Yo Soy De Aqui Como El Coqui/In A Constant Chase
My identity and culture runs strong through my veins, however, I am in a constant chase of it. The true freedom of my expression lies within the feathers and cultural symbolism in my work. With ambition, I continue to discover more of who I am and learn new things during my artistic process. To educate and share pieces of my identity and culture with my audience is important to me, as well as being a voice and representation for those in my community.
About A Constant Chase…
My initial use of the Coqui frogs (small frogs located all over the island of Puerto Rico) as well as feathers in my senior pre-thesis, symbolized the oppression that Puerto Rican islanders face from the mainland America. However, here the coqui along with the feathers, represent my freedom of expressing who I am. Simply because of my skin color, I am often seen as “Black American”. I have witnessed many of my friends who are similar to me, experience their own occurrences of identity issues. Many studies have been created analyzing individuals who come from, and grow up in, multiethnic/multicultural households. Often times, these individuals around the world experience identity issues, social anxiety, and a feeling of not belonging. This is an unfortunate result of our past society not truly understanding ethnic diversity. The media has had a big hand in creating one look for Latinos/Hispanics when realistically there is no one way to look. In my own research studies, I’ve found that there’s an alarming number of people who don’t understand the difference between race, ethnicity, nationality, and culture. When I explain in dialogue that “Latino” is actually a culture, in which people of great diversity fall under, I’ve received reactions of shock. Due to the medias depiction of Latinos, I had went through my entire childhood wondering what it means to be a partially Black Puerto Rican, with an additional family mixture of Chilean & Mexican. This had been the most confusing time of my life.
It had taken me many years to understand who I am ethnically and culturally. I sadly went through phases where I hated being Black, because I did not fit in with the culture and peers around me. I also went through phases where I hated being Puerto Rican, because many did not accept me. As I got older, I realized that I actually formed somewhat of a hate for myself, due to being such a mixture of things. I’d often heard of had been told by society, that I had to look a certain way to be an “actual” Latina. I had to look like the typical J-lo or Shakira, which funny enough is what nearly all my maternal family resembles.
Fortunately however, I am not alone in this identity crisis, which is why I wanted to create “A Constant Chase”. As I grew mentally realizing this isn’t just a “me” thing I wanted to make a statement within my artwork about this issue. It’s everyone’s right to freely express themselves, and educate society on who they are ethnically, racially, and culturally.
Oil & Acrylic on wood panel
2018