"​In my project I decided to explore the topic of Latinidad or the complex identities of Latinos who live in the United States."

"Latinidad is an identity that describes one’s connection to their Latino background, culture, history, and whether they claim/embrace it. Or in some cases, falling out of touch with it or not identifying with it. In my case, I still claim my Latinidad and still feel very connected to my culture so I showed that by drawing my silhouette and painting the Mexican flag integrated into my clothing. Originally, I was going to paint the colors over my skin too but I decided not to in order to show my skin color because that’s another complexity of the Latino identity. Most of the time Latinos are portrayed to be light skin or if they’re tan, they’re a lighter tan than usual so I wanted to draw my skin color because I feel like it’s part of my identity. As well as remind everybody that Latinos can be of any skin color."
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"Despite claiming my culture and embracing my Latinidad, living in the United States complicates this identity as you are living in a country with a whole different culture and that itself is a mixture of a lot of different cultures. I was born in Mexico but brought over to the United States when I was 2 years old so really I was raised and have lived in the United States for most of my life. This caused me to at times feel disconnected from my Mexican culture or think I’m losing some aspects of it because I’m faraway from Mexico and also because it feels like I’ve adapted two cultures. Hence why I drew the American flag starting to drip over in the background and slowly covering the canvas in the back to symbolize the Latino culture being “covered” or “disappearing” due to living in the United States."