TLP: Congratulations on being the winner of our latest Curatorial Open Call! Can you share a bit about your most recent curatorial involvements?

Sure, thank you so much for this opportunity. My curatorial practice has been highly influenced by the structures in which history museums narrate, however, my background in art often demands non-linear choreographies to foster conversations in liminal spaces. 

Some of my recent curatorial involvements include On Possible Futures, a digital public programming series that explores Queer and BIPOC digital activism and mutual aid initiatives during COVID-19. The project was hosted by MICA in partnership with the student-led organization MPOC from the University of Toronto and ICOM IC-Ethics. The project created a global platform to present the courageous efforts of BIPOC artists and museum workers to confront institutional “in solidarity” statements in addition to governmental policies that increase the impact of the current global health crisis and perpetuate systemic racism. 

During last year, I had the opportunity to serve as a Curatorial Consultant at National Museum of American History, Smithsonian, for the September 11, 2001: An Evolving Legacy, a  digital project that commemorated the 20th anniversary of the attacks through a virtual gallery, a story-gathering tool, and a programming series unpacking the historically marginalized experience of Latinx communities in addition to its global impact. Leading to this experience, I had the opportunity to work alongside curator Cedric Yeh and successfully collected iconic garments worn by members of the Latino community who played a crucial role in the recovery efforts, survivors, and Latino workers of nearby areas whose lives were drastically changed by the aftermath. A common thread in my practice is a special devotion to archival material, alongside art and media. 

TLP: Tell us about your forthcoming exhibition with TLP.

This forthcoming exhibition, Estilazo, is a celebration of Latinx and Caribbean Diaspora collectives that gave birth to different eras in New York History. Since the early 2000’s to this date, Latinx and Caribbean collectives such as GHE20G0TH1K, 1992 The Party, RAGGA NYC, PAPI JUICE, and Maricón have been building a network of sanctuary spaces for their queer communities within the urban fabric of New York. These parties were confronting the silos of white corporate America, and early on designed independent economic systems and scenes to celebrate gender identity through fashion and music.

This show aims to historicize the intellectual labor of these Latinx creatives and celebrate their artistic imprint in contemporary culture. Through documents, photography, fashion, and media, the exhibit presents iconic moments of Queer Latinx underground club culture, expanding gender norms, notions of sensuality, and queer fiction. 

TLP: How does this project relate to your overall practice as an independent curator, artist, and museum advocate? 

Estilazo has been on my mind for around six-years now. There's urgency in identifying spaces committed to honoring Queer Latinx stories and celebrating their legacies. Projects like Estilazo often live in institutional calendars for solventing queer BIPOC tokenism in conservative cis-narratives. It's my responsibility as a curator to reflect and learn from the community's autonomous nature, to seize opportunities in perpetuity. It is a labor of love to produce and document parties in NYC underground culture, even more so to create networks of collective care, financially and career wise as many of these artists, DJs, photographers, organizers and performers featured in Estilazo do.

One of my strengths working as an independent curator has been constantly questioning where my power lies, in each of the spaces I inhabit. Similarly to the ways these collectives operate, my work often looks for spaces in which my presence will create an impact, to drive and build avenues for manifesting, persisting, reckoning, and fostering queer joy. I am aware of some of these holistic approaches to creative leadership because of the artists in Estilazo. Each one of these collectives absorbed from the social anxiety of each era and developed outlets for self-expression whether through music, fashion, photography or hosting parties. They identified early on worlds within worlds. 

Estilazo is gently teaching me that smaller initiatives and inter- institutional collaboration could  extend the life of a project through different mediums and seems like a hybrid curatorial model that I would like to pursue. Exhibitions are crucial for me to bring objects to the immediate interaction with visitors, but publications lend portals to the readers, they walk them through the artists-organizers experiences, and digital versions of the exhibitions give us the opportunity to expand to global audiences. My labor in this particular project is to channel the power of each medium and let the stories serve as a living archive, always expanding, and collaboratively documenting the different ecosystems of NYC Queer Latinx Nightlife.