Racial Profiling Portrait by Carlos Alvarez Montero

Originally from the Bay Area, Marina studied journalism at San Francisco State University. She was fortunate to pick up meaningful work as a journalist right out of college: as an investigative reporting intern at Mother Jones, business reporter/fact checker for Business 2.0, an online producer for Latino.com, and then as managing editor of Planet Magazine.  After a  masters in poetry, she came to NYC and in the last seven years she's tried her hand as the editor-at-large for an architecture arts magazine (now defunct), art book publishing with Harry N. Abrams and Rizzoli, an architecture and real estate publicist for a luxury PR firm. She's also worked in corporate fashion so that she could freelance report in architecture and fine art as well as develop her blogs, Pairs of Chairs and

Mex and the City. 

Greatest  inspirations or influences?

• I thoroughly believe that I've come this far as a product of my education and my support network. Erna Smith who is currently at the University of Southern California was my dean at SF State and continues to be a sounding board to my journalistic endeavors.

• In poetry, I owe a great deal to Monica de la Torre who was a great support and resource for my master's thesis. Her academic rigor and smart poetry always pluck out of my own reality.

• I am also inspired by the poetic works of Cecila Vicuna and Lisa Roberston, two amazing female poets.

• As well as the work of Junot Diaz a great thinker of contextualizing personal politics for a greater audience and Pedro Reyes for his insight into disparate thought patterns and his ability to develop cognitive but creative projects in art and architecture.

Favorite websites, blogs, publications?

• in no particular order: colourmein.com, thesartorialist.com, poets.org, thecovetuer.com,

• mexnthecity.com, deezen.com,core77.com, jakedavis.typepad.com/, http://observando.net/,

• http://content.standardculture.com/

Upcoming projects, and work you are developing.

• Personally, I am writing a column for Core77.com dedicated to emerging Mexican and Latin American product designers and architects and am currently getting my second masters from Columbia University's Journalism School specialized program in Arts and Culture with an emphasis in architecture. I am looking to write my thesis about social activism through architecture in Mexico.

• For Mex and the City, we curating the next issue of Revista Animal and we just produced the next round of our editorial portrait series called Racial Profiling shoot by Carlos Alvarez Montero, highlighting about 40 inspiration makers between Mexico City and New York. It is super meaningful to me to present the world with positive Mexican experiences.

Up and coming creatives we should know about

• I am proud of having strong successful and creative women around me: Jauretsi and Crystal Moselle creative beautiful and provocative video segments for Nowness, Lindsey Thornburg the designer, Olivia Malone the photographer, Mariana Martin Capriles aka MPeach, the Venezuelan audio visual artist...

• as well as the men in my life the artists David Foote, Conrad Ruiz, and my best friend the incredibly gifted photographer Luke Abiol.

How does NY inspire you?

As a convergence of cultures and people, New York is a factory of dreams. It is a place where what one imagines, one can manifest. It is an eternal playground for the ambitious and makes for colorful collaborations. It's fair to say that my social and professional lives merge more often than not.

Anything else you’d like to share with our audience?

I think it is important to follow your instincts and passions. All of my life I have been a writer but I have looped in and out of journalism and poetry to create a path that is intrinsically my own. My interest in architecture came from delving into poetry. I believe that at any age you can recreate yourself and develop new dreams and goals.