My work is about the Latin cultural stigma towards Mental Health, the struggles we face in our society, and treatment. I use my culture's beliefs of mental health to bring awareness to the stigma issues with in the culture and lack of equality. Disparities, stigma, and language barriers have impacted those from seeking treatment. Within Healthcare Insurance we are also experiencing racial and ethnic disparities. My work is also about the history of treatments with in the U.S. Living with a mental illness is not easy. No one working to recover from a mental illness should be faced with stigma, disparities and racism. The stigma in our culture has also kept Latinos in secrecy. Due to the cultural stigma, it has created shame and embarrassment within those who are mentally ill. Unfortunately, there is not enough social support. Latinos with a mental illness should not be feared by stigma.
Through my work, I want to bring awareness to mental health and create change to the inequalities we are experiencing. Negative attitudes toward those living with a mental illness should be altered. Along with our cultural stigma, we also face discrimination, racial and ethnic minority microaggression when seeking treatment. We should have the help that we need in order to better our mental health. Overall stigma and inequalities in our community are very hurtful to our love ones who are working to recover from a mental illness.
In my content, I use complementary medication bottle images, the simultaneous contrast of color and bilingual text. I paint hopeful and positive destigmatized text on an attached diptych compared to the stigmatized negative attitudes. I use traditional rendering to create the medicine bottles. I am also currently using soft colors and flower designs within hard problematic topics. I'm inspired by how colorful Mexico is, our food, our clothing, our cities and crafts. I use mediums such as gouache and acrylic paint on paper.
Ultimately, my artwork is societal, historical, about racial justice, and of Latin culture of mental health with in the U.S. I have been influenced by artists Francisco Goya, Robert De La Rocha, Yayoi Kusama, and Victoria Santa Cruz.
