Until the age of five, I spent my life moving back and forth between the USA and the Dominican Republic. Every time I moved back to the DR, I would live in a new house in some new town. The only constant thing I remember is the rooster painting that my mom would hang in every house we lived in. The piece depicts a rooster, painted by famous Dominican artist Miguel Ulloa. She had fallen in love with it the moment she had seen it at a gallery in DR, and so she bought it in a heartbeat. Until my stepfather came to the USA, the painting remained in the DR with him. However when he joined us in New York City, he brought it with him, making my mom jump with joy when she saw it in his arms. She promptly hung it on the living room wall of our apartment, where it’s been for about 8 years now. The painting, in all of its vibrancy and abstraction, never fails to bring me back to my childhood in the DR and all of the happy memories my home country has provided me.

– Edrien Diaz

Relationship:  Child of im/migrant Child of im/migrant