People With No Names: The Undocumented # 100

These children are EVERYONE'S children.  Parents and grandparents waited for them to be born,  to be among us.  These children are everyone's children.

People With No Names: The Undocumented #99

In this season of Advent...of waiting...of hoping, of COMING.... I had the privilege to paint this scene depicting Juan Diego (an indigenous American) presenting an image of the Virgin of Guadelupe (Mary coming to the Americas in the form of an indigenous woman).  This apparition is said to have occurred only ten years after the conquest of Mexico by Spain.  Notice how Juan Diego is looking toward the lighter skinned, crowned woman to the right (possibly representing Spain and the European Crown)  and the Virgin gazes at the darker skinned indigenous person on the left.  Taken as a whole, this image seems to tell the story of Guadelupe's raison d'etre...namely to blend cultures racially and religiously, the first 'mestiza' or 'the first Mexican' bringing together people of distinct cultural heritages, while at the same time affirming their distinctness.  Still, today we live in a time of waiting...we have dark-skinned Americans among us who are 'coming' and 'waiting'.  They are experts at HOPING and waiting.

People With No Names: The Undocumented #98

This is day two-  (my version of Mary visiting Elizabeth as done by the Italian Renaissance artist Pontormo).  I am painting on big pieces of corrugated metal that I am getting from a recycle place.  It is a sturdy, big, cheap canvas substitute.  Today in my reading,  I learned of a thing called "Hobson's Choice".  It is a situation where you don't REALLY have a choice...it is 'the thing that is offered' or nothing.  In the case of Mary, we are told that she 'took the offer' to be God's choice and said, "Be it done to me according to your will".  It was the epitome of grace and assent...the ultimate yes.  Often immigrants are offered the same Hobson's Choice.  They can assent to a new reality, 'go' to a new place,  move toward a new life or....well,  there is no 'or'.  So they take the Hobson's Choice and do what must be done.

People With No Names: The Undocumented # 97

I am sitting on my patio in Tucson, Arizona.  It is a beautiful sunny morning and I am watching the "workers",  (aka bees) pollinating my beautiful, Arizona Agriculturally inspected Meyer lemon tree.  Oh,  wait a hummingbird just swooped in...and dipped into the lemon blossoms.  Where do these beautiful little creatures come from?  Do they hop up from Mexico?  Are they American bees and birds?  Gosh I hope so.

People With No Names-The Undocumented #96

     For those of you who read this I am sorry to have been MIA for months!  I have been caring for a daughter recovering from surgery and studying Spanish!  I am also trying to get a book together...to document the first two years of immigrant paintings.  This is me, in my studio, with photos of every single one of the 120 immigrant paintings that I have done in the past two years.
     Yesterday I had the privilege of accompanying a woman up to Portland to meet with ICE (immigration and customs enforcement) officials.  She has applied for a two year grace period to remain in this country while her case is being sorted out.  She is one of many immigrants,  who were brought to this country as children and raised here.  She graduated with honors from her high school and even won two college scholarships.  Unfortunately, shortly after she began at the university (where she was having academic success and loving it) she was asked to leave because of her immigration status.  For ten years she has been longing to return to her studies.  Yesterday, with fingerprints and a retinal scan she came a step closer to realizing her dream:  legal status and university studies.  Before we left (early in the dark morning to make the two hour drive to Portland), she wrote letters to various family members to bid them good-by and reaffirm her love for them in the event that she didn't return yesterday...but instead became the latest deportee.  Needless to say, we left the ICE office building in celebratory spirits and even stopped on our drive home for a giant, Mexican lunch (to celebrate her hope and dream of one day becoming a documented/legal citizen of the United States!)

America's Most Wanted #13

This weekend I was a Eucharistic Minister at my church,  giving out "the body of Christ" to each and every person who approached me.  I knew nothing about most of the people.  They approached me for sustenance and I gave it to them.

America's Most Wanted #12

You know...it's all in how we frame things...our culture is rife with 'terminology' and 'spin'.  For example, people work for  corporations that operate and hopscotch all over the globe and we breezily call these huge companies 'Multi-Nationals'.   We understand that economic entities need to roam the world to grow and survive.  Sometimes humans need to do that as well.  Let's call THEM 'Multi-Nationals' too.

America's Most Wanted #11

I met this man in the deportee center in Nogales.  Notice the logo on his sweatshirt!  It is internationally recognizable...because money, corporations, food and goods now move freely all over the world.  We accept that we live in a smaller and smaller,  more and more connected world.  And yet, we still argue over, and restrict the movement of,  'human capital'.  Humans migrate for the very same reason that birds migrate...to save their lives.  And the reason that humans try to migrate again and again,  is that the reasons propelling them still exist:  Multi-national corporations have taken over their farms and factories,  a family member needs medical care,  kids need schooling,  and everyone is hungry.  It is ironic that the sweatshirt and its maker are allowed to roam the globe freely,  but this valuable human-being is criminalized for trying to find honest work in the rich country that borders his own.

