Show Some Love

Show Some Love

The year was 2011.

Me in my twenties, a nightlife photographer in El Paso, working bars and small clubs, chasing light and faces. Nights blurred into mornings. What I remember most wasn’t the parties. It was the people. Every kind of person you can imagine. Different races, backgrounds, faiths, hustles.

Talking to them taught me something school never did. Everyone carries their own story, and most want to be seen.

One night, while scrolling through social media, I noticed a significant amount of energy being spent on hate. That word “hater” was everywhere, floating in every comment, every post. So I asked myself, what if we turned it around?

That’s when Show Some Love was born.

No brand. No plan. Just a question. What would happen if I asked strangers to make a heart with their hands?

At first, it was just me and my camera. Then it became a movement.

People lined up to pose. Bikers. Bartenders. Families. Friends. Even people who swore they didn’t believe in love. For a few seconds, they smiled. They connected. That was enough.

The unity I saw turned into something tangible. A shirt. A symbol. A way to keep showing love even without a lens around. No matter where we come from or what we believe, that small heart reminded us we are still part of something bigger.

From 2011 to 2013, the shirts took on a life of their own. I worked with local artists like Diego “Robot” Martinez and Silvestre Rodriguez from Estylow Junktion, as well as designer Alex Lopez, who could turn my wildest ideas into something people actually wanted to wear. We made five designs in those years. Each one is different, but all carry the same heartbeat.

Then time passed. The world got louder and meaner. By 2021, everything felt divided again. Politics. Pandemic. Fear. That is when I knew it was time to bring it back. Not as nostalgia. As resistance.

The new line, once again designed by Lopez, carries the same message I started with.

We can always choose to show love.

That is not a weakness. That is power.

It is how we heal. It is how we fight back.

If you wear one, know it is more than fabric.

It is a reminder.

In a world that profits from hate, we can still choose love and mean it.