If you’ve not made time to take in “The Border Is A Weapon” exhibit at the Laredo Center for the Arts, you’ve got the next five days left before it’s packed away and on to its next place where it will inspire artistic and political contemplations about frontera culture and the freighted topic of immigration.
“The Border Is A Weapon” is curated by Laredo artist Gil Rocha and features the work of Cande Aguilar of Brownsville, Maritza Bautista of Laredo, Angel Cabrales of El Paso, Ruben Luna of San Antonio, former Laredoan Juan de Dios Mora now of San Antonio, Daniela Cavazos Madrigal of Laredo, and José Villalobos of El Paso.
The palpable burst of energy of the central figures of Juan de Dios Mora’s linocut prints seem about to leave their frames, but not before the details of their propulsion— some by lancha, bicycle, or moto—rivet the viewer to the depth of detail of the work. In Leading the Camino, we see the determination of the lancha’s pilot, sinewy and descalso, to move the homemade paddleboat that has an angry carved rooster at the prow. A small representation of the motherland, a single pyramid, is a distant, diminishing promontory left behind.
Juan de Dios Mora
Leading The Camino
Linocut • Print 22×29.75 inches / 22.25×33.25 inches w/frame • 2011
Maritza Bautista’s casa de cambio pieces, particularly Compra y Venta define key aspects of businesses that exchange dollars for pesos–they are an omnipresent component of the half trillion dollars that move as exports and imports across Laredo’s four international bridges; they are part of how wealth moves along and across both sides of the border.
Maritza Bautista
Compra y Venta
LED Sign, 6 Tablets, Text & Audio • 33×38 inches • 2021
“If used by smugglers of illicit goods, they have a hand in endemic poverty and its sometimes accompanying horizontal violence,” Bautista commented. She said that as she researched casas de cambio by visiting them, she found that they seemed to thrive despite being empty of customers.
Compra y Venta is six tablets mounted in pairs under an LED dollar-to-peso sign common to casa de cambio storefronts. Each pad repeats these and other messages: “Weight of the Peso/Vertical Contraband Crossing/Revolutionary Sadistic Violence” and “Poverty Traps People/Bodies Aren’t Present.” Like an assertive, deliberate echo, a recording of Bautista’s voice repeats those phrases.
Impossible to miss is Ruben Luna’s Portrait of My Abuelita, a hinged, boxed “kit” for dealing with susto, el mal ojo, and physical maladies: the broom, the can of 7-Up, el huevo, Vicks VapoRub, and salt. Delicious whimsy, yes, but also a spot-on capture of one of guelita’s most important jobs–to keep us safe.
Ruben Luna
Portrait of my Abuelita
Found Objects Assemblage • 19x12x16
Another of Luna’s boxed art pieces, Portrait of Papo Ike, which is installed in an antique Stetson hatbox made of wood, collects the night-out accoutrement of what a hardworking vaquero might need–a cassette of the music of José Luis Mesta, cologne, a small boom box, Tres Flores hair oil, a comb, a horseshoe ring, agua ardiente, and a shot glass.
Ruben Luna
Portrait of Papo Ike
18x28x18 inches • Neon and Found Objects
In DREAM Catcher, Angel Cabrales’ ICE van is anything but a benign oversized toy or a kiddie ride. Those who’ve taken the real life ride can speak to feelings of defeat, heartbreak, and smashed dreams.
Angel Cabrales
DREAM a little DREAM
Installation – Dimensions Vary • 2018
The exhibit is comprised of 31 works of art.
“Gil Rocha’s curatorial skills are to be lauded for bringing together this moving representation of frontera artists,” said San Ygnacio gravador and printmaker Eric Avery. “Everything from the art itself to the artists’ platica the next day had impact. I appreciated the inclusion of the women artists Maritza Bautista (See Compra y Venta, Hablame en Dolares) and Daniela Cavazos Madrigal (See María, The Things They Carried.
“Art is the weapon here, and these artists are armed to tell the stories of the borderland,” Avery said.
Jose Villalobos
Botas Para Llegar al Cielo
Installation – Dimensions vary
Jose Villalobos
Botas Para Llegar al Cielo
Installation – Dimensions vary
Cande Aguilar
El Puente Nuevo
48×72 inches • Multimedia painting with transfers on panel
Daniela Cavazos Madrigal
Maria
57×78 inches • Repurposed dresses, thread
Juan De Dios Mora
Si…mon al Amor
Linocut • Print 22×29.5 inches / 25.25×33.25 inches w/ frame
(The Laredo Center for the Arts is downtown at 500 Flores. For further information, call (956) 725-1715.)
A CONVERSATION WITH GIL ROCHA
LareDOS: HOW DID THE NAME OF THIS EXHIBIT COME ABOUT?
GR: It came up during a zoom conversation Leah Patgorski, Jennifer Myers, Tereneh Idia and I discussed ideas for the exhibition in Pittsburgh. Someone mentioned something along the lines of how the border is used as a weapon to impose fear and to set a political agenda.
