Federico Martínez, from the State of Puebla works as a taxi driver in New York. He sends 250 dollars a week. From the series, The Real Story of the Superheroes

Dulce Pinzón has developed a binational artistic practice that looks at immigration from both cultural and economic perspectives. In her Superhero series she depicts undocumented migrant workers living and working across New York. They collaborated in their portraits by dressing up as characters from Marvel and DC Comics, symbolizing their daily struggles and challenging work.

Pinzón affirmed that the “principal objective of this series is to pay homage to these brave and determined men and women that somehow manage, without the help of any supernatural power, to withstand extreme conditions of labor in order to help their families and communities survive and prosper.” Like many immigrants, each of these heroes sends home remedios, remittance money that supports family living in Mexico. For instance, Minerva Valencia works as a nanny, earning an average weekly salary of $678, most of which she sends home in order to support a family of three. Donning the costume of Catwoman, an antiheroine and former villain who is also a single parent, Pinzón’s photograph highlights the irony of Valencia’s position as the caretaker of other people’s children in addition to her own family.