José Galván Martínez

 After almost two decades of assimilation to American culture and believing the false expectations of life in the US, I begin to feel my tongue slurring and stuttering my native language and the memories of my former home blurring. 

Despite this, I continue to cling onto memories, my identity as a chilango (born or related to Mexico City), and a longing for a home and time that no longer is, while residing in a land and culture that continues to feel foreign to me. 

Experiencing the parallels of two cultures, I’ve witnessed the detrimental effects of marginalization, gentrification and lack of accessibility which yields the eventual degradation of individuals, families, and communities. 

My work reflects stubbornly guarded and precious memories, which inspire and shape my practice, and serves as an outlet to reflect, grieve, reminisce, and celebrate the beauty and complexity of the cultures and communities I’ve developed in. 

Synthesizing lexical gaps encountered while overcoming language barriers, conceptualization, and material metaphors, my work provides an entry point to the subtleties of Mexican culture, and of the migrant experience for the viewer to understand its spectrum, to preserve, and to educate.