North on Southbound Lanes (Norte en Carriles al Sur) is a series of collages printed onto adhesive tapes stuck onto tarps and surfaces related to my father’s profession as an electrician. The series begins with the blue tarp print Gerardo, Whipple St., and follows with a man’s collared uniform Cuco con Coronas. The subject matter of my project is my father’s profession in outdoor maintenance and landscaping services in the late 90s to early 2000s. As well as the group of close-knit colleagues who were bonded by their gradual, collective immigration from Mexico to the United States in the mid to late 1990s that work alongside my father. I consider these men, including my father, to be the subject matter of this project.

My parents and extended family immigrated from Mexico to the United States between the 1980s to late 90s. Some arrived at this country in the years a U.S. president granted amnesty, others did not and remain undocumented. My role as an artist is innately privileged. I am someone who can go back and forth between two countries on behalf of my parents who cannot. This privilege allows me to leave and return with precious information, to stand in as a medium for separated people to connect with each other. This is why I believe this work is important. The work is a product of the research inquired of my parents and my instinctual desire to preserve their history.