Padre

Padre explores the construction of masculinity from a feminine perspective. Focusing on deconstructing Latin American notions of machismo, the project captures the complex and often contradictory ways in which masculinity is produced and performed.

The genesis of the project was a collection of letters my father left me before he passed. Within this correspondence, my grandfather grapples with his role as an absentee parent and imparts advice on navigating manhood to his sons. The exchanges provided me insight into how different individuals negotiate their relationship with masculinity as they confront its entanglement with violence, power, and patriarchal structures. Grounded in personal history and cultural heritage, Padre critically examines the conventional roles imposed on men.

The act of hunting serves as a framework. Hunting, whether literal or metaphorical, embodies notions of conquest, control, and the exertion of dominance over one's environment. The juxtaposition of the nurturing and emotional aspects of fatherhood with this primal instinct underscores the hardships men face in reconciling societal expectations of toughness and emotional restraint with their own internal struggles and desires for connection and intimacy.

This is an ongoing project.