It’s November 26, 1995 and my mom decides we need to move to the Estados Unidos. For all I know, we’re visiting my siblings so when immigration stops me and asks me if my mom, who is 50 at the time, is actually my mom I continuously say “Ana”… my sister’s name. Because why not. Needless to say, this was my first interaction with immigration and it would be about five hours before they let us go.

You see, the thing is my mom had me at 44. You can say I was a little bit of a “you ain’t got menopause” surprise. And even though she had created an amazing life and career for herself as an interior and fashion designer in Venezuela, she knew that I had a better chance at a better life here in the U.S. I can’t say she was wrong, but like so many immigrants that come to this country, everything comes with sacrifice. My mom left a pretty well off life in Venezuela to become a janitor and work three jobs just to try and make ends meet. However, even with her limited English, and I mean limited English, she was able to build a career for herself here and eventually build her own interior design company, Kreative Designs, where she worked with some of the leading housing companies in the nation.

Meanwhile, my focus was school. Like many immigrant parents, my mom insisted that I focus on school at all times. You know - become a doctor, lawyer, engineer - and stack that paper. Well, even with my mom being an artist herself, she wasn’t very fond of the fact that even though I pulled off straight A’s (the only “straight” thing I was able to pull off) I always gravitated towards the arts. Well, fast forward a couple of years and I am an undocumented college student studying both International Studies and Music Theory while teaching dance at two competitive dance studios. All while trying to make my mom happy, learn some things and still do what I love. It might have helped that I received one of the largest scholarships available in the nation and that my mom saw me graduate top of my class. 

So, now I’ve checked off my mom’s “graduate from college” box, but I’m still undocumented. That started to change on November 23, 2013 when I married the love of my life in NYC where we moved just 3 months earlier.  Career wise I went from unofficial intern, to Chief of Staff to Russell Simmons’ Political Director, eventually to being the youngest executive on Russell Simmons team which for me was a BIG DEAL. But try explaining that to your immigrant mom. DISCLAIMER: I left Russell a while back. 

On my journey to try to impress my mom I end up building a company with some of the most amazing people I know. The Soze Agency is a social impact creative agency that uses art, media and entertainment for social good. As part of this work, I become one of the founders of Immigrant Heritage Month celebrated in June, I create and lead the #IAmAnImmigrant campaign alongside some of Hollywood’s top artists and creators. And, I BUILT A COMPANY, so I’m like… “hey mom, LOOOOOOKKKKKKK.”

Well, the work continues. Years into building the company we start creating interactive public art pieces, pop-up exhibits and, of course, a bunch of video content. My work even showed up on “Primer Impacto” on Univision. My mom called me screaming that she had just seen me and that she still didn’t know what I did, but she said those magical words, “estoy tan orgullosa de ti” (“I’m so proud of you.”)

The wins keep coming though. After receiving my U.S. residency I get invited to the White House (the Obama one of course.) A couple of those times I’m invited to feature art pieces I’ve directed. I work on curating pieces for an exhibit at the Smithsonian, I meet Emilio Estefan (a big deal for my mom,) and I even get the chance to start touring the nation. I even go as far as turning down a full ride scholarship for grad school to continue building my company. But nothing would prepare me what was next.

On October 22, 2016 my mom was diagnosed with stage four lung and bone cancer and, for the first time in my life, I became the parent. I’m sure many of you all know what this is like, and it was definitely hard, but seeing my mom’s continued resilience really put life into perspective for me. I started breaking from my NYC “hustle” mentality and instead started flying down to Atlanta to be with her as much as I could during her chemo sessions, her countless operations and her continuous fight to just stay alive. Although I don’t think anyone can be mentally prepared for what it means to have a family member with a terminal illness, I did feel as if the universe granted me energy I didn’t have before. Even if just to be able to fly down and joke around with her and make her laugh. 

But of course, not everything can end the way we want it to. On September 9, 2017, after almost 11 months battling cancer, my mom passed away as my siblings and I held her hands. The last words she spoke to me were “Te Quiero” and since that day everything I do is in her memory. But something also happened that day that I would not recognize until months later, she became my guide. After taking a month off of work, I decided to jump back into my most ambitious project yet. An exhibit called Change Fashion that highlighted the impact of the fashion industry on our environment and communities across the globe. I threw myself so far into this project that it literally almost killed me (stress can do crazy things to your body) and is actually the reason that I decided it was time to leave the company I had co-founded.

However, in my journey towards my transition out of the company, one of the biggest moments of my life came to pass. After 23 years in this country, one of my mom’s biggest dreams came true… I became a U.S. citizen. Just a month later I was in Copenhagen exhibiting a version of the Change Fashion exhibition at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit. And in December 2019 I officially left The Soze Agency with the intention of taking time for myself and realigning with my purpose.

That same month I also got my first tattoo, simply stating my two forms of being: Human and Artist. What I left out of the story thus far was that one year before my mom was diagnosed, when I called to tell her I was turning down the full grad scholarship, she told me that she was sorry for pushing me away from the arts. That she saw so much of her in me and that it was clear that no matter how much she tried to change me, I was and will always be an artist first and foremost. Her little artist. 

Now, I am nine months into this new journey and still exploring every day. I moved to Atlanta and have been tapping into the skills my mom passed down to me by decorating my crib. I’ve come to realize that my love for design is actually rooted in seeing and working with my mom on all the designs she created. I’ve also come to accept that our ancestors are truly here guiding us every day and I know this because I feel my mom’s spirit everyday. And it actually wasn’t until recently that I realized that my mom ALWAYS had a studio in our homes. I used to call it her office, but in reality it was where she created and designed. As much as I hated hearing the sound of the compression gun going off or the sewing machine at 6:15 am, I realize now that all this time I had the best teacher living under the same roof as me. 

So fast forward, I now have my own creative studio in the crib. The mirror you see in my studio was in the house I grew up in with my mom and the fabric you usually see in the background is actually from her studio which I plan on using in my first collection for my own brand, Hard Reset. I’ve also realized recently that I don’t care to just design clothes. I want to be able to design spaces, products, shoes, homes, and even cities because at the end of the day I’m a designer and I know that we need more designers of color creating the things and worlds we live in and I refuse to let the skills my mom taught me go to waste. That is why I recently filed for my LLC, Hard Reset Studios to house all of this. 

So I’ll end with saying this. Thank you Mami for everything you instilled in me. Although I question myself and my talent at times, I know deep down inside that the love you provided me and the family will carry us all to the finish line. 

We must remind ourselves every day of the power of our ancestors and that the things they have passed down for generations are sacred. It is why we must honor ourselves by truly believing in our talents.

Con mucho amor,

Daniel Alejandro Leon-Davis, the proud son of Nelis Judith Calles Moran