Senderos

a retrospective of being a Mexican American in the United States.

While many of us have our own immigration story to tell, Senderos is a personal perspective of growing up in two different countries. I was born in California in 1984 by age 5 we moved to Mexico, after 12 years in Mexico I returned to the US. Throughout my art journey duality has been prominent, I decided to focus on a personal interpretation of my immigration story. Art is a way to process information and history, by creating the work presented in “senderos” I am able to convey my story and construct a space to share it.

The use of thread and fabric in this body of work gives this theme a personal almost intimate portrayal of my Mexican American layers. While most of my work is juxtaposed imagery, this series is a collection of self-portraits of me in different stages of my life. Throughout my art career Chicano history has been important, but it's been the last years that it has connected more intensely in my work. In Chicano Art, dualities are prominent, we use imagery to express the desire to belong and be viewed as an equal. As a woman of color I inherit more layers of struggle beyond being an immigrant; I decided to look within myself to try to understand and connect with my own journey.The use of fabric in this series is a representation of the importance of fabric in our everyday life; we use fabric to clothe, keep ourselves warm, we use it to give us identity in style and a personality, fabric sets trends and allows us to tell time in history. Using fabric is a very intimate material to use in self-portraits. I use thread as my drawing utensil creating connections with the fabric as a canvas.

My story is not unique but personal, I am hoping my work connects with many others that embrace their duality through their immigration story.