Though I was born and raised in California, Cuba has always been in my heart. I grew up hearing stories of my family joining waiting lists, and entering lotteries for permission to leave the island in the 1960s, others left on boats and rafts in the 80s and 90s. My mother and grandmother imbued me with a deeply rooted sense of our Cuban identity and I, naturally, gravitated toward the island.

I visited Cuba as a teenager and spent summers in my 20s there taking photos. I was there for a six-month stint in 2014 to document economic reforms under Raúl Castro when the United States and Cuba announced renewed relations. It was the dawn of a new era in Cuba, and an exciting time to be there. I decided to stay.

Eventually, I would come to document another reality — one of the largest waves of Cuban migration in history.