About a year ago, I was a Mexican living in Spain while attending an American university. Being confined under such confusing circumstances inspired me to create art from memories and artifacts that I had collected before. Most of these pieces include drawings of spirals. They are formed by a continuous line that represents an overwhelming stream of consciousness translated onto a page. Once I am done drawing it, a sensation of peace overcomes me. I depended on drawing and creating art as a form of living while being alone in a foreign country during a global pandemic. As the world outside seemed like such a faraway place, my mind took me on a journey of remembrance of who I am. Staying creative means staying alive.

This piece is a road map to the exploration of my identity as I positioned myself in between the cultures that represent me. The emblematic spirals set a background for the thoughts and feelings that culminated at the beginning of quarantine. Between heartbreak, meditation mantras, social awareness, and deprivation, this collage represents the mental meandering I went through at the time of its creation.

I had never felt more Mexican than when I moved to the US from Mexico for college. I felt like the Other, not because of visas or accents, but because of the grandiose library of lines and patterns, colors and tastes that I grew up with. I felt like the Other, a Latin person being categorized as so. Embracing this identity has brought me great inspiration and has made me proud of my ancestry. Growing up in Mexico City, I got to go to the ruins of Teotihuacan quite frequently – enough to commit the shapes of the Sun and Moon pyramids to memory.



I intended for this piece to be like a scroll telling the story of the Neutral Twilight we found ourselves living in because of the pandemic. Feeling deprived of a cityscape, I pictured the psychological and physical transformation that could happen in our society. The story I imagined is that of skyscrapers becoming dust and being reborn as ancient pyramids.

The words of Uruguayan poet Mario Benedetti, from his poem “Asunción de tí,” greatly influenced the making of this piece and gave me comfort for the times spent in isolation:

Because going outside to buy material was restricted, I scavenged through the items I already had in my bedroom. I had started collecting twigs and natural elements on my daily walks to work. The intention was to bring them home as a recollection of the thought or feeling I had when seeing them. Eventually, they became the protagonists of my creative world. They provided a natural background for my surreal dioramas.

I see my art as I see myself during confinement, a collage of accumulated experiences and artifacts resourced into new physical and mental space.