Aspiring Americans: #3

This is another 6" x 6" oil on canvas.  As I paint these portraits, I am struck with the ancient Mayan features that I am seeing.  My daughter just sent me a beautiful photo of a Native American man that is captioned, "You're against immigration? When did you leave?"  Check out the website Voto Latino.

Aspiring Anericans:#2

This is a 6" x 6" oil on unstretched canvas.

Aspiring Americans: #1

This is a new series of 6" x 6" oil on un-stretched pieces of 12" x 12" canvas.  I am titling each of these portraits "Aspiring Americans"; because each one of these people wants to be a contributing United States Citizen.  So, I will be using a new term for what some call "illegal aliens", some call "undocumented immigrants", and henceforth be referring to people as "aspiring Americans".

People With No Names: The Indocumented #128

This is a 6" x 6" oil (on unstretched canvas) portrait of a recent deportee who I met in Nogales, Mexico.  One question that she asked, still haunts me.  She asked, "Why are Americans so hostile to us?"  She said that if Americans came to her for help, she would help them.  She would welcome them and she would feed them.  She would share whatever she had.

People With No Names: The Undocumented #127

Yesterday, the County Supervisors of Tucson, Arizona voted to have our county (Pima County) be "Immigrant Welcoming".  The City of Tucson has made this a 'welcoming city'.  This is especially noteworthy because Pima County has the most border area of any county in the U.S.A.  Human dignity and human life are being given respect.  This small 8 x 10 oil study is a depiction of 3 immigrants being captured and surrounded at gunpoint by 5 U.S. Border Patrol agents.  It is another version of the last two paintings posted.  This image references a real event that occurred along the U.S. Mexico border.  Despite the new policy in Pima County,  THIS is the welcome that immigrants can expect until we have an 'immigrant welcoming' policy at the Federal level.  Still, 'Bravo' Pima County Supervisors!

People With No Names: The Undocumented #126

This is a small study, 6" x 8" for the painting that I posted yesterday.  I actually prefer these loose studies because I think that they reflect more accurately the situation on the U.S./Mexico border. 'Who is who' is not so clear, it involves a lot of people, and it is a big legal mess.

People With No Names: The Undocumented #125

•          Hágase tu volundad en la tierra, como en el cielo