The US-Mexico border stretches 1,954 miles. It is the busiest border in the world, with approximately 350 million documented crossings annually. The total population of the borderlands, defined as those counties and municipios lining the border on either side, stands at 12 million people. The boundary between the two nations has, in the past half a century, become a hotbed of discussions around immigration into America, taking over from late 19th century hubs of arrival like Ellis Island. In 1993, Bill Clinton mandated the construction of a 14-mile barrier between San Diego and Tijuana, this was in response to concerns around the importation of illegal drugs. It would prove to be a defining moment, and in the three decades since, the area has become increasingly industrialised, militarised and urbanised, with the Secure Fence Act of 2006 authorising the construction of 700 miles of border fencing. It is a location that shapes both personal and national identities, drives political rhetoric and change and impacts the lived experience of millions. Now, an exhibition at Cleveland Art Museum aims to spark vital conversation of what constitutes citizenship, as well as complex negotiations of personal identity as it relates to the border. Picturing the Border features more than four dozen photographs that demonstrate how Latinx, Chicano/a and Mexican artists have significantly rethought what defines citizenship, nationality, family, migration and the border beyond traditional frameworks.
A striking aspect of the art on display at the Cleveland Art Museum is the way it relates to the artist’s personal identity and family history. It is work that viscerally reminds us that those who live, work and grow-up in the borderlands have their lives shaped by the relationship between the two countries. For Laura Aguilar (1959-2018), photography was a way to make visible those often underrepresented, including herself. As a lesbian artist of both Mexican and Irish descent, who personally felt the effects of poverty, learning disability and depression, her work centers and celebrates those who are typically overlooked. Her self-portraits and later, her nude self-portraits, assert her identity as a queer, Chicana woman and capture her personal identity with raw honesty. It is this expression of self, and her own lived experience in Mexican American communities, that allows her creation of sensitive and tender images of the community more widely. Ideas of identity, both personal and ethnic, also come into clear focus in the photography of Louis Carlos Bernal (1941-1993), who began to capture the Chicano culture after receiving funding from the Mexican American Legal Defence and Educational fund. The experience of documenting these individuals brought the artist closer to his own roots and fuelled a passionate direction for his work, which earned his international recognition for championing regional diversity. He said: “my images speak of religious and family ties I have experienced as a Chicano. I have concerned myself with the mysticism of the Southwest and the strength of the spiritual and cultural values of the biarro.” His innovative images are a sensitive portrait of the family and home, what he saw as the two most important elements in the community. He photographed people in their homes, surrounded by their most treasured possessions and everyday objects. The result is an intimate depiction of what makes up the Chicano community, the objects and surroundings that form a life. In this, Bernal simultaneously offers an insight into his own character, and the collective identity of his community.
Immigration policy has been a cornerstone of US political rhetoric in recent elections, and the 2024 presidential race is sure to be no different. Donald Trump made the building of a “big, beautiful wall” between the US and Mexico a signature promise of his 2016 election campaign. Whilst in June of this year, President Joe Biden issued an order limiting asylum seekers from crossing the border, a measure which has meant migrant passage has plummeted. Several of the artists featured in this exhibition seek to remind viewers of the human realities that underlie the political. They draw attention to the people impacted by policy change and are forced to navigate an ever-changing and frequently hostile landscape. Architect Ronald Rael’s installation connected children on the US and Mexican border with a trio of seesaws slotted into the dividing walls. The bright pink teeter-totters were only in place for 40 minutes in July 2019, and sought to foster a sense of unity at the divisive location.
Elsewhere, Ada Trillo’s work brings attention to the journey of migrants from Central America as they attempt to cross the border. Her photography was informed by her own childhood growing up on the border between Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas as a first generation Mexican American. In an interview Red Canary Magazine, Trillo said: “Growing up in Juarez, you see that they’ve [migrants] already arrived and they’re safe. They made it to the border. What I want to document as part of my work is the journey – how far and difficult it is, and that many don’t make it.” The artist’s first monograph La Caravana Del Diablo: On the Run from the Northern Triangle to America, is the culmination of seven years of travelling with refugees and migrants. In this, her work echoes early pioneers like Graciela Iturbide, who also lived with the subjects of her portraits for extended periods of time, which resulted in images that offer an authentic and honest look into lives and communities that are often overlooked. Trillo’s unflinching images document the realities of the immigrant journey, and the large-scale caravan from Honduras to the US reveals the hardships, triumphs and real consequences of immigration policy.
Picturing The Border will run until 5 January. clevelandart.org
Words: Emma Jacob
Image Credits:
1. Cholos, White Fence, East Los Angeles,1986.Graciela Iturbide (Mexican,b.1942).Gelatin silverprint; image: 32 x 21.9 cm; sheet: 35.2 x 27.7 cm.The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Gift ofLeslie and JudithSchreyer and Gabri Schreyer-Hoffman in honor of Virginia Heckert, 2017.41.©Graciela Iturbide.
2. Yrenia Cervantes,1990.Laura Aguilar (American,1959–2018).Gelatin silver print; image: 22.9 x30.5 cm; paper: 27.9 x 35.6 cm.The Cleveland Museum of Art, Karl B. Goldfield Trust,2023.10.© Laura Aguilar Trust.
