I often ask people about their experience in their city. How do you feel living out West and how does it inform your work?

I live in the city I was born and raised in, Los Angeles. It's so big and full of traffic, smog, and people; but I have a lot of friends and family here, and it's full of memories and places I love, so I feel quite rooted. Sometimes too rooted. I'd like to step away from Los Angeles and live somewhere more mellow with more dirt one day. But I love the west, it has so many types of nature. I'm close to the beach so I nurture my relationship with the ocean year round by getting in the water at least once a month - the cold water provides a much needed reset. Angelenos gather at the beach to watch the magenta sunsets, fueled by car smog, but it is so beautiful. I used to take the bus around Los Angeles a lot which shaped the way I viewed and interacted with the city. I made a couple of short films about bus rides in Los Angeles and I recorded the conversations I overheard on public transit to use in those pieces. I think a lot about public transit (mostly because it’s so lacking) and how our movement through public space informs our relationships to place and our interactions with others. Los Angeles is a huge city, and a multicultural city. I think of my own family's Latin American roots and sometimes incorporate Spanish & English language narration into my films as a way to portray bilingual experience on screen. I also program film screenings through a collective I'm in, the Echo Park Film Center, where we like to highlight local artist's work. I programmed a film series by Latinx filmmakers where we screened the films in the neighborhoods they were filmed in, it was very special to see the works with the communities the films aimed to reflect.

What sets your heart on fire in a good way outside of your work?

Pole dancing, natural dyeing + sewing projects, the smell of night blooms, ocean swims, earth building and cozy gatherings with my friends & family!