Fri, May 16, 2008
 Maria Wakefield studies some of the artwork on exhibit at El Ojito Springs Center for Creativity on North Fourth Avenue. The pieces were created from trash left behind by migrants crossing the desert into the United States. james gregg / arizona daily star
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Art made of entrants' discardsFor The Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.29.2007
In a letter written in the scrawling hand of a child, Marisol told her father that she and her mother loved him and wondered when he would come home.
It is unknown whether Marisol's father ever made it home to her, but her letter ended up as one of many pieces of trash left behind by border crossers in the deserts of Southern Arizona. It is now displayed alongside other discarded objects left by crossers in an exhibit at El Ojito Springs arts center in Tucson.
The exhibit, titled "The Heart's Path: Border Art and Artifacts From the Migrant Trail," features the work of 10 artists who were inspired by border crossers and the things they left behind. The exhibit opened on Oct. 1 and will run through Dec. 31. An opening party will be held on Nov. 3, featuring live music by Mercy on the Migrant Trail.
"All of us, as artists and human beings, are both humbled and inspired by the people that we have met out there and also the items that people have left behind," said Valarie James, an artist and curator of the exhibit. "Layered in and out of the debris and the refuse is this matter of people's lives."
A portion of James' "Heirlooms in the Sand" collection of embroidered cloths is in the exhibit. The cloths, which are hand-embroidered with phrases such as "Somos enamorados" (We're lovers) or "Amor mío" (My love) are blessed and often used to wrap food for the journey across the desert. Several are stained with chile and mud.
James, who lives near Amado, has recovered many of the cloths while walking on her land. She created the collection to honor the women who made them.
"I walk my dogs every day and over time it has kind of seemed like these cloths have found me," James said. "I look at them, and I see prayers."
Painter Tanya Alvarez has several paintings on display at the exhibit. Her brightly colored images have sometimes been deemed highly political and have even been put on a political blog as images of reconquista, a notion that Chicano activists want to "reconquer" the American Southwest and return it to Mexico.
"A lot of the time people think that they're very political, and those are not my intentions at all," Alvarez said. "I think it transcends the politics; I think it's about humanizing the dehumanized and people without voices."
Many of the pieces in the exhibit can be perceived as political commentary. Images of helicopters transposed over children's faces and American flags with handcuffs represent how politically charged the debate over immigration has become.
The exhibit, said gallery owner Randy Ford, is not supposed to be about politics.
"I'm not a political person, and I don't think of this as a political exhibit," Ford said. He hoped the exhibit will provoke dialogue between people on both sides of the debate.
"For instance, I've had an admitted coyote came in and leave with tears in his eyes," Ford said. "He told me that he made a lot of money bringing people across."
Everyone from coyotes to Border Patrol agents to second- and third-generation immigrants have come to see the work.
"I found it very sad," said Sara Velasquez, who saw the exhibit Saturday. "I sympathize for all of these people."
The piece that moved Velasquez most told the story of a young woman who crossed the desert and died. Her father could identify the body only by the rings on her fingers.
Doug Waikem, who also saw the exhibit Saturday, found the sculpture of the mothers who lost children in the desert thought-provoking.
"I never thought about the people that are lost trying to come here or mothers that lose their kids or mothers that died themselves," Waikem said.
Creating these kinds of reactions and starting dialogues is what the exhibit was intended to do.
"I think it's important if we are going to come to some kind of understanding across the border, and we have to: It's too costly," Ford said. "One human life is too much."
● Claire Conrad is a University of Arizona student who is apprenticing at the Star. Contact her at 807-7776 or at starapprentice@azstarnet.com.
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