Somewhere between long shifts handing out samples in grocery stores and dreaming about the stories I wanted to tell, I realized I was waiting for permission that was never going to come. So I picked up a camera. That moment sparked what I now call “Sacred Femicore” – a cinematic world I’m building piece by piece, devoted to the feminine, the mythic, and the unseen. It’s a declaration that women’s stories deserve the same cinematic reverence as any hero’s journey, and that they can be inspiring and transformative, not just trauma-ridden.

Rising from the Ashes

Hollywood often talks about inclusion, but the industry can still make even the most passionate artists feel invisible. The message I got was clear: wait your turn, wait for the right opportunity, wait to be discovered. Try to look pretty, try not to age, try to say the right things. But I didn’t want to wait anymore.

So I called my friends. My friend Kansas Bowling became my cinematographer for a short film I wrote and directed called Frida: The Woman. We shot it on 16mm film in Mexico City, renting an Airbnb that resembled the Casa Azul, because Frida Kahlo’s actual home didn’t allow filming. That experience taught me something essential: meaningful art begins the moment you decide to make it. For the short, I explored Frida Kahlo’s early years, the quiet influences and intimate relationships that shaped her inner world, and the moment her accident ignited her artistry. The women in her life, the pain she endured, and the way she built creativity out of hurt all echoed what I define as Sacred Femicore: the alchemy of resilience and imagination.

As a director of feature films on the festival circuit, Kansas Bowling inspires me. I’m so glad she agreed to go on that crazy journey with me and encouraged me to tell Frida Kahlo’s story. As a first-generation Mexican-American, I feel connected to the famed Mexican painter and honored that feeling by telling a story of what I imagined and researched her youth to be like.

For my upcoming short REDBIRD, a prelude to the feature film of the same name that I’m gearing up to shoot and direct next year, I have the privilege of working with husband-and-wife team, the award-winning cinematographer Douglas Burgdorff and director Tori Pope. REDBIRD is a queer Latina-led drama that follows a young musician in Los Angeles as she learns to reclaim her voice, her roots, and her power. It’s a story about identity, healing, and the courage it takes to love again.

Doug and Tori’s mentorship is helping me to grow both morally and artistically. Doug’s work has gained acclaim in the European art scenes and festivals here in the U.S., and both Tori and Doug’s belief in me gave me more confidence in my belief that my stories are worth telling.

The Universe of Sacred Femicore

My work centers people who’ve been told they don’t matter – the underdogs, the women, the dreamers convinced that success belongs to someone else. That feeling has especially shadowed my Latino and queer communities, who’ve so often been made to feel like our stories are secondary. That has always infuriated me, and I want my work to help change it.

I hope to continue making my communities more visible on screen, to remind us that we are valid, that we do matter, and that our stories deserve to be told. I want there to come a time when queer kids, Latina girls, and anyone who feels like an outsider knows they belong at the table.

To me, the feminine isn’t just softness – it is alchemical. It transforms suffering into wisdom, heartbreak into strength, and endings into rebirth. I want to tell cinematic stories that leave audiences uplifted, inspired, and reminded that renewal is possible.

That is what the Sacred Femicore is for me. Come watch. Because in a world that often defines Latina womanhood through survival, I want to show what it looks like when we claim our joy, our artistry, and our power on our own terms.