This series began in 2019 as an urgent response to the death of my mother, Ermelinda Maggie Flores. As time passes, the project feels less urgent but as necessary in my grief work.
The first sets of images I captured were of nearly everything she left behind, similar to the excavation methods of an archaeologist attempting to retrieve, record, and define my mother's history. I found an image of her I had never seen before, a portrait of her framed within a heart, and underneath, she had written, "Te prohibo que me olvides." It translates to "I forbid you to forget me."
I have since attempted to weave past and present together by focusing on collage to create work that travels beyond the boundaries of time. In some instances, threading phrases my mother has said or written directly onto images from our family archive.
