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This installation is a six-page letter written front and back to my mother, entirely in Spanish so she and others from my community; can fully understand it. The work comes from a lifetime of translating, of being the bridge so others could feel comfortable, and it rejects that expectation. Instead of bending toward accessibility for dominant audiences, it centers the language and experience I come from, challenging the exclusion we face in public spaces, especially the white walls of galleries and academia. I think about the moment I was labeled a Limited English Learner and how that word, limited stays with you. Marking you as not enough. This piece pushes back against that harm. If non-Spanish speakers want to engage, they must do the work of translation themselves, reversing the roles I’ve carried since childhood. The letter is rendered in brown ink on brown lines, a deliberate gesture toward people of color, grounding the work in identity and solidarity. The frames are built from discarded wood, fitted with plexiglass, and hinged onto the wall like kitchen cabinets; when opened, they creak, echoing the sounds of home. Through language, material, and sound, Speak English! becomes both a refusal and an offering, a space where my voice, and voices like mine, exist on our own terms.

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