“My dad was in construction, and so was his dad. That’s how I got into it,” Hector says as he rolls out a massive painting onto the floor of the living room, exposed beams and electrical peeking out from the walls of the house that his family is rebuilding - the house he grew up in. “I think there’s a lot of those themes in what I do and how I work. Steps, process, like how a construction site operates.”

Hector’s studio is like a time capsule, one that holds feelings as much as it holds physical objects of the past. His work, which features images from old Latin romance and crime comics, as well as real antique photographs of mystery families and places, has a very distinct air of familiarity.

He pours through a box of old photos an old friend had given him, saying, “There’s this girl that’s in all of them. The same girl. From when she’s a baby to when she’s middle-aged. I can see her whole life in here, and I don’t know who she is.” The same woman comes up in a few of his works, and it becomes clear that not only is Hector’s work as much about building something, but re-building.

“There’s this quote that I love about how a person has two deaths. One when you physically die, and the second when your name is forgotten.” Throughout his work, Hector is keeping things alive, whether it’s his own past or somebody else’s. Giving new life in interesting and colorful ways. And like his father before him, he is constructing pieces that are more than just nostalgic, they’re full of real life.

WITH DJ DAVID DACOSTA AND DOS HERMANOS BAKERY