Michelle Falcón Fontánez’s Raíces weaves together photography, storytelling, and memory to explore Puerto Rican identity, ancestry, and resilience. Through projects like MATRIA, El Litoral, A Call to Our Ancestors, and Atabey, she uplifts women of color as community pillars, healers, and guardians of cultural heritage, while tracing connections between land, spirit, and the sacred feminine.

Raíces, “Roots” celebrates the deep connections that ground us in culture, ancestry, and place. Presented in honor of Latine Heritage Month, the exhibition invites viewers to reflect on the power of memory, identity, lineage, and preserving your culture. Through vibrant color, and symbolic photographic imagery, the artist explores how histories both inherited and chosen shape personal identity and collective belonging. 

Each piece becomes a visual root system, intertwining stories of migration, resilience, and resistance. Raíces reflects on the strength we inherit, especially from the women whose work, often unseen, continues to nourish and sustain our lives across generations.

Artist Bio

Michelle Falcón Fontánez is a producer, director, and cinematographer, focused on social justice through multimedia storytelling. Her work explores themes of identity, community, and cultural heritage. She produced a documentary on Puerto Rican activism during the beginning of the PROMESA crisis and directed María, centering reproductive justice. Michelle has contributed as cinematographer to projects on Afghan refugees, Cuban defectors, the first reggaetonera, and a series on the 1970s fires' impact on Boricuas in South Holyoke. She holds a MFA in Film and Media Art from Emerson College and a Bachelor's Degree in Business Management and Film from Hampshire College.

 

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