in my family, like many others, when you see someone older than yourself, you say bendición. this is you asking for a blessing.
this is you asking them to bless you. this is them carving out a room
for you and situating you there- right there always, to stay. Casita.
this taught me to build a house on my heart.
in my family, like many others, when someone is leaving you say que te
vayas con dios. Which means may you go with God. This is good for a
short goodbye but especially nice for long ones.

porque uno nunca sabe, which my mother has started
reciting softly under her breath now.

this has taught me to fill that house with love. Or light. Or a
sandwich of the two.
in my family mother and daughter and father and son and father and
daughter and grandmother and grandfather and cousins and grand babies
all stay in the same house or on the same street. If not that then the
street next to it. Or the street after that. There is really no
leaving behind or moving out. You stay and you take care.

this has taught me to stay and to take care of my house.

Maria (b. 1997) is a New York based artist, often sliding back and forth between New York City and the Hudson Valley. Within her art practice, she does this same sliding; sliding between painting and paper-making, sculpture and writing, spanish and english, between real and imagined, pleasure and terror, between hysteria and stillness.

Master of Fine Art . . .New York University(2023)

Bachelor of Fine Art. . . The Cooper Union(2019)