When Sorayda Díaz León left Mexico for North Carolina a decade ago, she thought she was leaving behind her career as an arts and culture journalist. Like many immigrants, she adapted to her new home by adapting and changing her professional skills.
“As an immigrant, you change everything. You have to adjust to your new life, your new everything, your new career,” she said. “I moved here with my son, who's now 12 years old. With him in mind, I started a new career, doing a lot of social work and work in the community. But I always had this passion for journalism in the back of my head, of what I left behind.”
She discovered there were a lot of people like her within Charlotte’s immigrant communities — others who had left behind creative careers and aspirations when they immigrated. So, three years ago, Díaz launched Vozes, an online platform about immigrant artists and creators.
The site has been a way for Díaz to begin storytelling again and to reclaim her creative passion. She wants to help other Latino immigrants do the same.
“One thing that I found in common is that we all came here to look for something better and new opportunities,” she said. “But we also talk about how we left those dreams in the ‘maleta,’ our suitcase that we brought. Sometimes you leave those dreams [there] and it takes you forever to unpack them.”
Art show in uptown
Last year, Díaz expanded the Vozes platform into a physical space to showcase Latino artists. Within three weeks, she gathered 15 artists for the first Vozes gallery exhibition in uptown.
This year, her latest exhibition, “Here to Stay: El Arte del Inmigrante,” is a bigger show, occupying the main gallery space at Carillon Tower. It features 20 national and local Latino artists, such as Irisol González, José Urbina and Keudis Sanchz.
“There's a lot of color,” Díaz said, “but I guess the main thing is, it shows their worries through art and brings something that kind of reminds them of home and of the journey that they've gone through to be here.”
Díaz says the show is an opportunity for artists to depict their immigration stories from their own perspective.
The exhibition is on display until Oct. 27 at Carillon Tower's gallery, at 227 W. Trade St. You can visit for free from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Vozes will host a meet-and-greet event with featured artists on Oct. 25 from 4-6 p.m.
This story was produced through a collaboration between WFAE and La Noticia. You canread it in Spanishat La Noticia. Puedes leer la nota en español en La Noticia.
