Navigating was born out of a toxic relationship. By turning the camera on myself in moments of distress and vulnerability, I also found the strength to examine the effects of that situation honestly.

As I began creating these self portraits, I was introduced to the album “Navigator” by the band Hurray for the Riff Raff, which centers around feminism and Puerto Rican identity. Within the lyrics by lead vocalist Alynda Segarra, a singer-songwriter from the Bronx, I found a connection to my truth as a woman finding her way in love, inspired by activists like the Young Lords who advocated for the rights of marginalized communities in the 1970s, and concerns over the colonization of Puerto Rican which is an island both foreign and familiar to us since neither of us were born there. Pairing her words with my images offers the viewer exposure to a soundtrack that got me through a difficult part of my life.

Navigating has become a healing tool sparking a desire to connect to my ancestors and open up about my experience with depression; a subject still considered taboo within the Latinx community. This, in spite of a study by the US Department of Health and Human Services which concluded that in 2017, (the same year I began my portraits) suicide was the second leading cause of death for Latinx people aged 15-34 and Latinas between 9th-12th grade were 40% more likely to attempt suicide, than their white counterparts.