America's Most Wanted #7

This young man is tall, blond, and has green eyes.  He is from Guatemala and I met him at a deportee center in Nogales.  He stands out from the others because of his different coloring and stature.  The other men tease him because he has light eyes, light hair, and he is tall.  He is testimony to the fact that people are moving all over the globe.  He is good-natured with the teasing,  and claims that his small daughter in Guatemala looks just like him.  He may not physically resemble his fellow deportees,  but here how he is the SAME as all the other men and women in the center:  He looks dazed, exhausted...and determined.  He, (like all the others) has a family far away that is counting on him to find work and find a way to care for them. 

People With No Names - The Undocumented #65

This oil on unstretched canvas is 2' x 3'. Notice that the husband is looking directly at us, but his wife is looking away. She also has sunlight behind her...a sort of rectangular halo. As I talked with them, I learned that she had left her four children behind in Guatemala, with her parents, in order to accompany her husband in their quest to find work. She began to weep. Her husband is looking directly at us...eager to meet the future, find work, support his family. She is 'in her heart and mind' back with her children...where she wants to be...where all mothers want to be.

Works In Progress #8

This painting refuses to dry out enough for me to keep going so I will post as is. This Guatemalan woman is selling fabric in Antigua. She is practicing the most common form of "day care" in Guatemala...tie your baby on and go to work.

People With No Names - The Undocumented #15

This is "Nogales Trinity". The two women in the back are some of the deportees who all help clean up after they finish the meal that the volunteers at the Kino Border Initiative have fed them. This woman in the front is talking about her family...her five children that she left with her parents in Guatemala. She has just learned that while she was walking across the desert to find work and care for her family, her oldest child died of Denge fever. Her parents did not want to tell her (lest she become even more disheartened) but her 10 year old daughter blurted it out to her over the phone. She began to weep as she told me.

The Monk Librarian #4

Yesterday I went to Nogales, Mexico to meet with Immigrants from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. As I heard their stories, I kept hoping that I could, in some small way do them justice as I depict them visually. Their lives are characterized by: uncertainty, loss and physical hardship...things that can befall all of us...but in their case are pretty much a constant. By my accident of birth, I live in the illusion that I can prevent many of these things. I marveled at the ease with which I waltzed back and forth across the border...twice in one day!! I had no fear of the border patrol's guns and dogs; but trust me , they DID look very scary.

People With No Names - The Undocumented #12

This man came to my door early one morning in July 2010 asking for work in my garden. Actually my son awoke me saying a man named Caesar Chavez was at the door and, well, I jumped out of bed and ran down the stairs to the door! I mean, his name is so iconic! Anyway, he and his helper are from Guatemala and spent an entire day on ladders removing thorny branches from the roses. They are small statured people but so tireless and hardworking. I realized that the ladders, they have to use are very apt. They just need a little assistance getting up...and then they will work. They are very motivated.

People With No Names - The Undocumented #9

These dear undocumented people took all the dead, thorny branches out of huge climbing roses all day, with no gloves. They have not been home for four years. When they return to Guatemala, they hope to be able to buy wiring and get electricity for/to their house.