Dominic Del Castillo pursues activism through art

Dominic Del Castillo’s work includes a portrait of Kalief Browder (an innocent teen who was sentenced to three years at Rikers Island), collages, and more. Civil rights and institutionalized racism are the main focus and motivations of his art. Del Castillo is a senior at CVHS who has a passion for civil rights and channels his beliefs into his artwork. Recently, Del Castillo entered his work into a European magazine, 1340Art Magazine.

Del Castillo’s message is to get people aware and get them to act rather than just react. He hopes that his work inspires people to actually do something.

“You can look at something and say ‘Oh, that’s really sad,’ but then if you don’t do anything about it, what are you even doing? You’re just internalizing it and not doing anything with it,” Del Castillo said.

According to Del Castillo, the best way to create change is to volunteer, donate to charities and give support to prisoners. That includes writing letters to them even if you don’t know them and treating them like humans. He advises that people educate themselves about the policies that perpetuate racism and understand what’s going on.

“If you’re not trying to relieve the oppression and anguish from the people overall, then what’s the point? You have to struggle for people, that’s just how it works. Everyone has to fight in order to make some kind of change,” said Del Castillo.