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I was born in Medellin, Colombia and at eighteen months old immigrated with my mother to live in Union City, NJ, a Latinx-majority factory town, where my grandmother, aunts and uncles had moved to a year prior. My earliest memories involve visiting the sweater factory where my mom worked sewing collars. The array of colorful spools of yarn lined up against the wall was mesmerizing. The petite button sewing machine seemed to be made especially for me. To get me away from the machine, the factory's owner would sit me with the older women in charge of yanking loose threads from finished garments. As I helped pull on excess thread, I collected the multi-colored clumps of thread that gathered on the floor. Visits to the factory developed my interest in design and colors but also piqued curiosity over the lives of the Latinx women and men who had arrived in the 1980s to work there and live in Union City.  

SHORT BIO

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