This month, I had the honor of joining some fabulous Latine artists for a gallery show at the Centro Cultural Aztlán in San Antonio for their 45th Annual Segundo de Febrero Exhibit: Mapping New Narratives.

Growing up in NYC, I was unaware of the cultural significance of Feb. 2nd and how important it was for Hispanics living in Texas, Colorado, Arizona, and California. 

I didn’t know that this particular date (also known as Segundo de Febrero) marked the official end of the Mexican-American War with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This treaty created a designated boundary between Texas and Mexico using The Rio Grande as the divider and as a result of this, a new population of Mexican-Americans were formed. As for Mexicans who foudn themselves on new U.S. territory, they had the choice of remaining Mexican citizens, returning to Mexico, or claiming U.S. citizenship. 

So when I received an invitation to submit work for the 45th Annual Segundo de Febrero show, I wanted to honor the culture and historical significance of the holiday by creating a brand new comic! 

My contribution for the show was a 3-paged comic called “The Smell of Memories”, which is a love letter to the Proust Effect I experience whenever I smell something that reminds me of memories of my childhood in Honduras. It’s a bitter-sweet feeling I experience because it’s associated with lovely memories but it can be a lonely experience when you’re miles away from your home. 

I couldn’t attend the opening reception of the show but I was able to take some pics of the pieces before I shipped them out! It was a fun comic to make and I hope people enjoyed the story. 

You can read the full comic on my Ko-Fi, early access available for subscribers!

More info about the show:  curator/lead artist was Héctor R. Garza and participating artists include: Frederick Luis Aldama with Oscar Garza, Fernando Andrade, Terry Blas, Jesse Burciaga, Alexandria Canchola, Isabel Ann Castro, Monica Estrada Saldaña, Hector R. Garza, Omar Gonzalez, Ruth M. Guajardo, Alejandro Macias, Gabi Magaly, Angelica Martinez, Ben Muñoz, Zeke Peña, Alan Serna, Jesus Trevino, Jose Villalobos, and myself!

Show is up until March 4th, 2022!!

Wishing you all a lovely Valentines Day~

Everyone deserves love, especially you!! 

Excuse me while I happy dance to the sight of my character Sue on the Scholastic Graphix header on Twitter!!! My childhood self would be jumping with joy and feeling proud of our accomplishment! It feels really surreal but I feel like I just checked something off my bucket list haha. 

Miss Quinces will be out on April 5th, 2022~

Don’t forget to preorder your copy at your local bookstore.

(let’s support small businesses!) 

Buenas!! I’m so excited to announce that I’m officially on Ko-Fi !!! 

Making comics is such a tedious yet sometimes cool process and it’s really great to share that knowledge with readers :D

I was previously on Patreon, which was an incredible platform…until I found out about the CEO’s interest in including NFTs for their platform :( 

So, I decided to take my business over to Ko-Fi. Hopefully it’ll be a great experience for both my subscribers and myself <3

I added a bunch of cool stuff for my reward tiers, including early access to comics and sneak peeks into secret projects, including the next book I’m working on now~ So hopefully you’ll all enjoy what I have in store for you there :)

Hey y’all! 

So this past Tuesday was Hourly Comics Day! The big yearly event for cartoonists and illustrators when we document our daily lives by drawing a comic for every hour we’ve been awake. Sounds easy right?

Well… it can be very challenging for those with busy schedules, but it can feel incredibly awesome when you’re done!

Usually I feel a lot of pressure into finishing monthly art challenges on social media, but since I’ve been doing hourly comics day for years, it just feels easier when I remember to let loose and have fun with it!

Here are my hourlies for this year!:

If you’ve never done hourlies and would like to try it (hey, you can do it anytime during the year), here are some tips that can help with the process:

1) If you want to stick to your schedule, it might best easier using tools you know. If you’re trying out new mediums (like watercolors, gouache, mixed media, etc.), it might take you longer to finish than anticipated. But if time crunch isn’t a priority for you, then heck yeah, experiment away!~

2) If you’re on a busy schedule, it’s totally okay to write down what you did that hour and draw it out later! Everyone has a different approach to making hourlies, so do what works best for you~

3) It may help to make your panels beforehand! Either by drawing it out or printing it out.  

4) You don’t have to make super elaborate comics! You can totally do one panel per hour or group hours together to simplify what you’ve done. Heck, you can even draw one big illustration of a room/office and divide each portion of it and draw what you did each hour. 

5) And most importantly…have fun with it!!! Give yourself a reason to do fun things that day, hang out with friends, go to a museum, etc.  

Anyway, hope this has been helpful to you! Go make comics :P