LareDOS: TELL US ABOUT THE DRAWINGS SUBMITTED AS PLANS FOR THE PROPOSED WALL AND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSES. WHO DREW THEM, HOW MANY WERE SUBMITTED, HOW MANY WERE RESPONDED TO? WERE THEY INTENDED TO SHOW THE ABSURDITY OF THE WALL?
GR: The submissions received varied – over 40 people sent in designs from near and far, and many people sent multiple ideas. The link below offers more information about The Other Border Wall Project (OTBW), including images of some of the other designs submitted.
https://www.otherborderwallproject.com/phase-2
LareDOS: THE WORD “WEAPON” IS DOUBLE-EDGED, USED BY ANTI IMMIGRATION RACISTS AS A FEAR FACTOR, BUT ALSO FOR MANY OF US FRONTERIZOS WHO LIVE HERE OR WHO MORE RECENTLY CAME HERE TO LIVE — IS IT ALSO A WEAPON FOR HOPE AND JUSTICE?
GR: Exactly! Politicians use it in their rhetoric to impose fear towards immigrants and the US-Mexico border. Misconceptions of who we are often creates fear or hate towards us, as Mexican or Latin American descendants. I believe it is imperative that those of us who have a platform to voice our concerns, must help demystify these negative ideas. We must take control of our own voices and not let anyone else define who we are. We must continue to move forward without fear and showcase our talents and the beauty of our culture. Each of our voices is a weapon and together, “The Border is a Weapon!”!
LareDOS: WHAT ENGAGED YOU ABOUT ASSEMBLING AND CURATING THIS EXHIBIT?
GR: I was invited by the Other Border Wall Project Collective to curate an exhibition about the border in Pittsburgh. During my thought process and in conversation with the OTBW Collective many questions emerged about the border. Questions like, what exactly is a border? How far into the United States does the border reach; physically and mentally? What are things that limit us as “fronterizos” and create borders within the border? I then took the opportunity to “set the stage” and “paint” a better picture of what the border is, and how malleable it can become. I wanted to dissect what we understand of it and who we are by facilitating conversations through an art exhibition. Some of the conversations I wished to target were issues of immigration, machismo, wealth exchange, sacrifices for a better life and as the exhibition traveled from Pittsburgh to Laredo, the questions and conversations continue.
LareDOS: WHAT WAS THE OVERALL IMPACT YOU HAD HOPED FOR? DID THE EXHIBIT SURPASS YOUR EXPECTATIONS? DID IT TELL THE STORY YOU INTENDED?
GR: I believe so. Initially there were five artists, plus the OTBW Project in the Pittsburgh exhibition, but now that it is here in Laredo, I added two more artists to explore other perspectives or issues. These issues include folklore and alternative portraiture with the works of Ruben Luna and the impact of generational gaps between the 90’s and today, like in the work of Cande Aguilar. As we look for new venues to showcase the exhibition, my priority is for us to continue exploring, expanding, and learning.
The exhibition has grown to include art talks, podcasts, artist workshops, and the opportunity for other artists whose work relates to the border, to showcase their projects. Two of these projects that were recently presented at the Laredo Center for the Arts were the showing of the documentary “The Southern Front” by Carlos Evaristo Flores and a virtual reality experience titled “The Border Project (fronterizo)” by Julio Cesar Obscura.
LareDOS: WHERE HAS THIS EXHIBIT BEEN AND WHERE DO YOU WISH IT TO TRAVEL?
GR: So far Pittsburgh and Laredo only, but I wish it could travel to Mexico and anywhere it is welcomed.
LareDOS: ON THE TIMELINE OF YOUR CAREER IN ART, WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BORDER AS A WEAPON EXHIBIT?
GR: I really enjoy the challenge of curating because my experience in this role is very limited, but I love learning and growing. As an artist, I work with materials and personal interests, but now as a curator, working with other artists artworks helps expand the narrative I wish to convey. It is such an honor to work with such masterful artists. In reference to my career in art, this exhibition has opened new doors to collaborate with a lot more people and institutions.
LareDOS: WHAT DID THIS EXHBIT TELL US ABOUT OURSELVES—NOW AND THROUGH TIME?
GR: I really can’t speak for anyone else, but for me it has helped me understand that there is so much more to learn about myself. I am part of a quilt woven with different colors and languages. The quilt is always in the works. It continues to grow. It has no borders.
SIDEBAR
The takeaway
A quilt indeed, Gil.
I was overwhelmed by the “us” and “we” that “The Border Is A Weapon” exhibit evoked in me as I understood what many of us share in addition to language and culture, that of having arrived here had to do with crossing el Río Bravo del Norte.
Whatever it was that has brought us here over centuries then and now–the tail end of the Spanish Inquisition, the Mexican Revolution, hunger, strife, the wish for a better life, the need for asylum from torture and human trafficking–and by whatever means we arrived, here, we are all immigrants.
-MEG-
