Contesting Modernity Exhibition: MFAH

On December 2018, I got to see for the first time since I live in the US an exhibition solely about Venezuelan artists and I got more than I ever expected. #ContestingModernity, at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, captured the #informalist #arteinformal movement in Venezuela from 1950s-70s. The moment when Venezuela expanded after the oil industry boomed, the moment they went from rural to urban, from dictatorship to democracy, when the middle class expanded, when the immigrants moved in, when the population from the interior into the booming cities like Caracas. It was a moment of so much opportunity, prosperity, and disarray. 

I wouldn't exist today had it not been for a moment like this. This economic boom in the country is what brought my father's family from Lebanon in 1957 with the prospect to make money and build a new life in Caracas. This hope for upward mobility is what drove my maternal great grandmother to marry my grandmother off to a man from Caracas so they could move from the llanos (rural plans) into the city.  

But more importantly, that moment cemented the foundation to the social and political mess we have today. Which groups were ostracized and marginalized back then? Why did that happened? Whose resentments are we harboring today? Which communities got isolated in this process of expansion? What were these artists dissenting from? How democratic was the political process? What about militarism? When and why did the obsession with women’s bodies and aesthetics start?

This couldn't have happened anywhere else in the US except in this oil city. H-town keeps giving me the things I didn't know I needed.

--June 2020

Remembering Orlando

The night of the Pulse nightclub shooting I was in Houston, TX dancing in a gay club from the area with a friend. At the same time when the shooting started, I was leaving the club to start making my way back to the hotel whereI was staying. I was tipsy and remembered getting notifications of a “developing situation” in a nightclub in Orlando. I went to bed, telling myself I would find out more in the morning but with a lingering thought in my head: we are never really safe in America.

See that could’ve been me in a nightclub in NY. That could’ve been my brother or his partner in the bay area. That could’ve been one of my friends. No one deserves to die like this. Nightclubs are safe spaces for the marginalized and the free souls and dance floors are the greatest equalizer of them all. Dancefloors are safe spaces for everyone to feel and be who they are and it feels forbidden to invade such a sacred space, just like a place of worship or a school. 

It’s been four years since the Pulse shooting today…

--June 2020

2020 (Stream of Consciousness)

To going out with friends, celebrating milestones, starting new jobs, and joining happy hours, drinking soups in the middle of winter because that's all I would crave, watching a foreign virus kill and sicken people from far away. To washing my hands - just in case - and a trip to another city to see a friend, washing my hands more often than usual and reading the news from Washington and California, washing my hands with urgency and suddenly escaping crowded places because you don't know where these strangers have been. To "it's not that bad we can't freak out we need to remain calm" and two weeks for the infection to show symptoms, to suddenly wanting to cancel all my plans and stay home, when is my job going to send me to work from home? To my anxiety while riding the E train in the mornings and to social distancing, the numbers are increasing in New York and I’m coughing right now: is it spring allergies or is it the virus? It’s QUARANTINE and six feet apart in America but my supermarket is still really crowded, dos metros de distancia en España e Italia and my mom is scared now, the virus is in the air, it's on cardboard, it's on metal surfaces, it's all over memes on social media, it's in my head every night before I go to sleep, it's my family 6,000 miles away if anything happened to me, it’s thousands of people dying because there aren't enough beds, rooms and respirators for them. It’s #WFH working from home and my friends canceling their baby showers and graduations, and all the schools are closed and teachers and students have been digitized and I wonder, will this change our human experiences and interactions and those moments with each other we always took for granted when we didn't think twice about closeness and sharing a drink or a lipstick with a friend. It’s zoom meetings, frozen screens, bad connections, awkward moments, overly-compensating co-workers, people who escape the rawness of this situation with memes and tv shows, people who grieve the loss of their routines, people who lost a reason to wake up every morning, people who rediscovered a reason to wake up every morning, and I’m baking but not from scratch because I don't have the patience to follow instructions, and making edibles to make me feel something, and bernie sanders dropping out of the race, and yoga with Adriene on YouTube, and belly dancing with Leila, and hour long zumbas and whatever other web workout out there, to days when I wake up not wanting to say or move anything at all. To watching Jimmy Fallon tape his show from home and I can tell he's trying very hard to keep it together his hair is messy his daughters are adorable (but toddlers) his wife is his rock but he still makes me laugh so much, and watching Stephen Colbert imitate our president to a silent room in his house and he needs the audience reaction so badly so everything he says is kinda sad and hilarious at the same time, and Trevor Noah is me in so many ways we are both handling quarantined life pretty well, or are we in denial? I’msothankful to have my cat Noche with me, we've gone through some crazy life changes these past few years and my friends ask me to show her on camera lately because she is so cuddly and selfcare-ish. To online happy hours and watching Schitt’s Creek episodes while I work (David is a mood amirite?) to playing the sound of waves on spotify to help me fall asleep and being productive and feeling true to myself, and also not productive at all because I am disconnecting from this capitalist machine, and this state has always been so violent against immigrants but especially now, and resiliency in the face of fascism and are we strong enough to withstand this shit? To stimulus checks and corporate bailouts and surviving this traumatic time and processing it later, my supermarket is not as crowded anymore and the weather is getting warmer but we all wear masks and gloves now and evade each other's paths. When we get out of this, how different will we be? To endings and beginnings and the pain in between transitions, heartbreaks and zoom dates, overly caffeinated and drunk work from home days, to sleeping and waking up late, to cloudy skies that make you wanna stay inside, and sunny days that make you wanna drop everything you're doing just to feel sand under your feet again while you hear the waves crashing in the shore, ese sonido que produce la marea que te recuerda que fluyas como ella, inala y exala, inhale and exhale. 

