PRECIOUS ALFARO

My name is Precious Alfaro; I am a Gay, Black, Mexican, and Native woman from Highland Park, Los Angeles. As a child, my hobbies included collecting cans and bottles with my father and pretending I did not exist. Struggling with a speech impediment, I often felt too embarrassed to speak; so I wrote poetry. Little scribbles in a notebook my mother would later tear up in a drug-fueled rage.  

My whole life, I felt as if I needed to swallow the sensation to create and instead continue with the ebb and flows of mundane life. To swallow, in fear that I would be unable to provide for myself and follow in the footsteps of my drug-addicted parents. Instead, it only grew inside me; it became a world of its own. I grew trees, forests, oceans, even slums inside this 5'5 frame. My bones are a city, each it’s own feeling. Everything that I write is me; it pulls from those roots and expands through the pen.

My art is a reflection of all I see and feel. I have spent my life as an observer, a person searching for purpose through others. Navigating through the games, we each must play to live "well," always asking "why?". I have been in search of what it would be like to live I "thoughtfully” instead.
Why can we not say how we feel, why would we rather say what is expected. Is it human nature? The human psyche? Who sets these rules we must follow? These are the answers strive to answer within my work.

As an artist, I feel it is my responsibility, to be honest, to add a different perspective. To reflect on the world I see honestly and frame it to challenge the way we see ourselves. I challenge traditional thought and strive for truth. Growing up poor, I had no choice but to watch, to listen, to try to understand my place in the world when I felt as if the world was telling me I didn't have one. 

This is often the case for many people in my community. If you are a person of color, LGBTQ, or economically unstable, there seems to be no place for you. This is the art we need. We need to reflect: these stories, queer stories, Latinx, and Black stories. As an artist, writer, playwright I hold a responsibility to my home. All these things I once hated that became me: The streets, the violence, drugs, love, and hope.