Through a blend of bold textures and ghostly imagery, the book explores themes of migration, borders, and identity, reflecting Francisco’s experience as an undocumented DACA recipient.

“I began this work by scanning documents that I’ve accrued since 2012 from when I first applied for DACA status. These documents are evidence of my eligibility and timestamps of the journeys I’ve taken as an immigrant in the US, which I obsessively collected documents over the years to provide a paper trail of evidence of my existence. In addition to scanned immigration documents, I’m also sourcing ID cards, passport photos, portraits of myself as a child before I migrated from my birth country of Ecuador, petitions, questionnaires and various forms of correspondence with government agencies. Once scanned, I digitally collaged and manipulated the images to redact sensitive information, create patterns through repetition of text and forms, incorporate images that reference water, like the moon, and layer line-drawn maps of Ecuador. The process is intuitive, playful and iterative. It allows me to disconnect from my personal feelings with the documents, and approach them with an empowered perspective, with the agency to narrate my life story on my terms. The experimentation and playfulness is deepened when I print the images onto the mylar. The mylar was lightly gessoed on its glossy side, and with a chain-link fence painted with acrylic and spray paint on its matte side, creating a dynamic contrast as you turn the pages of the book. The chain-link fence is a motif prominent in my work that represents both the physical and internalized borderlands traversed.”