The past five years my art has derived from relationships developed with a community of immigrants residing in an apartment complex in East Palo Alto, California. The privately owned complex, home to successive waves of immigrants for four decades---African Americans from the South in the 1960's, Vietnamese refugees in the 1970's--- had been transformed during the 1980's to an all Mexican community. Residents came primarily from three municipios in the Mexican state of Michocán.

Faced with many of the problems plaguing poor communities, the residents have managed to sustain the vitality of their culture, traditions and values through a web of family ties and connections characterized by community spirit of self reliance and support. The last chapter in Cooley's history was written in April 1999, when residents were forced to relocate and the building wwwas demolished to give way for a new shopping center. Many of the residents have found their way to East Bay cities, including Hayward.