America's Most Wanted #10

One of the things that you see, as you walk the migrant trails out in the desert,  is "the casting off of things" that no longer support and serve the journey.  The jettisoned artifacts attest to the fact that there is a universality evident in what people pack to 'go on a trip'.  And then there comes that point, when you realize that you actually need fewer things then you thought.  You don't want to 'lug' that much 'stuff' along with you...you might not 'make it'...it will surely slow you down...it is NOT LIFE GIVING. 

All You Holy Men and Women Pray For Us-Saints Among Us #3

This "saint" started "The Green Valley Samaritans".  Green Valley is a little town in the desert just a short distance from the Mexican border where lots of older Americans have retired to enjoy the sunshine and the golf courses.  Anyway, this small-statured,  super-energetic woman found out that people were dying trying to cross the desert near her,  AND SHE DECIDED TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!  She organized a group that actively searches for people, and provides water, medical care, and clothing.  I have personally watched as she pleads with immigrants to "cuidado" (be careful) out there,  and tells them that the Sonoran Desert is "muy peligroso" (very dangerous).  And, in spite of all of the difficult things that she has seen, she exudes joy.  I think that her joy comes from a long-time place of doing 'good' in the world...because when I asked her about 'why' she did what she did, she said, "Oh, I am from Berkeley, Calif and social services that I helped start 30-40 years ago, are still functioning"  Big Smile.  In the 'Litany of the Saints' last night we sang a phrase over and over,  "Save My People".   I think maybe 'joy' comes from at least trying.

America's Most Wanted #9

Immigrants are NOT victims....but people of DIGNITY who have CHOSEN to assert their right to TRANSFORM their lives.

America's Most Wanted #8

NAFTA.  You've heard of it but you are not sure what it is.  Me either.  In the 1990s the "North American Free Trade Agreement" opened the borders of all of North America to the flow of products and money.  That sounds good doesn't it?  It was good... if you were the wealthy of the North American continent.  Not so good, if you were a small farmer whose family had been making a decent living on a family farm for generations...and that farm stood in the way of a huge agri-business gobbling up your land to set up a huge mechanized farm to bring cheap produce to a Wal-mart  or Super-Target near you.  Or say your little family farm was sitting on a stockpile of precious minerals....those could be mined for millions to improve the lives of "first-world" folks even further.  So, you have been kicked off your land...you have got to find a place where there is work and money to feed your family.....

All You Holy Men and Women Pray For Us-Saints Among Us #2

This "saint" works tirelessly with The Samaritans (Los Samaritanos).  "Since July 1, 2002, Samaritans have been a voice of compassion, a healing presence in the Arizona desert.  It is an organization comprised of people of conscience and faith who render humanitarian aide to migrants in distress in the Tucson sector of the Arizona/Mexico border.  In the desert,  if a person is actively exerting himself, (and the coyotes/paid guides ARE hustling them along),  he needs 15.5 liters of water per day to stay hydrated.  There is no way that a person can carry that much water.  Dehydration also makes a person more prone to hypo- and hyperthermia.  Then, to further compound problems, immigrants get huge, foot-encompassing blisters that render them unable to 'keep up' so they are abandoned in the desert by the coyotes.  IF they can continue,  they often become lost, succumb to the elements, and die.  The woman pictured above, hikes the trails searching for lost immigrants,  puts water alongside the remote ever-changing paths that immigrants take, educates others about the immigrant plight, and has co-authored a book titled 'Crossing With The Virgin'  (by Kathryn Ferguson, Norma Price and Ted Parks).  She also owns a dance studio and teaches belly dancing.  Oh glorious, myriad, diverse saints among us!

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. 

All You Holy Men and Women Pray For Us-Saints Among Us #1

It is closing in on our Easter celebratory time and I find myself looking forward to the singing of the Litany of the Saints...that wonderful song where we sing the names of Saints who have gone before us and then the refrain is, "All you holy men and women hear our prayer".   It gives this wonderful sense of us being in an historic and world-wide context, i.e. whatever our situation, we are not alone.  So, the portrait today is of a very elderly Rabbi (he walked up to the Presbyterian pulpit to speak, slowly, with a walker) who has been working with people of all faiths (and no faith) for 30 years.  For 30 years he has partnered with an ecumenical task force to provide humanitarian aid and advocacy for refugees.  He read from the book of Jeremiah 31: 31-34.  He said that historically, "It was a book written by a Jew, to Jews...but it was for everyone."  The assembled,  mostly non-Jews,  laughed but we got it.  Good stuff is FOR EVERYONE...not just a chosen few!  P.S.  Watch for more "Saints Among Us...they are everywhere!

