Things I’ve done and been a part of

Apulo, El Salvador

Mural painted on local clinic

During my summer break back in 2013 I was given the opportunity to help paint a mural in El Salvador. I was there for an entire month. We worked with the towns people and based the mural on their goals for their future as a community. It was a life changing experience. Being only 17, visiting my families home country, for an entire month was such an honor. This experience shaped me as a person and an artist.

The mural depicts the past, present, and future.

Returning after 4 years to show my family our hard work.

This field trip was very important to me. I had just come back from my trip to El Salvador with a new outlook on who I was and how I identified. As an Indigenous person growing up in LA, not once did our education cover Indigenous history in full depth and 100% accuracy. As a senior in High School this was the first time, I got to learn about the reality of our Indigenous people not just here in the U.S, but in all of the American continent. It opened doors and kicked off my journey to reconnect.

Indian Alley, 2014 - Photographer Stephen Zeigler
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/once-grim-la-street-gains-bright-reputation-from-art/
LA Times
https://www.latimes.com/la-me-indian-alley-pictures-photogallery.html

ca-times.brightspotcdn.jpg — “A box in a bigger box is still a box”
My very first scholarship award. I had entered the Jeane Ward Foundation Scholarship and earned my reward with this painting. It depicts butterflies flying out of a small red box into a blue and bigger box. Representing the migration of people searching for a better, brighter life. While the blue box may be bigger, it is still a box. The box represents the oppression, discrimination and injustice against migrants from Latin American countries.
The link to my interview with the Glendale News Press is linked below. You may also click image to be directed to site.

LA Times- Glendale News Press
https://www.latimes.com/socal/glendale-news-press/tn-gnp-me-0606-butterflies-and-brushwork-hoover-high-graduate-earns-scholarship-for-artwork-20140605-story.html

Chalk Mural done at Herbert Hoover High.

“A box in a bigger box is still a box”