Heldáy is an illustrator and designer in Portland. He was born in Ciudad Guzmán, Jalisco, México, and his parents left for the U.S. when he was two years old. He is undocumented and queer, identities that play a large role in his artwork, upbringing, and personal mission.
He is one of 800,000 DACA recipients. The DACA program doesn’t give a person legal status, but defers deportation. The program is continuously threatened to be ended, and if it is, or a person can’t renew for financial reasons, DACA recipients become vulnerable to the whims of the U.S. political system. Until the day he can go back to México and physically reconnect with that part of his culture, he deeply supports the Latinx, Indigenous, and LGBTQ communities in Oregon. De La Cruz co-leads an activist group called UndocuPDX which shares resources, fundraises for local organizations and people, and organizes creative spaces for undocumented people to share their stories, share in their healing, and find community.
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