self. A sense of being “home” is born from the inside out; then, every place that we align with, existing within that moment, feels like the right place to be.
“I think ourselves and our surroundings are not two separate things. I think we are everything, and everything is us, in a way. And therefore, all these places that I’ve been to have helped me understand who I really am, what’s really inside of me. Because these different outside sceneries have been able to show me that we’re not that different from one another, and that we are all on our own journey. But all of us are looking for the same thing, seeking peace, happiness, and fulfillment in learning our lessons in life in whichever way we know to pursue them. I don’t feel like I belong to a place anymore. I feel that I belong to the universe; I don’t feel like I belong to a piece of land. And I think I’m part of the Earth, but I’m not from a country—I’m from the world. The opportunity of having seen so many places in a short period of time has allowed me to see that we are very similar to one another, and that those differences and those boundaries, those are sort of like systematic sort of worldviews, but they’re not really what’s underneath all of it. I am responsible for every place I am in. I don’t feel this patriotism that a lot of people feel. I’m Venezuelan. I was born in Venezuela, and my roots are there, and I honor them. But at the same time, I am absolutely grateful to Mexico that hosted me for 12 years of my life and gave me work and gave me my best friends and gave me the best experiences and gave me a lot of teachings. And when I was in Swaziland, now it’s called Eswatini, this little country in southern Africa, allowed me to expand in a minute. My world went from this micro to a huge macro world,” shares Marianna.
Success is a popular concept that we all think about. We often take on the meaning of success that is generally given by others, and then pretend that it’s our perception, too. And honestly, there is nothing wrong with that—all choices are valid choices. However, it does make the difference in how we experience our success – whether that is from being in a constant race, or measuring our success by our enjoyment of our own progress and process. There is no destination, there is not even a journey, because we all are an eternal process that gives direction and expands the energies that create worlds.
About her perception of success, Marianna expresses, “I think success is intimately linked with your set of values. I mean, I definitely don’t think that followers determine how successful anybody is. But some people may think differently. For me, the guidelines of success are written by the self, and they probably are a combination of what the self desires. It can be a delicate balance between being happy. Sometimes I feel we really strive for success, and we’re like hustlers, and we just go for it. And then you stop for a minute, and you look around, and you’re alone, there is nobody with you anymore. Because nobody can keep up that rhythm. For me, that’s not success where the only thing you want is to compete for that goal. I feel like success is joy, is to be able to do what you love the most. What you love the most with the people that you love the most.”
We all want to be included, respected, seen, and heard. But oftentimes we give away our own power and argue for our limitations by pointing the fingers and judging others who don’t include us. First and foremost, we have to remember that we have the choice to include ourselves without anyone’s validation. We are all magnificent beings with infinite potentialities to live a life we feel is best for us. When we embody our one inclusivity, that example will inspire others to do so too. Because who doesn’t want to be in the energy of self-empowerment?
“To have an inclusive entertainment industry means to include all sorts of parts of society in it,” says Marianna. “Not only one part, or the majority, or just one section of society is represented on the screen or TV, but you include everything. Because if we believe that the stories we tell are our representation of our reality, then they need to be told by a representation of its inhabitants. I am an actor. It’s not that my parents came here when they were in university, and I was born here, and I happen to speak Spanish. When I booked the role of Nina for Disney Channel’s series Ultra Violet & Black Scorpion, I had been here for a year and a half. And I am representing the people that actually didn’t grow here that came maybe after or before university and they maybe don’t sound fully American. They’re very careful with their culture, and they really want to preserve it. I feel like my character, she really wants to, in one way or another, remind her kids, I am playing the mother of Violet, where they come from—that sense of we belong here because this is where we live—but also, we come from this other place. I feel like we Latinos are very protective of that joy that comes with our culture, that pleasure, the music, and zest for life. Being represented on TV in a really positive way, changing a little bit, because I feel the way Latinos have been portrayed on TV and film a lot is related to drugs, the criminal world, and other really negative stereotypes. But very few times we’re represented as a family with very good values. Within a comedy context, it’s usually dramas or drug lords, prostitution, which is also part of our reality, but it’s not the only part of our culture. So I think inclusiveness also means, including all sorts of stories, not only the stories that will be detrimental. And for this generation of Latino kids and people that are here in the United States right now, I feel that it’s only fair to show the whole spectrum. There are loads of Latino families here who are hardworking, successful, in positions of power—they’re telling stories, they’re creating new realities for a lot of people. And finally, we have a show where this woman I portray, Nina, is not only a teacher, but she’s the principal of the school, and she worked her butt off to get there. And the superhero is the little girl, Violet, her daughter. And then the man of the house is not the man who comes and shouts and screams, bids the table to have his food served. But instead, he’s the guy who cooks, who is a nurse, who is gentle— we’re telling stories that exist, but not necessarily have been portrayed on TV. So I think we’re changing the narrative slowly, but surely.”
