Main Photo by :Ksenija Hotic

My father is an Italian immigrant, and my mother is first generation Canadian born of two Italian parents (both sides of my family hail from the northern (Veneto) region of Italy). As both an artist and an academic I have spent the better part of the last 13 years, negotiating how to become a hybrid thinker, mover and creator. During my journey, Latin America and the Caribbean (specifically Cuba) have become particular sources of interest to me.

Not only are there cultural characteristics from these regions that resonate directly with my Italian heritage (i.e. the importance placed on family, shared meals, the influences of Catholicism in iconography and language etc.), but there are histories of Italian migration throughout the Americas. Perhaps most importantly though, the social bodies from the Latin American and Caribbean regions appeared to be embracing pluralism; dancing between the gaps of binary oppositions historically imposed upon them by Western notions of knowledge and modernity.