top of page
_edited.jpg

ROJ RODRIGUEZ: MI SANGRE

Sixteen years in the making, "Mi Sangre" is a timeless testament of the small details and emblematic images associated to being “Mexicano”. From gripping micro expressions to unerring cultural imagery, Roj Rodriguez work shows familiar and unexpected moments that invites us to form new perspectives.


What started as a personal project to retrace his Mexican heritage became a photographic essay that documents Rodriguez's rediscovery and understanding of the Mexican culture on both sides of the US/Mexico Border. The result: A compelling collection of tradition and culture that boldly reveals the essence of “mexicanidad"; the quality of being Mexican.  


"Mi Sangre" series has been acquired into the permanent collection of six museums in the U.S. MFA of Houston, San Antonio Museum of Art, La Plaza de Cultura y Artes (L.A.), National Museum of Mexican Art (Chicago), National Hispanic Cultura Center (Alburqueque, NM) and Wittliff Collections (San Marcos, TX).


"Mi Sangre" includes written acknowledgements by Dolores Huerta, Hon. Henry Cisneros, Cheech Marin,  Anne Wilkes Tucker, Doug Menuez, Lila Downs, Jorge R. Gutierrez. 

Mi Sangre: Exhibitions

Don Guillermo Bonfil Batalla, anthropologist and a key figure in Mexican ethnography developed the concept of "El México Profundo," the Profound México, looking into the endurance of Mesoamerican cultures in Modern and Contemporary México.

The gaze of Roj Rodriguez with this passionate and life-long project titled "Mi Sangre", is directed to searching for his own very personal México Profundo, the one created through his child gaze and experience during his incursions into México. It is what he captures in Mi Sangre, that offers the viewer a window into his artistic pursuit of those memories and finding them alive in the U.S.- México border and the México of today.

​

DRA. AMELIA MALAGAMBA-ANSÓTEGUI

In 2005, the personal search for his heritage and cultural identity began as a personal project that would evolve over 16 years, multiple trips, and more than 32,000 photographs from the U.S.-México border and greater México. He was in search of his own childhood memories - created in the family trips to México in the mid-1970s - as well as a link to the transcendent people who for more than 500 years lived, loved and stewarded many parts of what is today known as the United States of America. Mi Sangre is an important visual artistic contribution to contemporary photography, and a significant archive of a México that seems to vanish but continues to endure. It is also a magnificent love letter to México and his Mexican American community.

​

​DRA. AMELIA MALAGAMBA-ANSÓTEGUI

Mi Sangre: Current Exhibitions
bottom of page