America's Most Wanted #6

                                                          "Ningun Ser Humano Es Ilegal"

America's Most Wanted #5

Her name is Michelle.  She is seven years old.  She has a purse with hearts all over it.  It is really cold in the high desert at night so she is  bundled up in a hot-pink hoodie sweatshirt with a long brown wool jacket buttoned up over it.  Her mother has put her hair up in a neat ponytail.  But here is the big thing...despite the fact that she and her mother have been deported from the United States, despite the fact that she and her mother are living in a women's shelter, despite the fact that she gets two meals a day in a cold, cement floored dining room with 130 adults squished in at long tables...she exuded 'security in the face of insecurity'.  I am haunted by her trusting, calm demeanor. 

America's Most Wanted #4

Yesterday I went to "Operation Streamline" again.   It was a model of American efficiency.  In one short hour, 53 people were duly processed and entered into the American Criminal justice system.  (Remember to picture them in shackles, chained at the hands, feet, and waist.)  The judge quickly rattles off their "rights".  Every time he does it,  I try to picture speaking up for myself if I were in chains, a foreign intimidating environment,  and I didn't understand the legal lingo or possibly even the language that is being spoken. He asks each group of 7-8 appearing in front of him if they have been in any way "forced, threatened, obligated, or intimidated...or are not appearing voluntarily before him".  (...Um, yes, they were forced, threatened and intimidated off their land in their home country...decided to try the Land of Opportunity.)  He tells them that their fingerprints have been taken and that they are now in the American criminal justice system.  He asks them if they "have knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily entered a plea of guilty?"  They all say, "Si, culpable."  Remember that the crime that they have committed, is walking for days in a forbidding desert to find menial work,  to feed their families.  Its "The Hunger Games" being played out everyday...only FOR REAL,  not a Hollywood blockbuster fantasy.  And make no mistake...the real-life situation is equally dramatic and high tech.  It pits small, poor, hungry, de-hydrated people, on foot...  against tall, fit, and heavily armed well-fed and fully-hydrated people.  The hungry poor actually manage to elude the guns, dogs, helicopters, drones (no I am not kidding), trucks and ATVs... sometimes.  Their "prize" is that they get to live in fear of being discovered and do work that no native-born American would deign to do.

America's Most Wanted #3

Yesterday I was slowly picking my way through the book of John 5:1-16.  It is a story about a pool in Jerusalem,  named Bethesda, where a "multitude of invalids" 'occupy' and wait...hoping that an angel will come by and agitate the waters.  (I guess a modern day equivalent would be that someone would come by and turn the jacuzzi on!)  The belief surrounding the pool, is that when the waters are stirred they will possess healing power for the one who manages to dip into them first.  So Jesus comes upon this scene, and he picks out a guy who has been laying by the pool for 38 years, and asks him a question.  He asks, "Do you want to be healed?"  And the invalid replies that he doesn't have anyone to help him, so he is never able to get into the water first.  I can only assume that Jesus, being Jesus, is a good, compassionate listener.  But Jesus replies (with what is sort of a non-sequitur) and says,  "Get up, take up your bed, and walk."  The next thing that happens in the story is not what I expect.  I expected rejoicing that the man is healed.  I expected rejoicing that the man was 'empowered' to participate in his own healing.  I expected rejoicing that someone is able to contribute to the society rather than ask for hand-outs.  Nope.  The authorities asked the man what the heck was going on. They wanted to find the guy who broke the law.  It was "unlawful to work on the Sabbath".  But FIVE TIMES in this short passage it says to "take up your bed and walk".  Is it suggesting that we 'participate' in our own healing.  The immigrant pictured above,  is attempting to do just that! 

America's Most Wanted #2

On Saturday I walked the tiny migrant trails that criss-cross the desert near the border of Mexico.  I was with a retired 78 year old geology professor who is trying to find and map the trails used by migrants.  We walked from morning until late afternoon in dry, spiny, high-elevation desert,  trying to determine what was a human trail and what was an animal trail.  We found discarded clothing and hygiene articles.  We found lots of tuna cans and various hydration products.  We looked for, and checked places where humane organizations had left dated gallon jugs of water.  We wanted to know if the water stores were used up, needed replenishing, or had been slashed or shot and destroyed.  The desert has 7% humidity.  A lot of water is needed to keep a human hydrated and alive here.  When we found slashed water jugs (that people had carefully placed at strategic points throughout the desert),  the sweet, old geologist sighed and said, "Some people are just mean".  At the end of the day, I was hungry, thirsty, and exhausted.  And for me it was just one day.