OUR STORY

From the Founder

As a first-generation Mexican-American, my cultural identity was an area of great shame. As a young dancer, I learned to value thin white bodies above my own and I attempted to squeeze my plus-sized brown body into a box that was never meant for me. This is why I created El Sueño. El Sueño meaning “The Dream” was named for my continued pursuit of the “American Dream.” That dream for my family in crossing our southern border, was for their children to have a better life. That dream now extends through me. It is my continued dream for the children I teach every day and the marginalized communities I hope to empower through El Sueño’s work. Art for me, is a spiritual practice and a right that was not granted to my Indigenous ancestors. I now use it as a weapon against cultural erasure. El Sueño is a place to demonstrate resistance against historical oppression, and a space to begin healing ancestral trauma for our audiences and ourselves. -Alicia Mullikin (Founder)