Utah's Latin America in Black and White

Book excerpt: If a picture is worth a thousand words, then my hope is to overflow the pages of this book with the rich and varied stories of LatinX Utahns who left their native countries in pursuit of "The American Dream." My goal was to capture the personalities, fortitude, courage, and passion of my subjects through black and white portraiture and to document their valuable contributions to Utah and the greater United States. My motivation to photograph this project in black and white was to highlight the issues of race and systemic discrimination inherent in the current immigration debate. I believe that we, as a society, are faced with a binary, or "black and white," choice regarding how we treat one another, either with mutual respect and inclusivity or otherwise. I hope that recounting the stories of these first-generation immigrants breaks down stereotypes and, in some small way, unites us as a state and a nation.