My name is Jozelin Garcia and I was born on November 18, 1993, Veracruz Mexico.  I lived there until I was thirteen years old.  I lived with my grandma and my uncles, because my mother went to the city to work.  In Mexico I used to take care of my grandma’s sheep and play with my friends every afternoon.  We played baseball with a tree branch because that was all we had.  We would play hide and seek too, and we made our own kites.   We had to walk two miles to get to get to school.   On the fourth of October we made a big party and there was parade.  We celebrated the freeing of the slaves who were held captive by the Spanish.   Nicolas Bravo was the one who helped to free the slaves.   On September 16^th there was another parade.  They make a beautiful parade with lots of horses.  Grito de dolorades is the name of the celebration.   November 20^th we celebrate the revolution.

My mom came to the United States to work.  My mom wanted us to have a better education and a better life.  My mom cleaned houses for four years until we came to live with her.   I came to the United States with my sister.  My mom was happy to see us and we went home with her.  The three of us lived in an apartment in North Portland and my sister and I went to Ockley Green School.  I was in seventh grade when I came to the U.S. but I did not speak any English.  At school it was kind of hard because I couldn’t understand what any one was saying. My mom got me tapes of how to learn English and my sister and I would listen to them every day for hours.   It took me about two years to learn to speak English.

I came to Focus on youth in 2009 and I like photography because it is fun.  I get help from my mentors and I have taken lots of beautiful photographs. I take pictures of everything and I like seeing my photographs and editing them on the computer.

When I have a camera I see beauty that I didn’t notice before.  I like to take photographs and show my friends.  I have put my photographs on myspace.   I want to keep taking photographs because I see more beauty in the world when I am taking photographs. Many of my photos have been in exhibits and the photo I took of crocus was featured at the Focus on Youth Art Auction.  I took a photo of crocus because I thought it was beautiful and it makes me feel happy.