Storytelling is a powerful tool that can shift our perception of life in expansive ways. How aware are we about the story we keep telling about ourselves? There is verbal and vibrational communication happening all the time. We can say anything, but the true meaning behind each word is the intention we are infusing in what we say. With each conversation we have about the same topic in the opposite direction of our purest desire, the more we convince ourselves that what we say is true. By changing the narrative of our life’s story, we gradually can see things from a different perspective; therefore, we will experience life differently, too.
“I became an actor because of theater,” says Marianna. “Initially, when I started, I wasn’t thinking Hollywood. I just fell in love with theater when I was 16. And I was in Swaziland, and I had an amazing theater art teacher, and she was English. And I’ve never done theater before. And I was like, ‘Wow, this is super powerful stuff.’ Agusto Boal is a theater practitioner that does Theater of the Oppressed from Brazil. You see how communities talk about their issues in a theater, like new performances, and they solve issues that are really alive within the community. Theater is used as a medium to do that. And how powerful it can be for everybody, for the audiences, for the performers. Storytelling, it’s the oldest form of passing on knowledge. And then I went straight to study theater in London, and I loved comedy more than anything. Then I created a theater company and the more I dug into it, the more I loved it. I don’t love it for the celebrity side of it, to be honest that is the part that I like the least out of our industry. But I love it for the powerful platform. I mean how moving it can be to see a story on TV and to see a story on the big screen—it can change your life. So I wanted to be a spokesperson on that platform. And I wanted to experience what it feels like to be so many things at once. Because that’s the beauty of what we do with this craft. And I love the opportunity of being in Ultraviolet & Black Scorpion right now, playing a woman that is totally out there. My character, Nina, is bigger than life. I see myself working for the rest of my life, hopefully.”
We all are equipped with inner superpowers that are unique in outer expression. We can experience within the whole Universe at the palm of our hands. WEOLA, the collective energy channeled by Kosta Trifunovic, says, “You are this life force expressing through the tools of physicality – your mind, your body, thoughts, and emotions. You are here to have that current experience, which is now, now, now. As you become aware of a wider perspective, you can have the whole universe, the whole cosmos being experienced by you because it is all within you at all times.”
“I think superhero stories are really appealing to many, and they’ve always been. But this ability to be powerful, and to do stuff that is non-human, I think that we’ve always been fascinated by that,” says Marianna. “Having a superpower, I feel like it’s the highest dream for a human. I think that’s why it’s so appealing, especially in a world where nowadays, the reality seems so crushing sometimes, and so devastating and hard to swallow and digest. I feel that having a superpower right now would be more than useful. I love in our show, there’s something that for me, it’s really valuable—that the girl, Violet, who happens to be the non-talented person in the house, becomes a superhero, Ultra Violet. We all have felt at some point that we’re not enough, that we won’t be able to please this other person, and that we won’t be able to be what they expected us to be. We’ve all been there at some point in our life. And that’s where Violet is when the show starts. And then she gets given the superpower, and as a premise, I love that. Because sometimes we’re so harsh on ourselves, and so judgmental on where we are and what we deserve, and what we should be doing, and then actually receive a gift.”
We all have the most powerful gift—life. We don’t have to make the earth and the planets spin. We don’t have to make the sun come in and out every day. But, we can commit to making our existence beautiful.
Musing on the beauty and humor of life, Mariana says, “I am fully committed. I’m not a dropper. I don’t drop stuff halfway through. I love to see others’ humor. I think humor is going to set us free. I think to be able to laugh at yourself, to be able to laugh at the circumstances and to make fun out of everything, makes life lighthearted.”
Like Marianna, are you committed to experiencing life in joy, bliss, love, and humor?
Photography // Isaac Sterling