Nuestra Lengua/Our Language: From an Art and Design Perspective

Nuestra Lengua is a collage, installation and wearable art series that explores borderlands complexities of language, visual culture and social norms. More specifically it is about my borderland identity, changing narratives, and claiming my Mexican American heritage. I was adopted as an infant and flown down to the Rio Grande Valley, located on the southern tip of Texas along the U.S. and Mexico border. My caseworker offered one piece of information to my white/ non-Latino adoptive parents and that was that I was of Mexican descent. As was common during the time, my adoption was closed, which meant that all records concerning both parties were sealed. The border is a metaphor for me on many levels. It reflects a psychological impasse; an internal boundary that mocks any attempt to breach it. The "other side” has a fantastical and somewhat surreal element where there is a longing to fit, find residence and blend with my surroundings. Closed adoption has created a divide; a barrier between myself and my biological cultural heritage. My art is my nepantla, a malleable and flexible space from which to create, claim, and share my border identity and visions of place—of belonging. Nepantla is a geographical, emotional, and metaphoric place of transitions and healing (Anzaldúa, 2015; Keating, 2022).