Curatorial Rationale

Through my artwork, I convey different aspects of an immigrant’s journey. I focus on their life before and after migrating to a different country, portraying their struggles and accomplishments. I explore the issues of racism, poverty, stereotypes and deportation through my family’s experiences after leaving Mexico and starting a new life in the United States. These explorations allow the viewer to experience the positive and negative effects of coming to another country

Home is a response to Ramiro Gomez’s artwork. In Woman Cleaning A Shower, he portrays a labour worker in a wealthy person’s house. On the other hand, in my artwork I use color to place my subject within their reality: lower-middle class. In my artwork, the woman is at comfort at her own home, doing chores, in her house with her family. This artwork explores the positive side of immigration since they are able to provide shelter and food for their family. This image is placed in the circle since it is part of an immigrant’s journey. Similarly, Soccer Then shows the poverty that immigrants overcame by showing worned out soccer shoes and socks.

Who’s There? touches a similar topic to that of Home. Who’s There? is about immigrants fearing that one day ICE agents will come knocking to their home to deport them. My parents told me that if I ever saw ICE agents at the door when I was coming home, to disown them for my safety. The rest of my artworks revolve around this work, given that immigrants have to live in fear all the time, which eventually make them feel left out.

My family also dealt with living in fear at their own home after moving to the United States, but they also dealt with racism which can be shown through the installation Size: Small. In this artwork, I portray my father’s feelings when he got beat down at work by a racist man, through the use of dirty white shirts, which represent my father, and being walked over. The shirts have shoe prints because it helped me show how my father was walked over. The small shirts also helped me show how inferior my father felt. Viewers will be encouraged to walk over the shirts in order to get to my exhibition because racism is just the beginning of the journey.

Both, “Cara de Nopal'' and Different But Similar, focus on stereotypes. “Cara de Nopal'' was created through the use of photography and color to create a replica of a mugshot since Mexicans are considered criminals, inspired by Donald Trump’s calling Mexicans “rapists, drug dealers, and illegal.” I used cactus pads because of the saying in Spanish “Tienes cara de nopal (you have the face of a cactus),” which is directed to those who are Latinos but do not know how to speak their language. In Different But Similar, clothing is used to represent stereotypes, and the mirror is used as a reflection on oneself. On one side of the mirror, I presented clothing that is known to be “Mexican.” On the other side, I presented the American side and what Mexicans have to adapt to once they come into the U.S. In addition to adapting to a new country, immigrants also have to deal with stereotypes that are established by American society.

As viewers walk by my exhibition, they will be welcomed by Size: Small since racism is one of the things that immigrants first encounter. Next to it, they will find Soccer Then, poverty being one of the reasons they migrated, and Reminiscing, a memory from back home. My images, Different but Similar, Home, Who’s There?, “Cara de Nopal”, and Like Back Home will be placed along the wall forming a circle of the immigrant’s journey with Who’s There? in the middle. I want the viewers to feel sorry for immigrants and Who’s There? will do this because it shows a child fearing what is going to happen next. The dirty shirts will make the viewers realize how scared and inferior these immigrants feel. Viewers will be encouraged to walk over the shirts so that they can get the feeling of guiltiness of walking over someone (symbolically).