Crashing Currents is a fantastical pirate epic that grapples with navigating invisible disability, ableism, and practicing radical acceptance, while simultaneously drawing on the cultural influences of my Mexican heritage.
Every element of this installation, along with this story's four year development, is a love letter to my 16 year old self, who was newly disabled and struggling to not only approach my disability, but having to confront the ableism that came with a body that the world now deemed broken. Disability is a beautiful spectrum that deserves to be represented imaginatively and authentically by a disabled voice.
I hope to see Crashing Currents fully realized into an animated film that challenges what disabled representation is or what it should be, outside of tragedy and misfortune, without relying on tropes that fix, negate, or shame disableness that ultimately reinforce an ableist mindset.
Disabled lives, like any other lives, are full of hardship, love, and growth, and are worthy of transformative and entertaining narratives that reflect that.
