Cambria Martin

In early 2000s Santa Monica, California, eight-year-old Lynn questions her identity when her classmates think she is white and don’t believe that her family is from Pegueros and Tepatitlán, Mexico. With the knowledge that her family has a range of skin tones that allow some to pass as white and assimilate more, she discovers the potential connection of her childhood home and her paternal grandfather when he worked as a gardener in the 1970s, a common one-way work transfer from cities in Los Altos, Jalisco, Mexico.

When Roe v. Wade was overturned, it felt like the world stood still. What if these symbols of freedom, justice, and liberty could speak upon their experience being iconized and representing a culture that does not respect or grant those representational rights to the representees? We follow Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island, Lady Justice atop City Hall, and Civic Fame on the Manhattan Municipal Building, on an average early morning before their roles as inspiring statues of New York City skies. But Friday, June 24th, 2022, was not an average day, but the day Roe V Wade was overturned. With the rights taken away of their representees, they grapple with what they are supposed to represent now in the land of the free.

Eight-year-old Lynn feels disconnected to her Mexican roots in upscale Santa Monica, California. Unaware of her Spanish-speaking mother’s childhood gift, she rejects her Mexican rag doll because her twelve-year-old brother Chase initiated nightmares. When a classmate doesn't believe that white appearing Lynn is Mexican-American, Lynn further ignores her heritage. With her mother hurt and Chase trying to prevent a fight over his B- Spanish test, they try to get through a tense dinner with their colloquial bilingual father. Through family meetings with magical realism, Lynn learns about the deep connection to her hometown and Los Altos de Jalisco.