As Eduardo climbed up the steep mountain, a passing montoconcho crammed with three passengers roared past bringing up a dust cloud that watered his eyes and choked his breath. He bowed his head and crumpled his straw hat into a small ball as each step brought him closer to home.

There was no choice. Jonas’ ailing grandmother had set up solitary residence in Pune and fractured her hip, and frankly, no one else could take the old lady to the loo.

I grew up in the farm labor camps of Monterey County in California, picking fruits and vegetables along with my parents and eleven brothers and sisters. Neither parent was able to attend school growing up, and we relied on each other to survive the hardships of being poor and working in the fields.

My art and social activism stems from my strong conviction that art is needed to make social change a possibility, to help heal the injustice’s faced by people of color around the world. I have the historical experience of the Civil Rights Movement and the Chicano, Black Power Movement, Native American and Anti- War Movements of the 1960s and 70s for my inspiration.