¿Dónde Está Raulito?

¿Dónde Está Raulito? Is a project about my father Raul, affectionately known as Raulito, whom I have been estranged from since the early 2010s. For the last decade, my father has been living as an unhoused person living with Schizophrenia. In early 2022 we reconnected via phone after he had a hospitalization In New Orleans, LA. Upon his release we arranged to meet in New York City where I live. After a failed attempt to connect him with help and social services, we parted ways. It was a hot summer, and he left me behind his “lucky jacket”. The photographs in ¿Dónde Está Raulito? are made using a found coat rack and my father’s coat. Reminiscent of Pope.L’s “Crawl” works, I perform the act of dredging these items in a push cart and photographing them (and/or myself) in various locations around the city. These locations are areas that hold personal significance to either me or my father. I am inspired by David Wojnarowicz’s “Arthur Rimbaud in New York” series, where the NYC is used a space to speak to issues both personal and political. My father's "lucky coat" is used as a symbol to explore themes grief, homelessness, and generational trauma.