As global longevity increases, dominant societal narratives surrounding aging and longevity need urgent reconsideration. Through a cultural analysis, Espejismos desde la vejez critically examines how women's aging bodies can serve as political and discursive spaces to resist ageist and gendered assumptions, particularly within capitalist frameworks that encompass productivity and youth as value. Drawing from feminist theory, phenomenology, research-creation and participatory design methodologies, it investigates how aging is lived, represented, and interpreted, specifically in Costa Rica, where longevity is both celebrated and idealized.

This design project explores the intersection of age and gender through a combination of autoethnographic and ethnographic research methods, including interviews, visual explorations, and collaborative projects with intergenerational family members. It situates the aging female body as a discursive space capable of challenging dominant cultural narratives while revealing the marginalization of these same bodies imposed by capitalist systems. Through the design of a book, it creates a space for the exploration of aging experiences and invites a reconsideration of what it means to age as a woman, specifically focusing on the experience of a Costa Rican family.