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Other Stories/ Historias Bravas

According to my research, the act of remembering is an unstable and profoundly unreliable process. The more we “remember” an event the more we are likely to change it with time.

Departing from this thought, I began questioning the role of photography and its relationship to memory, specifically what it intends to preserve.

Since 2008, I have been working on Other Stories/Historias Bravas, a project where I revisit events from my youth that were never recorded.  In this project, I re-stage scenarios taken from my memory and with the collaboration of my immediate family I recreate these memories.

 I chose to recreate moments that helped shaped my interpretation of the world and my identity. These memories are either connected to local folklore, such as the act of passing an egg around the body to find out what illness the person has, or connected to my own family's tradition (and sometimes inventions) as praying to the rain or showering with the eldest person to gain wisdom in life. My intention is to capture these events with the utmost accuracy.

Though, Other Stories is an examination of my personal memories, I draw from my bi-cultural upbringing to explore broader issues such as globalization, migration and women’s relation and myth.  These re-enactments, while personal, address situations that are universal, particularly in relation to migration, and women's issues; as preserving tradition while integrating them with contemporary life.

Although, staged, this project is not meant to convey a romanticized vision of my experiences; rather they are meant to provide a means for reflection and a search for truthfulness.

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