Maria de Los Angeles, a New York City based artist and teacher at Pratt Institute, is an excellent example of why immigration reform needs to happen. Ms. de Los Angeles earned her Associates in Fine Arts from Santa Rosa Junior college in 2010, a BFA in painting from Pratt Institute in 2013, and an MFA in painting and Printmaking from Yale University in 2015, where she was awarded the Blair Dickinson Memorial Prize for her artwork and her indispensable role in the community. In 2014, she founded One City Arts program, which offers free art classes for more than 60 Sonoma County children during the summer months.

Ms. De Los Angeles’s work deals with the state of being undocumented and the imagery around the United States perception of immigrants. She is a recipient of President Obama’s Deferred Action program for undocumented youth, which offers access to work permits and drivers licenses to immigrants who were brought to the United States at a young age. She emigrated from Mexico to Santa Rosa, California with her family at the age of 11. De Los Angeles is currently an artist-in-residence at the Mana Contemporary Art Residency in New Jersey, and her work is widely collected and exhibited throughout the country.