ESPERNAZA FOR TOMORROW

THE STATEMENT – I always grew up feeling in between. I grew up as a first generation Mexican/indigenous-Slovenian American. I hadn’t met anyone else who identified as a mixed Hispanic until high school. It wasn’t until recently that I took a DNA test and learned about a new aspect of my identity that I had never known: I was more Russian than Slovenian. I never felt “Hispanic enough”, yet I still know next to nothing about my Russian heritage. I created Esperanza for Tomorrow to honor of all Hispanic and Latinx students and acknowledge that our appearances and experiences are not a monolith. But citizens or not, first generation American or fourth, we all share common threads in our unique journeys that unite us and push us forward into tomorrow. 

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This piece was made as a personal artistic interpretation of Dr. Claudia Herrera–Montero's keynote address at the 2023 ¡El Futuro Is Here! Conference. The keynote can be read in the digital inaugural edition of the PASOS Network's Nepantla Undergraduate Journal of Faith, Culture, and the Arts here.