Skating The Line

Is an ongoing series documenting Latin American skaters who’ve immigrated to the U.S. through the lens of its influence on skating. Given the current political climate and policy shifts, particularly around mass deportation and immigration enforcement, my aim with the project is to serve as a humanizing counter-narrative. It portrays Latin American immigrants not merely as political subjects, but as cultural contributors: athletes and community builders. Skating has always thrived on individuality, rebellion, and subculture. By highlighting Latinx skaters, the project adds nuance to that narrative, showing how Latin culture blends with and reshapes American street culture. I focus on individuals who came seeking a better life, documenting how they contribute meaningfully to their communities and to American culture at large. This project also speaks directly to the immigrant experience, one of adaptation, resistance, and expression, illustrating how subcultures become vital spaces of survival, identity, and solidarity.

In these images, we follow the story of a Venezuelan professional skater who crossed the treacherous Darién Gap and was granted entry into the United States in October 2024 after seeking political asylum. Now, eight months later, under a new U.S. administration pushing for mass deportations of Venezuelan nationals, he faces losing everything he’s fought to build. In 2018 during a protest in Caracas, he nearly lost his left hand when a police bomb exploded near him. Despite his injury, he still skates. Currently, he is sponsored by an American skate brand, is a DoorDash driver, and teaches skateboarding, all to sustain his new life and send money back to his mother and siblings in Venezuela. The series highlights his active work in the community and continued involvement in skate culture, further showing how the Latin culture blends with and reshapes American street culture. His story is a microcosm of the current broader immigrant experience, one of resilience, community-building, and the contradictions of a system that welcomes your labor but threatens your presence. 

As someone who grew up in both Mexico and South Texas, along the U.S.–Mexico border, I personally hold a strong connection to the project. His story is one of many powerful examples I have come across in Texas of how immigrant skaters are not only surviving, but actively enriching American culture through dedication, talent, and community engagement.