My path as an artist, researcher, and educator has been greatly influenced by my upbringing, education, and mentorship that I have received while growing into myself in the Bay Area. My family and I moved to San Francisco from Oklahoma when I was 12 years old. At the beginning it was a difficult adjustment but as I began growing here I began to feel at home. My family, like many latino families, found La Mission to be home with the familiar smells of panaderias and friendly brown faces that took us into the community. But like many long term San Francisco residents, home is in many places as many are frequently displaced. Hunters Point became home base and continues to be till this day, the view of the shipyard being one that brings me comfort. 

As a teen I was  heavily involved with youth social justice groups like PODER/POWER,  where I had the opportunity to learn firsthand about social political issues impacting communities of color in San Francisco from several artists and activists in the community. Being involved with these educators, activists, and artists gave me the words to understand the world around me and empowered me to use art as a tool to express what I was learning. Simultaneously, I was being exposed to the effects of the tech boom such as gentrification and saw how techies claimed space further displacing long term residents. As the oldest daughter I thought the only way to afford to live in San Francisco and “get my family out of poverty” would be to pursue a career in tech. 

I left the city in search of myself in 2016 to study at the University of California, Santa Cruz thinking that I would major in Computer Science. Almost a year into the major I realized that what I actually wanted to do was be of service to my community, not contribute to the issue. I set out to explore other paths and landed on Psychology and Studio Art. Having been in therapy as a teen I became interested in mental health and wanting to understand myself and others. My curiosity in art peaked in senior year of high school. After taking my first ever art class, I decided to take the college classes for “fun” and for myself eventually being in too deep with the major to not complete it. Even though I was pursuing the art major, the process of embracing myself as an artist was challenging. 

From a young age I was often discouraged to pursue creative paths, I was told that art would never yield to a financially stable life. That art is merely a hobby, something to pass the time, not a tangible career for young brown women. In many of my introduction art classes I was one of few brown students and the imposter syndrome began to settle in while I stood behind my easel trying to paint something abstract. I was about ready to drop the major when I took an introduction to printmaking class that introduced me to the many possibilities of printmaking and a community of diverse artists. Being a drawer and painter up until that point I found printmaking to be challenging, but fulfilling. It challenged me to think of my images in layers, to work with my mistakes, and made the process of creating a whole body experience. The more I learned about printmaking and the more people I met with similar experiences to mine the more confident I became in myself and in calling myself an Artist. 

As I continued my education I found myself diving deep into social psychology research and  the history of printmaking as a tool for organizing social movements. I  had the opportunity to work under Dra. Christine Rosales on her dissertation that studied everyday resistance in Latina women while in school. In this work we used qualitative data from interviews, letter writing, and community focus groups to gather information on how these  women actively practiced resistance. We found that these women actively taught their children resistance in their day to day lives. This experience  showed me that there is a way to measure social concepts as well as their impact. I began to understand research and art as another form of storytelling, documentation, and a catalyst for change. 

At the intersection of  art, social justice, and mental health, I encountered the topic of Radical Imagination. Radical imagination, as I have come to explore and understand, is the ability to imagine a world outside of the social, economic, political influences that exist today. I furthered my learning  and understanding through artists and activists like Favianna Rodriguez and literature such as Max Haiven and Alex Khasnabish’s “The Radical Imagination.” With the power of Radical Imagination, I brought  my campus community together by organizing an art show, A Festival of Art and Solidarity: a POC Showcase. The event highlighted artists of color across UC Santa Cruz  to bring us all into one space and  build community. After a journey of feeling under represented I found it important for my senior show to create a space for artists of color to come together and build community amongst ourselves. 

Shortly after this show we went into lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Graduating amidst the pandemic I moved back to San Francisco recovering from the trauma that was undergrad and 2020. I took time to explore printmaking as a form of resilience by adapting it to my fluctuating living situations and created and participated in several penpal projects sending dozens of my prints through snail mail to people all over the world to cultivate the feeling of community during an isolating time. I eventually found my way into community settings providing direct services to primarily Spanish speaking  families during the pandemic making my way into clinical research now working with families impacted by the child welfare system.  I  continue my work in radical imagination by working with youth by providing them an arts education that centers radical imagination and public art and continuing my personal art practice and research on the topic. 

I am actively researching the depths of Radical Imagination by cultivating a community in the city and neighborhood that took me and my family in years ago.  I am finding ways to engage with issues in my community and finding constructive ways to use art as a response while looking for more ways to share the ideas I find through my exploration as an artist.