Afro Boliviana (charcoal on paper)

Boliviana
Charcoal on paper

I drew my friend Eryn Roberts in a cholita outfit, a portrait that looks exactly like her. Her father was the ambassador of Gabon, and when I asked her to sit for me I explained the history of Afro-Bolivians, a community descended from enslaved Africans brought to Potosí in the 1500s, later displaced to the Yungas. They remain one of Bolivia’s least visible groups, only formally recognized in the census in 2006, despite their profound influence on music, dance, and culture.

Eryn agreed to sit because she bridges that space (African and American) and in this portrait she becomes a stand in for the presence of Afro-Bolivians, often overlooked but essential to Bolivia’s story. For me, the piece is both portrait and witness, a reminder of those who continue to fight for visibility and justice.