Serpiente de Turquesas is inspired by the turquoise-colored rivers in the 'Huasteca'—a region of Mexico nicknamed 'turquoise snake.' The piece explores the religious and figurative associations that the Mexican rivers have enjoyed with the 'turquoise snake' since pre-Hispanic times. The turquoise snake is a symbol that permeates pre-Hispanic art and religion. Perhaps, the most famous artistic representation of it is the turquoise-covered, two-headed pre-Hispanic sculpture found at the British Museum. Pre-Hispanic cultures strongly associated turquoise with water (very much in the same way they associated jade with fire). In fact, the turquoise mosaic that covers the sculpture manifests the strong connection of the snake with water in mythology. As the piece progresses, it traces the liquid movements of snakes and their figurative relationship to rivers.

The two heads in the sculpture embody the importance of duality and cyclical thinking in pre-Hispanic philosophy. Serpiente de Turquesas begins as it ends, with the same theme. Multiple phrases are followed by mirrored inversions of themselves in response to the symmetry. The piece's inner sections cycle until they cascade or portal into new sections which, in turn, do the same. In this way, the work contemplates cyclical psychology and meditates on the rhythmic nature of reality.

Recipient of the 2021 ASCAP Morton Gould Composer Award.