People With No Names, The Undocumented: #106

This is an 11" x 14" oil on stretched canvas of a woman in the deportee center in Nogales, Mexico.  She has small children in the United States.  She came to Mexico to see an ailing relative,  and now due to enhanced border security, cannot get back to her husband and children in the United States.  I remember that when my children were little I used to viscerally yearn for them when/if I had to be apart from them for any reason.  To hold that yearning in my body...and not to know when/if it could ever be assuaged...well I don't know if I could keep going.

People With No Names: The Undocumented #105

This 11"x14" oil on canvas depicts a recent deportee from the U.S. looking back.  Is she looking at family that she has had to leave on the U.S. side of the border?  Does she have a husband and children from which she has been forcibly separated? Our president, in his recent inaugural speech, stated that, "Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as the land of opportunity. "  He mentioned the societal progress that has issued from Seneca Falls, Selma and Stonewall...and I hope also comes forth from the Sonoran Desert in Arizona.

People With No Names: The Undocumented #104

This 11"x14" oil on canvas is of an immigrant woman in the Nogales, Mexico deportee center.  Her hand over her mouth reminds me that many people in the world, (especially women),  do not have voices...many people in the world are still not 'heard from'.  Their lives, and deaths, go unnoticed and unmarked.  In that vein, the Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei has a huge installation at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C. right now.  The installation is comprised of all the mangled rebar that was salvaged when a shoddily-built children's school collapsed during an earthquake in 2008.   'Wenchuan Steel Rebar (2008-2012)' is a powerful indictment of the Chinese government and a monumental reminder of the many young people who died during the earthquake.  Along with the installation, Ai Weiwei had people read and record each and every name of every child who was killed when the school collapsed. He was arrested and detained during the making of the piece, but his assistants continued to construct the piece. He says that his art flows from the search for the rights of individuals.  He says that the rebar stands for the spine,  and the fact that we are 'spineless' if we don't stand up against human rights violations.  Amen.

People With No Names: The Undocumented 103

Listening to an interview with the writer Barry Lopez today while painting.  He said that everyone has a need to have meaning in the world.  We need others to say,  "Your existence has meaning, your effort matters in the world".  This is an 8" x 12" oil on canvas of an immigrant at the deportee center
in Nogales.

People With No Names: The Undocumented 102

This was a FULL PAGE AD in the New York Times yesterday!  Brought to us by Yoko Ono.  Still a good idea.  This will probably not come from guns, walls and prisons.

People With No Names: The Undocumented 101

Here it is, the front page of the New York Times on Jan. 1!!!  So this is big news in the United States where there is widespread fear that immigrants will "take our jobs and be a disproportionate drain on our resources".  And the article goes on to say that , "The decline in birthrates was steepest among Mexican-American women who immigrated from Mexico, at 25.7 percent.  This has reversed a trend in which immigrant mothers accounted for a rising share of births in the United States."  It turns out that while Latinos were immigrating physically,  ideas about family size, education and career were immigrating into their family structure.  "In Denver, Olga Gonzales, the daughter of Mexican immigrants,  teaches a family planning class in Spanish to Mexican immigrants.  She tells her students that as a teenager in the 1980s, she decided to take the long view on life:  "I chose to do the college route first and establish my career and then think about babies later"  Now 40, Ms. Gonzales has a master's degree in nonprofit management, two children and a solid foothold in the professional middle-class. (Her father, one of six children, never finished fifth grade back in Guanajuanto, Mexico, before he had to go to work.)"  William H. Frey,  a sociologist and demographer at the Brookings Institute says that "the decrease has signaled much about the aspirations of young Latinos to become full and permanent members of the upwardly mobile middle class, despite the challenges posed by the struggling economy."  So,  those who see newcomers as threats...might want to revise their thinking.   Those who have seen only a particular demographic as assets...might want to revise their thinking. There is a precedent for 'open-mindedness and capacity for growth'... one hundred and fifty years ago TODAY Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation!  After Jan. 1,  1863,  Lincoln began to think seriously of the United States as a bi-racial society.  The work continues with our treatment of our most recent immigrants.  President Lincoln said,  "The dogmas of the quiet past,  are inadequate to the stormy present" and "we must dis enthrall our selves,  and then we shall save our country."  Amen. 

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.