About me

I am a U.S. immigrant. I moved to the United States with my family from Bogotá, Colombia, at age 18. Moving to the U.S. was a challenging experience. Learning English and navigating aspects of life, such as finding a job, going to college, and making friends, took a long time, marked by piles of English grammar books and failed attempts to communicate with grocery store cashiers.

Growing up in Bogota, I knew I wanted to study anthropology because I was always interested in the minutiae of human interaction and its impact on social relationships. However, my experience of moving to the U.S. made me aware of the power of language in framing how individuals and groups are perceived and stereotyped.

I first visited the Amazon region during my undergraduate studies at the University of Florida in 2015. I participated in a study abroad program at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP) that aimed to document seven different indigenous languages in the Peruvian Amazon. During this research, I quickly noticed the importance of digital communication among Shipibo-Konibos, as well as the challenges such participation posed.