Portraits of San Ysidro (2008 – 2010)

Portraits of San Ysidro, created in collaboration with nonprofit Casa Familiar, is a project about memory, lived experience, and place in the San Ysidro, CA, that includes oral histories in English and Spanish, photographic portraits, field recordings, and experimental writing.

The process for developing the project involved two years of immersion in the San Ysidro community, including conducting dozens of interviews, organizing a town-hall meeting revolving around mapping memory, and pursuing a dialogue with community members, artists, and scholars about archiving memory and lived experience. Through the process, I was invited to serve on San Ysidro’s centennial committee.

Paintings, photographic portraits, experimental writing, field recordings

Collaborators include Casa Familiar staff members Andrea Skorepa, Luz Camacho, David Flores, Leticia Gomez and Amy Gunderson, and community members including Francisco Ancar, Carlos Avelar, Gabriel Arce, Roseann Cordoba, Consuelo Delgadillo, Hector Espinosa, Cecilia Flores, Margarita Galindo, Ignacio Gomez, Monica Hernandez, Jose Lopez, Alicia Jimenez, Grace Kojima, Nora Murphy, Grace Kojima, Manuel Paul, Gloria Rios, Pedro Rios, Liduana Riveras, Victor Silva, Alice de la Torre, Catherine Vargas, Blanca Vega

 Produced in 2008 – 2010 with support of UC-MEXUS Dissertation Award, nonprofit Casa Familiar, and Dissertation chair Teddy Cruz

Exhibited at The Front