Venas Abiertas, a a title based on Eduardo Galeano’s seminal book, The Open Veins of Latin America, based on U.S. imperialism in Latin America and its history of extraction. The photographs give voice to economic and political policy toward Latinx people, the region, and the consequence resulting in waves of immigration to the U.S. The story of my family’s migration from Panamá to the American south in the late 1960’s due to economic need shaped my understanding of this multifaceted history. The U.S. origin story is one that includes an expansive Latino experience whose complexity is largely unknown. 

In Venas Abiertas, photographs are performed for the camera based on texts from literary sources such as Gloria Anzaldúa’s autobiographical reflections in Borderlands/La Frontera, Border Patrol by Mary Kidder Rak, the paradoxical history of nature conservancy supporters and the history of the eugenics movement are examples of texts acted out for the camera.  In making these photographs the impact of policy on both individual and the collective within the U.S., and the greater America’s - an interconnected and bonded history are addressed. The images that result are a recording of moments of empowerment aided by found photographs made into temporary objects, and cuts in paper that take on the look of mappings, that speak to a history that has been too often unseen but in plain sight.