Milagros’ Last Dream
2023
Resin, Tin Metal, Paper, Palm Leaf
8’ x 5’ x 8’
In memory of my mother, who passed away alone in hospice during the pandemic, I created Milagros' Last Dream. This work imagines her final moments surrounded by loved ones, ancestors, and the Brown Madonna, resting in a peaceful dream. Through it, I wanted to give her the proper Buena Muerte—a good death—that COVID-19 had denied her.
At the center is a 10" x 4" painting on tin, showing my mother in quiet sleep, created in the tradition of 19th-century Filipino Recuerdos de Patay, or death portraits. Surrounding her are woven palm-leaf birds from the Philippines, which represent the souls of my ancestors. My mother always believed that the dead visited the living in the form of birds.
Paper roses she crafted during her lifetime hang from the ceiling, falling gently like a shower from the sky. Roses were her favorite flower, and my father would give them to her on special occasions. She even carried a bouquet of them at his funeral.
Six resin birds carrying figures complete the installation, representing my siblings, myself, and my deceased father. In this imagined space, my family is whole once again, transcending death and physical separation, and allowing us to be together in memory, love, and dream.
