My paintings deal with the inequalities of class structure, depicting the hardships of the working class. As a first-generation Mexican-American, I also investigate the psychological effects and complexity associated with misplaced identity.

As a painter, I try to make sense of this ordeal by confronting Mexican hyperbolic clichés with an honest intent to display the realities of Mexican people and the traumas surrounding the Tijuana border.

My approach to oil painting is expressive in terms of paint handling. I employ the tactility and physicality of paint, using gestural marks to depict the figure and landscape, hoping this will mirror the complexities surrounding these issues. The idea of the fight-or-flight response is portrayed by the figures in various scenes and coincides with my intuitive approach in reworking a painting. I try to evoke this experience through my color palette, as it is both invented and derived from observation. The compositional structure in each painting is created from personal experiences and the recollection of stories I have heard throughout my life.