Tejano

Tejano is a diaristic visual ethnography on contemporary Chicanx culture through the Tejano perspective. This project explores the resilience and pride that Tejanos hold in a politically and racially polarizing region they’ve always called home.

Tejanos constitute a distinctive diasporic community whose longstanding origins in the Texas region of the United States have persisted despite significant shifts in political borders and national identity. Rooted in generations of history and shaped by indigenous and postcolonial hybridity, their distinct relationship to Texas exemplifies cultural survival and adaptability through modern day colonialism. As a Tejano from my mother’s side, I became interested in the ways this identity not only manifests differently from other Chicanx subcultures in the United States, but also how that cultural identity is uniquely shaped by the different regions of Texas.

In July 2026, I took a two-week journey across the state of Texas, documenting different regions with prominent Tejano populations, and conducting collaborative editorial shoots with young Tejano locals, including my own family members. The documentation of social spaces, daily routines, objects, and movement that reflect elements of the Tejano experience and identity are used to shape a narrative of what it means to be Tejano. Combined with my own familial archival imagery, this accumulation of photographs has become a diaristic visual ethnography of Tejano culture and identity.

This series explores the individuality of Tejano identity across generations and the different landscapes of Texas while considering what it means to maintain a sense of pride and resilience within the polarizing political climate of the United States. In a region where Tejanos are often made to feel unwelcome despite their rightful origins to the land, I made use of environmental portraits to visualize the dichotomy between the Tejano experience and the land.

Stylistic choices for this project subtly make use of Mexican surrealist analogue photographic styles mixed with documentary as a visual metaphor of the Latinx experience in the United States. Visual identifiers that were used to reflect the darker experiences of the Tejano narrative include the use of slow shutter speeds to create blurriness and motion to represent the constant movement of Latinx peoples, and use of high grain represents the psychological and societal friction of navigating dual identity; ni de aquí, ni de allá. Juxtaposing the darker visuals with compositions celebrating Tejano culture represent the resilience tejanos hold. 

For me, this project is deeply personal. It is a way of reconnecting with a place I once struggled to understand, honoring the family and culture that shaped me, and ultimately expressing my own Tejano pride.

We did not cross the border. The border crossed us.