​Where I Am From and Who I Am

I live in Lower Manhattan's East Village and have been in New York for roughly six years, though my roots are in the Urban South. I am from Houston's 2nd Ward, el segundo barrio, "EaDo." I was raised along the banks of Brays Bayou by healers. My mother, a Chicana social worker and champion of at-risk youth in Pasadena ISD public schools. My father, a country boy nurse. They come from immigrant farming stock, from hard work, tough hands and silent sacrifices traveled across continents. I imagine myself a squash blossom sprouted from the cushaws my father used to sell at a roadside stand in Brazoria County. ​

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I do not fit neatly anywhere: I have worked on stagge and off, behind the scenes and front of house. My body, my history, my craft all refuse tidy categories too. I am a multidisciplinary artist, producer, and cultural worker. I am multiethnic and queer. I have lived high above the waves toasting champagne and I have stood in grocery lines calculating the price of necessity. Through every cycle, every job-- I have stayed hungry, hopeful, and stubbornly committed to art.

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Why I Create

I believe art is a form of radical healing. It is where ideas become action and courage becomes contagious.

I want to make work that invites people to return to themselves. To feel alive. To think freely. To laugh loudly. To challenge what they inherited. Art that feels like an impassioned kiss, a hateful blow, a shocking win--I want art that transforms us. I want art that reaffirms our status as living beings. 

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The Journey That Shaped Me

I am Tejana by birthright and a citizen of the world by design. Before New York, I spent five years in motion: backpacking Europe and driving across North America in an old beat up Honda CR-V. A solo pilgrimage across continents, surviving by my wits and my craft. I wrote, performed, directed, threw parties, and stirred the pot wherever I landed. I practiced both being unafraid and culturally sensitive. 

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Cities that have claimed parts of my heart: Tokyo, Taos, Paris, Glasgow, Distrito Federal. And always Houston, where this all started: at eighteen, the Alley Theatre commissioned my first play. They paid me, a high schooler, to WRITE! It was a stunning affirmation, and it clued me in on my potential to live by my dreams.

I earned my BA in Creative Writing at the University of Houston and leapt into global performance, gallery work, and film. Later, I shaped artists’ journeys at a National Parks residency program in Massachusetts. Then at last came New York. I worked as a luxury stylist, off-Broadway producer, & earned my MA in Arts Administration at Columbia University Teachers College. I grew sharper. Bolder. More aligned.​

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What I Carry With Me

I was named after my maternal great grandmother, a reminder that lineage is a living force. My grandparents were salt-of-the-earth farmers whose journeys taught me that creation is labor and love braided together.

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I am 31 years old. I was born 1994; my mother says I introduced myself to her in a dream before I was born. Therefore​ I came here on purpose. I chose this moment. I do not plan to waste it. I must make art.

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"People say, 'I didn't ask to be born.' I think we did, and that's why we're here. We are here, and we have to do something nurturing that we respect, before we go." -Toni Morrison