STRENGTH, FAITH AND WEAKNESS IN MY HERMOSA
This collection of photographs is called “Strength, Faith and Weakness in my Hermosa.” This series of photographs is meant to document the ways that religion, signs of strength and weakness are presented in the neighborhood I grew up in. I chose to pin point these three things because when thinking about the differences between neighborhoods in the city of Chicago, I ended up finding three common things within each community: Strength, Faith and Weakness.
When looking at the neighborhood I grew up in I realized I’d grown used to the idea of religion being a constant around me. Whether that be a sticker on the back of a car or the veil from my first communion laying around my house all these years later. It’s interesting to see how while religion is a part of my everyday life even if I hadn’t noticed it is also intertwined in my culture and community.
Strength plays a major role in Hermosa as well, being a predominantly LatinX community there are many struggles and difficulties that effect the people who live there. Although crime in Hermosa has since gotten better than extreme gang violence that happened in the 90’s, crime and violence is still extremely prevalent. Strength is shown in many ways some of which aren’t as obvious as they seem.
Strength, Faith and Weakness come in many different forms and although in some of these images you can clearly determine which category each falls into, some are a bit more difficult. By pin pointing the three aspects of my community I hope to have shown a little bit my Hermosa.
