Sarah Hernandez

Migration has always been a part of my family on my mother’s side from Puerto Rico and my father’s side from Cuba. But one thing I’m grateful to have learned from both sides is how everyone’s experience of migration & transformation shapes differently to mean many things based on the individual. I think this is why there are so many creative expressions of these identities – immigrant, undocumented. We’re still all connected as a community by each expression, like my grandma believing so strongly being a Puerto Rican New Yorker changes how she approaches life and people everyday (“I’m from the Bronx!”) is what makes all of our identity expressions so creative and strong.

The Butterfly postcard campaign was developed by the UIC Latino Cultural Center in collaboration with student organizations Fearless Undocumented Alliance and Heritage Garden Student Group that highlights the parallels between the migration of people and Monarch butterflies across national borders.