Orlando photographer Mauricio Murillo’s evocative solo show ‘Soy de Aqui’ opens at CityArts this week

Mauricio Murillo’s photography is more than just collections of aesthetically pleasing images. His work tells his life story and provides a glimpse of what it’s like to be Latino in the United States.

Murillo, also known as Crummy Gummy, will display Soy de Aqui, his first solo exhibition in five years, on Thursday, Sept. 18 at CityArts for Hispanic Heritage Month. Soy de Aqui, which translates to “I’m from here,” is a mixed-media art exhibit that features portrait photographs of Murillo’s family and friends, but the roots of his work are much deeper than meets the eye.

“I want to be a voice for those who don’t have one, and immigrants are really being attacked in this country right now,” Murillo tells Orlando Weekly. “A lot of my work in this show speaks about that, as well as being proud of where I come from and my roots. It shows my personal experiences as a Latino in America and the importance of standing together.”

A part of his show is Alligator Abductions, based on Alligator Alcatraz, the immigration detention center in South Florida. Alligator Abductions features old photos of Latin folks that have been altered by Murillo. He’s cut out the subjects’ faces and replaced them with the Mylar thermal blankets ubiquitous in detention centers.

“They’re also placed behind chicken wire. That’s a direct response to the atrocity that is Alligator Alcatraz,” Murillo says. “I never thought of my work as political but because of the world that we live in right now and because my work is a representation of me, it’s political by default. Just being brown in this country is political.” 

Other photos have similar alterations using brown and black embroidery. He says that this alteration isn’t meant to obscure, but to elevate. With several different shades covering the faces of the photos’ subjects, Murillo says “the various shades of the thread represent the beauty and diversity of life and the resilience of brown and Black skin.”

Thread has been a staple in Murillo’s art for years, and even that artistic choice has roots in his Colombian heritage. He says that many of the mixed-media elements incorporated into his photography are an ode to the sewing kits used by his mother and grandmother in his childhood.

“A lot of Latinos have a shared memory where our abuelas and our moms kept their sewing kits in one of those blue cookie cans [Royal Dansk Danish Butter Cookies], and there were never cookies in it — it’s always sewing materials,” Murillo says. “I incorporate threads or pins and things like that into the artwork to honor my family, and the years and years of traditions where this craft has been passed down and used to support families.”

When walking through the exhibition, viewers will note a grade-school photo that features a class of students and their teacher, a nun. This specific installation piece is inspired by Murillo’s mother and her childhood in Bogotá, Colombia.

“She went to an all-girls Catholic school that was run by nuns from Spain, and she hated it. She never said anything good about the school, and neither did her friends,” Murillo says. “There’s this story from her last day of school where my mom and her friends were able to stand up to Madre Carmen [Mother Carmen], one of the nuns they really did not like, and they made her cry. It was almost like her way of fighting back after all of the years of trauma.” 

As a child, Murillo has a distinct memory of being asked, “Where are you from?” Despite being born and raised in Orlando, he knew the question was never about what part of Florida he was from. He felt like he had to prove to others that he was not “some kind of exotic person,” but a human being. These microaggressions, along with other racism he experienced, are something that Murillo carried with him as he got older.

Soy de Aqui is meant to speak up for those who can’t and show that “we all come in different shades and colors and backgrounds and traditions,” Murillo says. 

“I’m hoping that people who see the show will see the hope and resilience throughout,” Murillo concludes. “The work will connect with a lot of people who are probably frustrated with what’s going on, but we’re resilient people. Latinos will get through this and we don’t have to be silenced.”

Soy de Aqui opens on Thursday, Sept. 18 and runs through Oct.. 12.

This article appears in Sept. 17-23, 2025.