These images are a work in progress where I reflect on my family history of place and consider the human impact of migration and national borders.

During a trip to Cuba in 2016 to visit family I noticed that almost anywhere I went in Havana I could see at least a little bit of the sea. I thought of the steady stream of Cubans and Haitians that risk everything to get to the other side knowing that the majority of deaths during migration happen at sea.

In an island, the ocean is an ever-present border. In this series I call attention to this border. I juxtapose images from my family archive ranging from 1930’s Cuba to the present in the US and Mexico, with stamped family passports immigration documents. I also include historical images from public archives that document Cuban and Haitian refugees at sea as I investigate my own history of migration within a larger social, political and historical context.