The year 2020 was the centennial year of the Nineteenth Amendment granting women the right to vote and have political voice in the United States of America. It has been over a hundred years since the fight for equality in suffrage began, and yet women make up less than 25% and women of color less than 10% of the US Congress.

The 2018 midterm elections in the U.S. saw an unprecedented number of women of color being elected to office–bringing their total number at the Congress (both House and Senate) to an all-time high, at 47. As many as 35 of the 102 women in the 116th Congress were elected to office for the first time.

The need for our democratic institutions to be inclusive and multiracial is compelling.
As an immigrant woman of color and a visual storyteller, I was inspired to find such stories closer to home in the State of Washington. Here, a new crop of immigrant women of color are leading this change, encouraged by the recent political triumphs of women just like them from this region, such as Pramila Jayapal (US Rep.).

“Someone Like Me” is a mixed media documentary project that captures the unique journeys of immigrant women of color who fight great odds to represent the residents of Washington State who look like them, in elected office.

The photographs and video clips aim to unveil key moments of their journey, motivations, roadblocks, influences, hopes, and dreams. The central theme important to me is the clarion call to unity for the people of the United States of America – “E Pluribus Unum” (out of many, one). A new age has dawned in America, and these pioneers, the immigrant women running for public office, take on the responsibility to interpret this motto “E Pluribus Unum” through their own lenses. Through my lens, I hope to document their personal evolution, as they pave the road for many to follow in their footsteps.