El Amanecer de Noviembre: Finding Belonging in Movement
The first light of November filters through my window, casting long shadows across my desk where I sit with coffee in hand, still processing yesterday's profound experience photographing Día de los Muertos. Barcelona is quieter this Saturday morning, just past 9AM, as if the city itself is reflecting after the boundary-crossing energies of Halloween and All Saints' Day.
Yesterday's assignment stretched me in ways I hadn't anticipated. As families gathered at the cultural center, I found myself not just documenting their rituals but being invited into them. An elderly woman named Carmela, noticing my careful attention to her ofrenda, asked if I had anyone I wished to honor. The question caught me off-guard—I've spent so many years as the observer, the documenter of others' experiences.
Siempre he sido la que captura momentos, rara vez la que los habita plenamente.
I've always been the one capturing moments, rarely the one fully inhabiting them.
Yet something in this season of boundaries dissolving compelled me to share about my abuelo, a man whose wanderlust I clearly inherited. Carmela handed me marigolds to place beside his photograph, which I always carry in my wallet. In that moment, I wasn't just witnessing connection—I was creating it, across cultures, across time, across the boundary between life and death.
This morning, reviewing those images, I see something new emerging in my work. The photographs hold technical mastery, yes, but there's something more—a quality of participation rather than mere observation. The best images reveal not just what was before my lens but the relationship between us.
Perhaps this is the next evolution in my understanding of mastery: recognizing that the most powerful storytelling doesn't come from perfect distance but from the courage to belong within the story itself. That my wandering spirit doesn't preclude belonging—it simply means I belong differently, through momentary but profound connections across diverse contexts.
El pertenecer no requiere raíces fijas sino un corazón abierto a conectar dondequiera que estemos.
Belonging doesn't require fixed roots but an open heart to connect wherever we are.
As November begins, I carry this awareness into my work and wanderings: that mastery and belonging intertwine when we bring our whole selves—our memories, our questions, our vulnerabilities—into each new territory we explore.
Sofia