About

Por Vida y Para Siempre is an archival-style photobook and deeply personal project that weaves together family photos, scanned letters, and keepsakes into a visual narrative of memory, identity, and nostalgia. As a first-generation Mexican-American, I created this work to honor my parents’ journey immigrating to the U.S. from Mexico in the 1980s and the life they’ve built here ever since. Told through a chronological structure, the book reflects the shifting nature of memory: how it fades, resurfaces, and transforms over time.

The title, “Por Vida y Para Siempre” (“For Life and Forever”), is a phrase my parents used to sign off letters with when they first began dating, and it has since become the anchor of this project.

Alongside the book, I digitized dozens of our family’s camcorder tapes and edited a short accompanying film, bringing movement and sound to the still moments that are preserved in print.

En memoria de mis seres queridos y de quienes nunca tuvieron la oportunidad de ver este proyecto finalizado.