Vaina
Dejate de esa vaina, compadre Let your pulse slow down We’re siblings, you and I Not much different, yet not similar In any way Even though our parents complain In […]
Events:
A Shared Journey
September 13, 2025 - March 5, 2026This Is a Thing, Recent Gifts to Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, 2020–2025
September 14, 2025 - March 1, 2026The Court: Art in Play
September 24, 2025 - April 26, 2026The Flower, The Labor, and The Sea
September 27, 2025 - June 28, 2026
I’m Here for the Cabezones
It was the constant tiredness I had been feeling for months, the fear I felt for anyone who looked like me, and the hunger for hope that brought me to […]
Ragga Ragga Summer: A love letter to the Cayman Islands
The following is based on a true story. In 1994, Fidel Castro allowed thousands of Cubans to leave the island on makeshift rafts. I was living on Grand Cayman, writing […]
In Search of My Grandfather
My Mexican grandfather was born in Austin, Texas, on August 19, 1929. I know this because I have his birth certificate, issued by Travis County and the Texas State Board […]
Life on the Border: Where lines divide and connect
“Man is born free, yet everywhere he is caged.” Barbed wire, concrete walls, and guarded toll booths — even with friendly guards — confine people to the nation-state of their […]
Poetry
What a pleasure and an honor to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, alongside community treasure Marta Martinez, in this issue of Motif magazine. Poetry is an integral part of any truly […]
To Write a Poem: Poetry
To write a poem, they say, you must seek a beautiful moment, at least one a day, so I walk into some parking lot landscaping & hug a Japanese Maple—force […]
First Mercy and They Open Their Arms: Poetry
First Mercy I am holding in my hand an invisible poem. I can’t read it. I don’t know what it says. I want to make it visible. Want to […]
Meso-American Time Keeping
Strolling through The Find on 6 in Johnston, I came across a beautifully, intricately carved, circular, wooden plaque. It stared at me as I was staring at it, intrigued by […]
Extraordinary Rendition: Poetry
for Philip Levine When the CIA said, An extraordinary renditionhas been performed, I knew Lester Youngblowing his saxophone in that way he didwhen Billie Holiday was a few feet awaysmoking, singing “I […]