People With No Names - The Undocumented #32

This is another oil sketch on canvas (15"x 21") of plant nursery workers in the Northwest. One of my children is visiting this weekend from college, and tells of a recent discussion in her English class. Her professor is positing the idea that everything we do, choose, wear AND say, is rhetoric. Beyond words, all of our choices and actions are seeking to communicate our life hopes and desires in a powerful way. I often think that immigrants, especially those who don't speak English, cannot speak for themselves. But in the context of 'life rhetoric' their choices speak loudly and clearly. The act of leaving a life, family, and culture behind, traveling to a foreign place (on foot!), taking almost nothing with them, argues forcefully for the economic necessity and desperation driving our Mexican and Central American neighbors.