Photography was my first love. I wanted to be a travel and documentary photographer since I was a little girl growing up in my beautiful Ecuador. I devoured every page of my father’s National Geographic magazines daydreaming of one day going to faraway places and meeting fascinating people. I took classes in high school and college and hustled as a child photographer and darkroom technician through my 20’s - first in Ecuador and upon moving to Miami in 1999.

Little did I know that my life would take a sharp turn when I left my dark room job to avoid exposure to toxic chemicals while pregnant. I was struggling financially but fortunately, I met the right people doing the right thing and was recruited as a union organizer in 2003 while protesting in the streets. Miami’s labor and community organizing was s sprouting during those days as people were organizing against the Iraq war and the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Those were transformative days for me as a new mom, for my community, and for photography which had rapidly turned digital - a technology I didn't understand. I loved organizing, was good at it, and never looked back.