It’s Domestic.

“It’s Domestic” is a project born from the need to continually demonstrate that Puerto Ricans living in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens and that our island is a territory belonging to the United States.

In 1989 we became property of the United States and in 1917 we received U.S. citizenship, and yet 108 years later we are often treated as second-class citizens.

In my professional field, I have to constantly clarify that we are governed by federal laws, that we do not have to go through customs and can send packages by USPS domestic service, that our telephone area code is not international, that we have real ID, even though a lack of knowledge means it's often not accepted when I rent a car or go to a discotheque in some cities on the “mainland,” etc.

I want companies in the US to see us as they would in any other state with great talent to contribute; and just as they hire people between states, they can do the same with us.

Puerto Rico has a lot to offer. We are a resilient people, with a wonderful culture that brings a new point of view to the table with highly trained professionals. It is time to tear down the misconceptions and prejudices that still promote our exclusion from the development we should be a part of.

It is not surprising to me that recently during two of the ICE raids, two Puerto Ricans were seized: one a business owner and the other a veteran. They still do not recognize our citizenship, our history, and reality.

To represent the ways that we belong as a territory of the United States, I turn to evocation as a resource to give photographs the ability to promote a sense of belonging within the viewer through domestic elements we find in most homes. I play with both the legal meaning of “domestic” as well as its use to refer to things found in a home to create metaphors representative of what is one's own, what is near and dear, what belongs, and what is familiar.