--April 2020

Tristeza Natal

Me entristece leer títulos como éste sobre mí país. Nosotros sabemos que nuestros países de origen son mucho más de lo que un artículo de noticias presenta. Que las cosas tienden a ser más complejas de lo que aparentan y que son muchas las realidades que se viven a diario. El proposito es encararlas todas para poder sacar a nuestra comunidad adelante.
Siempre admiro y respeto a mi comunidad Venezolana. Los que se quedan luchando por un país mejor y los que salen buscando oportunidades y paz interna. No hay respuesta correcta ante situaciones extremas, sino acciones que nos marcan.
Espero que algún día está pesadilla se termine para todos, que podamos abrir los ojos de nuevo y despertar o pensar con tranquilidad sobre nuestro país y nuestros seres queridos. 

Porque aunque muevas a un árbol de su lugar de origen, sus raíces siempre le recordarán la tierra que lo concebio.

Aqui un articulo del NYT que me inspiro a escribir sobre esto.

Karnes and the GEO Group

When private property takes precedence over the welfare and mental health OF A CHILD. Especially when this private contractor is making a profit from incarcerating immigrants, and in this particular facility: WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 

I myself volunteered in Karnes not too long ago. Karnes is a former federal prison, and the set up is still the same. It was designed to dehumanize those within its walls. It's a very scary place. And there are refugee women and children detained there. Why would you take away the little recreation that's left from them?

Please sign and share this petition to end this nonsensical ban. You may think petitions don't go a long way but they actually do. With signatures like yours from all over the country, advocates on the ground are empowered to confront ICE and the GEO group.
#EndFamilyDetention #FuckICE #FuckGEOgroup #AndCCAtoo

"San Antonio, TX -- On Thursday, November 10th, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in San Antonio notified the Karnes Pro Bono Project that crayons were no longer allowed for children in the visitation area of the Karnes Family Detention Center. ICE claims that this rule is a response to children coloring which has “caused damage to the contractor.” That contractor, of course, is the GEO Group, a private prison company that has earned over $
57 million in profits from the Karnes Family Detention Center."

Sign the petition here

Writing our stories in times of turmoil

I did this interview before the election results, over a month ago, when my mind and heart were in a different place. Now this feels like it happened in an alternate reality. i am familiar with sharing my story publicly but I opened up about many personal things in this interview. I got a little hesitant to share it when I first saw it online because the truth is, I am also scared of our new reality. I think I'm ready to share it now because I have had enough conversations with fellow DACA recipients, allies and advocates, and even with myself to remind me that now more than ever before, we can't back down. We can't stop speaking up. Our experiences are relevant and they matter. I refuse to normalize this presidency, because the fear that many communities in this country are currently feeling is REAL and needs to be validated. For the advocates in the field, it feels like society just took several steps back. It's like having a bad taste in your mouth and not being able to get rid of it.

