Resiliencia

Today’s political climate demonizes and dehumanizes undocumented immigrants, specifically those from Latin American countries. This past summer, my collaborative art partner, J. Leigh Garcia, and I began a new project, Resiliencia (Resilience), which transforms prejudices and/or negative associations about immigrants into art. Using a traditional Mexican papermaking technique called Amate paper, we invite members of our communities to participate in our collaborative art piece. As we pound kozo fiber with a rock and embed either printed or handwritten prejudices into the fiber, we engage in a therapeutic, positive and productive process. Our goal is to make a 30ft wall of amate/pounded paper that reflects on the invisible walls that divide us. Leigh and I will continue to hold “pounding” events in Wisconsin and Ohio. When the piece is completed, we hope to project onto the wall images and video of how immigrants make America great.