La Negra

La Negra, the nick name my grandmother’s family called her by, are a group of pictures that read as a second chapter to Casa de Mujeres. The images describe La Negra, as she transitions to the United States with her younger daughter. The character of the daughter is a construction played by my mother and myself and symbolically represents my mother as a young adult. It is my mother’s body and my face blended together. In this work, the women struggle with the shift in identity that immigrating to a small town in the American south stirs in them. The conflict is in attempting to assimilate to a new culture, where the US history, distinct in many ways, of color and class ultimately transforms their identity.