Adelante

Adelante is an ongoing photographic project exploring migration, family, and belonging through intimate portraiture and interiors photographed in El Salvador, reflecting on memory, distance, return, and cultural identity across generations.

I grew up in my grandfather’s church in El Salvador. The room was loud and humid, filled with hands raised in prayer as my family gathered to take care of one another.

My childhood was spent between church gatherings, indoor gardens, and long rides from Sonsonate to Soyapango to visit relatives, all while hearing stories about my mother working at Burger King in the United States.

When my mother brought me to New York, everything changed. I saw snow for the first time, white picket fences, and Friendly’s. I lost myself in the new language and culture, became ashamed of my accent, and felt lonely in a world with so much space.

My project, Adelante, explores migration, family, and belonging between El Salvador and New York through portraits and interior scenes. I began taking photographs as a way to reconnect with my family and understand the emotional distance created by immigration. Over time, I’ve come to believe that distance creates desire—the farther I’ve been from my family, language, and place, the more intensely I’ve tried to hold onto them through photographs.

When I returned to El Salvador in my twenties, I found that I was still being prayed for. Carrying a camera allowed me to witness my language return and reflect on what it means to move forward while remaining connected to the people and places that shaped me.