Border Pictures

These images remember some of those lost in the cruel politics of the southern border.

Along with David Kassan, these works will be part of an exhibition entitled Elegies that will open at the Vita Art Center in Ventura California on June 12, 2021

Jakelin Caal  |  2021  |  Oil on Paper Mounted on Canvas  |  41 x 41 inches

Jakelin Amei Rosmery Caal died in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The seven-year-old Guatemalan girl, along with her father, was part of group of 163 migrants who crossed the border at Antelope Wells, New Mexico in early December 2018 seeking asylum. Border agents ordered the migrants to be transferred 94 miles by bus to a station at Lordsburg, NM. Prior to leaving, Jakelin’s father notified authorities that she was ill and vomiting. She did not receive immediate care and emergency rescue (BORSTAR) was not called in. Instead, the hour and a half bus trip went forward, When they arrived at Lordsburg Jakelin was not breathing. After efforts to revive her, Jakelin was then flown to a hospital in El Paso, Texas, where she died.

Claudia Patricia Gómez Gonzáles  |  2020-21  |  Oil on Paper Mounted on Panel  |  88 x 48 inches

Claudia Patricia Gómez Gonzáles was killed by U.S. Border Patrol near Laredo, Texas in May, 2018. Claudia was a 20 year old student from Guatemala that had graduated from a program in forensic accounting. She had traveled to the U.S. in hopes of furthering her studies. She was an indigenous Maya-Mam woman and was with a group of other migrants when confronted by Border Patrol. The agent responsible claimed the group refused to get on the ground and instead rushed toward him. He claimed he fired in self-defense. Claudia was shot in the head. She was unarmed.

Carlos Gregorio Hernández Vásquez   |  2021  |  Oil on Paper Mounted on Panel  |  41 x 41 inches

Carlos Gregorio Hernández Vásquez died in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection in May, 2019. There is video showing the healthy seeming 16-year-old boy from Guatemala crossing the Rio Grande by raft into the U.S.  Carlos was taken into custody by CBP at McAllen, Texas, on May 13. Despite U.S. law requiring migrant children to be transferred to Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) custody within 72 hours, Carlos was held at McAllen for about a week. The processing center at McAllen had been plagued by “large numbers” of migrants with high fevers and flu symptoms. On Sunday, May 19, Carlos was diagnosed with flu symptoms and given Tamiflu. He was then moved from the processing center into border station custody the same day. There is video showing Carlos collapse in his cell that night .  He remained there unattended and was found dead on Monday morning.

 

Porvenir  |  2021  |  Oil on Paper Mounted on Canvas  |  41 x 41 inches

Porvenir was a small village in Texas near the Mexican border. In January of 1918, a contingent of Texas Rangers, U.S. Cavalry and a few white ranchers entered Porvenir. They seized fifteen men and boys, all unarmed, and murdered them at a nearby hill. The baseless pretext for the massacre was a raid on a nearby ranch a month earlier by Mexican bandits thought to be Villistas. The Porvenir villagers had nothing to do with the raid.

Porvenir means “the future” in Spanish. The grim irony of the name is that the events at Porvenir followed a pattern that has repeated itself to this day. When the killings were discovered an inquiry followed the standard course. The Rangers claimed they had acted in self-defense and were acquitted by a grand jury. The Ranger Captain who led the slaughter was reassigned. The Cavalry maintained that they were not involved and that it was the Rangers and ranchers that had executed the villagers. Modern investigations discovered U.S. Cavalry issue bullets and casings at the site of the atrocity. The fifteen victims ranged in age from 15 to 72.

Claudia Patricia Gómez Gonzáles  |  2021  |  Jacquard Tapestry (in studio)  |  132 x 70 inches

Detail - Claudia Patricia Gómez Gonzáles  Tapestry

This detail shows a verbatim news story from the time of the shooting that is woven into the tapestry version of the image