¿Dónde Está Raulito? Is a project about my father Raul, affectionately known as Raulito, whom I have been estranged from since the early 2010s. For the last decade, my father has been living as an unhoused person living with Schizophrenia. In early 2022 we reconnected via phone after he had a hospitalization In New Orleans, LA. Upon his release we arranged to meet in New York City where I live. After a failed attempt to connect him with help and social services, we parted ways. It was a hot summer, and he left me behind his “lucky jacket”.
The photographs in ¿Dónde Está Raulito? are made using a found coat rack and my father’s coat. Reminiscent of Pope.L’s “Crawl” works, I perform the act of dredging these items in a push cart and photographing them (or myself) in various locations around the city. These locations are areas that hold personal significance to either me or my father. I am inspired by David Wojnarowicz’s “Arthur Rimbaud in New York” series of photographs, where he uses photography and performance to speak to issues both personal and political. This project also involves the use of sketchbook writing/text as well as my archive of family photographs to explore themes of grief, homelessness, and generational trauma.