El Niño Consentido

Michelle Angela Ortiz constantly seeks to capture lost legacies, personal stories and silenced voices in her family and community.  Influenced by her Latin American and Caribbean cultures, her images are connected to stories of displacement, cultural barriers, immigration, and social economic inequalities.

The Pennsylvania Convention Center acquired Ortiz’s Llena de Luz y Lucha; Madre de Mi Corazón; El Niño Consentido.  Each of the three prints and their corresponding three sculptures tell one of the many immigration stories of her family.  All three images of Ortiz’s family members reflect struggle, conflict, nostalgia, and how immigration impacts the family dynamic.  Pictured here is El Niño Consentido which is of Ortiz’s uncle who stayed behind in Colombia.

“Niño Consentido”
The pair of shoes represent Ortiz’s uncle’s decision to stay in Colombia.  He often refers to himself being a child when the family immigrated.  He is in conflict with himself, the shoes are static which represents his lack of wanting to progress.  The image of him as a child is a reflection of how Ortiz’s grandmother continued to see her son even as an adult.