The next several years won't be easy for many people, for directly affected individuals, their chosen families, and the allies around them. Please check in with your community. Stay connected to the issues. And SPEAK UP. The personal is political.

You can find the interview HERE

Alaska in 17 Days: Day 3 Seward

Day 3: Seward

Bear Sightings: 0

Other Widlife: 3 bald eagles, 5 harbor seals, 2 otters, 4 stellar sea lions, like 10+ puffin birds, and many other birds I don't know the names of like ducks and gulls.

We woke up at 6am to take our train to Seward. A small but gorgeous sea port in the south of Alaska. The train system in Alaska runs through Central and South of continental Alaska, from Seward to Fairbanks. It has many different stops and I highly recommend it if you’re going to Seward, Denali, Anchorage, Fairbanks or anything in between. It allows you to enjoy of some magnificent views along the way to your destination. On the train we took from Anchorage to Seward we were able to ride alongside Cook Bay and then through the Chugach National Forest which has several glaciers you can see from the train such as the Spencer Glacier and Trail Glacier as well as the landscape created by the glaciers over millions of years. You can also see a bunch of wildlife depending on the season. When we took it, we saw several bald eagles and moose but bear sightings are also common. The tour guides on the train are high schoolers in-training to become future railroad staff, which is pretty amazing. They are so knowledgeable about the landscape, tell you urban legends and local stories, are sharp about locating wildlife for us, and patient answering our questions. 

Breakfast: We had breakfast at the diner on the train. They have pretty good options, if you are ready to spend an avg of $15, go for it.

Once we arrived in Seward. We checked in at the Harborview Inn, conveniently located between downtown Seward and the train station. It is worth mentioning that the town of Seward offers a free shuttle during the Summer season that runs from the station all the way down to the Alaska Sea Life Center in Downtown. They are yellow school buses and are usually there when the trains arrive in the station.

Lunch: Chinooks Restaurant. Recommended by the locals but kind of pricey. Be ready to spend an avg of $30 there. Great beer selection! We ordered the Halibut Cheeks and they were AMAZING!!! What a dish, you must try if you’re there! Shawn was our server, he asked me to give him a shout out, he has an impressive beard, and the bluest eyes that you will only appreciate when you see him in person.

Seward is a small sea town at the edge of Mt. Marathon and across from Resurrection bay. Mt. Marathon is named after the yearly marathon that takes place there in the summer. We were planning to hike the Exit Glacier at Mt. Marathon the day we arrived but the tourist company that offers the shuttles to the glacier, had closed the office we headed to earlier than expected (FYI: If you use liquid adventures too, make sure you use their downtown office location, it is much more reliable!) We decided to walk around the town and the shore instead, which turned out to be a pleasant walk during a foggy, rainy day that gave the town a magical feel. Our walk ended at the entrance of the Alaska Sea Life Center. 

Alaska Sea Life Center is such a cool space! First of all, it is a non-profit marine research center, mostly for mammals and avian fauna. It was established in the late 90s to monitor the fauna affected by the 1989 Exxon-Valdez spill and in general the marine fauna in the gulf of Alaska. It has continued to thrive ever since. They are currently housing harbor seals,  steller sea lions and sea otters and they are the cutest and friendliest since they are already used to humans. We got to see a pacific octopus beautifully display itself to us, by opening its tentacles to swim away from us haha. It was gorgeous.  We additionally got to hang out closely with the local birds housed by the center, they are also very friendly. The staff at the center are so kind and knowledgeable, they seem like they love to be asked questions. Many of them are fellows and interns themselves studying marine life.

Dinner: Thorn’s Showcase Lounge  was our choice for dinner, since it was recommended by the locals. Amanda and I shared fried Halibut in this restaurant with two glasses of beer and a cherry apple pie to finish the night.

- FM