A for Ashley was created in response to watching 12 year-old Ashley Cornejo publicly grieve the death of her father while he was in immigration detention. This portrait considers what is asked of children when circumstances force them into adult worlds too soon. Watching her brought back familiar memories of growing up in a migrant family, where children learn early to navigate, interpret, and translate institutions and circumstances far beyond their age.

I intentionally removed the institutional imagery surrounding Ashley's story. Instead, she appears among bright pink, butterflies, cherries, gold jewelry, and the visual language of girlhood. These details insist on a childhood that exists beyond the tragedy through which many came to know her. The work reflects on the disproportionate responsibilities placed on children in migrant families: translating language, navigating unfamiliar systems, carrying family responsibilities and, in Ashley's case, publicly articulating unimaginable grief. It asks what these children are forced to carry, and what they should never be expected to surrender in the process: their childhood.

Materials: Digital collage, archival print on canvas
Dimensions: 24in × 18in × 1.5 in.