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Being undocumented meant that
job security was not secure.
I started making political art when I was in college.
I wasn't really out as undocumented, you know.
While doing that, I started realizing that a lot
of the people who were pushing for the DREAM Act,
and for a lot of these radical ideas of coming out,
and not letting other people speaking for us,
which, it sounds very familiar to coming out of the closet.
Were queer, right?
And so, really being intentional in creating art
that was like, look, the people who are making
the spaces for us to be unapologetically undocumented,
are also queer.
I was born in Ensenada, Mexico.
When we moved here to the US,
in 1995, I took this class,
just an art class,
and I remember the teacher, Ms. Gaynor, introduced me
to the artwork of Frida Kahlo.
I was just like, blown away, and I was like,
oh my God, who's this?
I love it.
(upbeat electronic music)
It sounds like a cliche of Latinx artists
to name Frida as your favorite artist.
The fact that she was unashamed and unapologetic about
who she was, and she was just putting it all in her work,
it definitely stayed with me, because,
that's kind of basically what I've been doing, you know.
I try to really be authentic
in the artwork that I put out into the world.
So that's how I got started.
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If you're in the immigrant community,
there could be homophobia, there could be transphobia.
If you're in the queer community, you know,
all they want to talk about is gay marriage.
But, they don't talk about deportations.
But when I'm making these images that
speak to, at least to communities,
I have to do it because, that's part of who I am.
Art really, sometimes, is like the only way
for us to like, scream and communicate
these big ideas that we have.
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At this point, though, in my life,
For many years, the narrative in the immigrant community
was like, look America, accept me.
I'm a good immigrant, I promise, you know.
And, that sh*t is f*cking tiring.
I tell younger folks, and, you know,
folks who might be leaning toward using
that kind of language, I'm like,
look, they already don't like you.
I grew up watching all kinds of movies about white people
being very imperfect.
And they were getting Oscars, and they were getting
applauded for being real.
One of the things that I'm interested in exploring
is, this idea that,
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You know, as I'm growing older, and I'm like,
looking to other mediums to explore,
I'm like, how is this gonna be useful
in the future, like, 10 years from now?
Whoever's looking at this, how are they gonna use this?
I definitely have gotten messages on Instagram,
on Facebook, folks who are
younger than me, who tell me,
oh my God, I saw your artwork when I was in high school.
When I was in high school,
I didn't really, other than Friday Kahlo,
I didn't really have other undocumented queer artwork.
To know that teachers, professors, are using my artwork
to tell younger folks, like,
hey, you're not alone.
That, to me, is like, okay I'm doing my job.
What I want in the future is not to have other,
the generations coming after me, not to have
to worry about those things.
You know, I'm doing this because I want to imagine a world
where that is possible.
(upbeat electronic music)