I grew up in a completely bi-national and multicultural area. I was born in El Paso, TX, raised in Cd. Juarez, Chih., Mexico, and went to college in Las Cruces, NM. I have been crossing borders for as long as I can remember. I have lived in a city where, on my daily commute, I could look to my right into another country and see its shanties stretch out across a muted valley, then turn to my left and see the bright Bhutanese architecture of the freshly erected edifices of the University of Texas.

 

As a child, I could never understand the concept of borders, whether state or national; I couldn’t grasp how an arbitrary political line could determine so much of one’s circumstance and identity. It seemed so random and so unfair. I wish I could say that I grew up to understand the reasoning behind those divisions, but it is still something with which I struggle and something which has undeniably bled into my creative life.

My work, particularly what I write, focuses on parts of the human experience that transcend nationality and geographic determinism. I try to see my characters as people, and I focus on the characteristics and experiences that we all have in common rather than the political distinctions that constantly threaten to pull us apart.