Immigrant Services

#1

"What's your story?"

-Italu Ramos Hernandez, 2020

#2

"A great way for the world to see what is going on in the world is not only by listening to what is going on but to also have a visual representation of what it is. A photograph can speak so many words. Family is a word that can mean something different for many. Family to me means unity and love regardless of legal status; all families should be together and should not have to hide from anyone or anything."

-Alejandra Ruiz

#3 

Title: In-between (2020-1)

Medium: Collage with original relief and monotype prints.

Size: paper 16" x 14" (image: approx. 9" x 8")

Year: 2020

"Description: Ever since I moved to the U.S. from Japan, I feel as though my identity has been sifting between the dominant culture of my everyday life here and the core Japanese culture that shaped me growing-up. The longer I live here, the more I adapt to this culture and feel more American, but also the more I miss Japan. This emotional tension is highly salient for me and, while I feel as though I have the best of both worlds, I also feel that I will never truly belong in either place."

-Taiko Chandler

#4

"A painting/drawing that represents me."

-Veronica Hernandez

#5

History of Adobo (Video Essay): https://vimeo.com/296811770

"A video essay about food, and the erasure or displacement of its origins as a result of Spanish colonization."

-Karissa

#6

"As recently as July 3rd/4th, President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines signed the Anti-Terrorism bill that essentially inhibits the exercise of free speech. This newly passed law is vague in its verbiage, allowing for the Philippine government to label anyone a terrorist if they are critical of the government; this includes sharing memes on social media. 

 My parents, being dual citizens of both the United States and the Philippines do not want to express any ill will, and therefore keep quiet about government issues, here and in the motherland. 

 For me, being a United States citizen, if I were to choose to go visit the Philippines, I could be arrested for 24 days without notice, due to my critical stance against Duterte, as I believe him to be another iteration of Martial Law, just as the deceased Ferdinand Marcos (and his edifice-complex-obsessed wife, Imelda) enacted Martial Law from 1972 until its end in 1986; my parents lived their lives as pre-pubescent teens to young adults under this government.

 In "Mourning Two Countries That Will Never Love Me Back” I subvert the American and Philippine flags, and combine them into my self-portrait. I realize I will never be Filipino enough, and I will never be American enough. I don’t have a diaspora community. It seems all of them live in California or Hawaii, as a consequence of labor migration movements."

-Karissa

#7

"First originated at El Salvador, came to blossom at Colorado."

-Veronica Hernandez