On April 10, 2016, my mother (Maria Elena Franco) held my eldest sister’s hand and took her last breath.

Over the last year and a half I have been a witness to the love my mom has around her. I will always remember how big her heart was and will always be.

Words cannot express my gratitude for the support many of you have shown and continue to shower my family with.

I am the youngest of four, raised by many strong women but the matriarch of them all was my mother. She was fierce, wise, soft, and loved unconditionally.

My mother is the definition of a revolutionary mujer, she was resilient, and continued to rise above adversities she encountered.

I have three things I want to share with you all today about her to let you in on just how special she will always be to me….

I came out at the age of 18, freshman year of college. I went home one day and she pulled me into her room, with the jesus frame above us and looked me straight in the eyes and asked. Are you gay…. I sad yes. We cried. But what I will never forget is her voicemail the next day…. She said, “now that I know your truth I want to be your best friend, I want to learn, nothing has changed my love for you.” My mother never judged, she showed us how to have peace in our hearts.

Her laugh was infectious! In her days being hospitalized due to complications with her chemo treatment, she would share about her days growing up in Guatemala. She told me of a time her and her sister were to sell milk for their family. Her sister convinced her her to drink some and to fill the bottles with water from the river. As she told me she could not control her laugher recalling her and her sister were selling milk that only hey knew had water in it.

My mother survived breast cancer, and was a warrior throughout her battle with Pancreatic Cancer. She was my muse and I had the opportunity to capture her journey with my lens. During her days in treatment she became fond of reading Pablo Neruda, I leave you with one if her favorite poems:

Pablo Neruda:

When I die I want your hands on my eyes:

I want the light and the wheat of your beloved hands

to pass their freshness over me one more time

to feel the smoothness that changed my destiny.

I want you to live while I wait for you, asleep,

I want for your ears to go on hearing the wind,

for you to smell the sea that we loved togetherand for you to go on walking the sand where we walked.

I want for what I love to go on living

and as for you,I loved you and sang you above everything,

for that, go on flowering, flowery one,

so that you reach all that my love orders for you,

so that my shadow passes through your hair,

so that they know by this the reason for my song.