De Frente a la Realidad
De Frente a la Realidad, 2024, Cyanotype and installation
This cyanotype work captures the haunting journey of those who ride La Bestia, a freight train that carries thousands of migrants from Central America through Mexico, toward the uncertain promise of the United States. Rendered in deep, photographic blues, this piece reflects the memory of movement and the lingering absence left behind by those in search of a better future. The process of cyanotype itself—dependent on sunlight and time—echoes the themes of exposure, impermanence, and transformation.
The data in the print are not just numbers or a statistic in transit—they are symbols of presence turned absence, of people who once belonged somewhere and are now suspended in the in-between. Moreover, they all are risen at a different backgrounds and going towards a some place. This piece is not a direct portrait, but a field of memory: of borders crossed, languages lost, and communities left incomplete. The train, La Bestia, becomes both vessel and scar—a machine of hope and danger etched across the landscape and the psyche. The sheer scale of the cyanotype invites the viewer to step into that in-between space, to feel the weight of the journey, and to reflect on what it means to leave everything behind in search of something more. “De Frente a la Realidad” is a meditation on longing, sacrifice, and survival. It is a visual elegy for the stories often untold, and a call to witness the human cost of seeking belonging beyond borders.
