Carlos Crespo

Whips: The First Stage

oil on canvas

8″ x 10″

2019

A child’s dreams are simple. Time complicates everything.

@creslos1

Carlos Crespo

Quinsigamond Community College, 2025, Engineering

Silver, Sword, and Stone

oil on canvas

24″ x 32″

2022

At first, I could hear the salsa music playing through the speakers and el bodeguero cashing out a customer at the counter. I could even feel the cold air coming from the coolers behind me and smell the platanos and yucca an aisle over, but then the rows of colors started looking like our flags. The cans looked like my people being lined up and segregated. Separated and divided by the fluorescent light above and El Rio de Plata below. Our heritage became marketing schemes. Even the shadows became our African brothers and sisters. I can’t unsee it now.

@creslos1