Dulces Sueños looks back at my childhood with my mom in East LA in the 1990s. At the center of the collage is my memory of her as a young mother and barber: her intricate nails, carefully styled hair, clothing, and the chola creativity and self-expression I grew up admiring.

The details throughout the collage: hair, nails, lettering, ornamentation, and style, come from that world and from the ways I experienced it alongside her. At the time, I didn't have language for the creativity I was absorbing; it was simply part of everyday life. Looking back, I recognize how deeply it shaped my own creative language and understanding of beauty and self-expression.

Dulces Sueños is a love letter to my mom: to the dreams she carried while raising me, the life she has built for herself, and the creativity and sense of possibility she instilled in me. For me, chola love lives in that inheritance, in admiring her, in what she passed down to me, and in the ways her creativity continues through what I make.