Mama Casa: A Return Home

Mama Casa is a photo essay on my mother’s migration, resilience, and return to Peru to rebuild the home she left behind. Through photography, embroidery, and cyanotype, it tells a story of memory, survival, and the healing power of home.

Mama Casa is a personal photo story tracing the journey of a Peruvian immigrant mother who, after decades of sacrifice and resilience in the U.S., returns to reclaim and rebuild the home she once left behind.

Told through a combination of original photography, archival family images, and hand-altered prints, the series follows my mother’s migration from Ayacucho, Peru to Miami, Florida in her 40s — a move marked by loss, survival, and unwavering strength. As a single mother and breast cancer survivor, she worked three jobs, learned a new language, and helped raise my daughter while navigating the challenges of being undocumented. Her story is one of generational care and grit, where love transcends borders and time.

Beyond the lens, I incorporate photo embroidery and cyanotype as a way to physically engage with the images, threading memory, longing, and restoration directly onto the surface of the photographs. Embroidery becomes a quiet ritual of repair, while cyanotype evokes the fragility and permanence of memory itself.

After retiring at 71, my mother returned to her crumbling casa in Ayacucho — the one she had purchased before our departure and began restoring it with the savings of her life’s labor. Now, it’s more than a house; it’s a symbol of healing and rebirth. In this home, she has found joy again: tending to her garden, dancing in carnivals, and reconnecting with the rhythm of her homeland.

Mama Casa is not just about a house. It’s about belonging, legacy, and what it means to rebuild: both a life and a place called home.