IMMIGRATION ART IN MILWAUKEE

(Painting is "The Immigrant's Dream: The American Response" by Malaquías Montoya)

Further below, read an essay by Dr. Gilberto Cardenas, a Notre Dame University faculty member and one of the preeminent experts on the history of U.S. immigration who collected each piece in the exhibit over many years.
 
Call the United Community Center Latino Arts at (414) 384-2100, or Haggerty Museum at (414) 288-1669, for more information about the exhibit.

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Art and Migration: A Collector's View
By Gilberto Cárdenas,
University of Notre Dame
 
While this essay describes my collection of art pertaining to Mexican immigration, I feel compelled to begin with a short overview of the origins of large-scale migration from Mexico in order to call attention to the current policy preferences that, while enabling Mexicans to enter temporarily for purposes of work, often preclude successful, permanent settlement.

This state of affairs results in an ever-evolving, dichotomous understanding of self, community, and government that becomes manifest through the artistic responses of Latino artists to issues like temporary labor and largely illegal migration, as well as the array of reaction to Mexican migrants. These themes, and the art that investigates them, are discussed in light of the renewed debate concerning recently advanced Congressional proposals. I then trace my interest in migration studies, and describe my involvement with artists and organizations instrumental in creating, exhibiting, and preserving Latino art in general, and about immigration issues in particular.

The essay closes with a description of "Caras Vemos, Corazones No Sabemos: Faces Seen, Hearts Unknown: The Human Landscape of Mexican Migration" and pays homage to the artists, museum personnel, the curator, and colleagues who have worked so hard to make this exhibition possible.
 
Historical Overview
The history of Mexican migration to the United States is distinctly unique and set apart from the migration histories of all other countries, especially those of European nations. The Mexican immigrant experience varies greatly from the European experience because of a complex set of social relations, which preceded the arrival of Mexican immigrants bound for the United States.

The subsequent immigration initiatives that favored labor migration over legal, permanent immigration from Mexico further distance the experience of Mexican immigrants from that of European immigrants. The dominantly circular, temporary, and illegal character of Mexican migration is not inexplicable, nor is it a new phenomenon; rather, it dates back to the origins of mass migration first brought about by unilateral decisions of the US government.
 
Early in the last century our government created innovative exceptions to immigration laws that propelled the largest and most continuous migration to this country (the 1917 importation program and the Bracero program and related temporary worker schemes, implemented from 1942 to 1964, are examples of such exceptions). These government-initiated programs- intended to import useful and profitable Mexican laborers-created the conditions from which contemporary undocumented migration from Mexico stems.
 
Legal immigration from Mexico to the United States throughout the years has also largely been a by-product of labor migration. The overwhelming majority of immigrants legally admitted to the United States have previously resided in this country as laborers and originally entered with the authorization of temporary worker programs. Others arrived illegally to work or to follow family members already working here. Such illegal entries have historically been the result of the high demand for migrant labor in the United States and the lack of legal means for authorized entry commensurate to this demand. The US market has for years welcomed Mexican migrants as useful commodities even if US policy has not welcomed them as legal residents.
 
If we gain anything from the immigration experiences of the last century it should be recognition of the utter failure and constitutional dangers in creating and institutionalizing such second-class citizenship among immigrants. Mexican migrants, as a group, are extraordinary people who have proven time after time a demonstrable ability to endure a marginalized social existence.

In the end all that negative US social policies have accomplished is an impediment to the progress and social mobility of this population, and an increase in the costs of managing the problem of illegal entries from Mexico effectively. Decreasing opportunities for legal admission to the United States, increasing exclusion from entitlement programs available to all other classes of eligible residents, and a variety of disincentive strategies to limit settlement or increase the propensity for return migration virtually ensure the dependency of Mexican immigrants on the underground economy. The result of this, as the United States has seen, is the criminalization of illegal migration and the unnecessarily soaring cost of border security and control.
 
More humane policy would be consistent with our general immigrant history and would prove more cost effective in the long run. Such policy would recognize that it is time to end labor migration and promote greater opportunities for Mexicans to enter the United States as legal immigrants for purposes of settlement.

Legal immigration is the best solution to illegal migration and would better protect our national security now and in the future. President Bush understands the need to act responsively on the issue of immigration; unfortunately, however, Congress does not now and may never realize its duplicity in creating today's "illegal migration problem" and continues to fail the nation where migration legislation is concerned.
 
In light of these failures, the successes of Chicano and Mexican artists such as those featured in this exhibition stand out. These artists pose creative challenges to society and to governmental institutions and address immigration forthrightly, working hard to affirm the dignity of Mexican workers who have been denied the opportunity to enter our country legally and permanently in a manner consistent with their contributions to the US labor market and culture. Through the voices and visions of these artists a better public understanding of and empathy for the immigrant experience may be achieved, and a more humane discussion about the politics of immigration begun.
 
Visualizing Contemporary Mexican Migration
The issue of immigration began to appear in the artwork of both Chicano and Mexican artists, as well as in the work of other artists concerned with human rights, in the late 1960s. The emergence of this practice was in part a response to the resurgence of public and political debates around undocumented migration to the United States. Legislative measures such as Congressman Peter Rodino's (Democrat, N.J.) 1971 proposal to penalize employers for knowingly hiring undocumented workers (a strategy commonly referred to as "employer sanctions") created a national debate about immigration and in time succeeded in polarizing public feelings on the issue. A version of employer sanctioning was eventually passed in 1986, and though it included amnesty for certain classes of undocumented migrants and special provisions for amnesty for agricultural workers (IRCA), it opened discussions on anti-immigration policy and reform that continue to influence governmental and civic actions in the United States.
 
Today, 20 years later, we again find ourselves facing congressional debates over policy that proposes to criminalize undocumented migration and possibly even halt legal immigration when it comes to Mexican migrants. Unfortunately, rather than expanding opportunities and options for legal immigration, since 1965 Congress has systematically modified immigration laws to reduce opportunities for legal immigration from Mexico. This has been done quietly, with little public outcry against disentitlements and the negative approaches taken to restrict legal immigration. It is clear to many of us, however, that we do not have to champion illegality to achieve legality, but we do have to recognize that at the root of the problem is the historical absence of opportunities for legal entry (both temporary and permanent) commensurate to the demand for and the use and profitability of migrant labor.
 
Latino artists were among the first who responded to the inequitable treatment of migrants in the United States, continuing a tradition of quiet but powerful reaction to social injustice in the arts community. Recognizing the duplicitous nature of the policy culture on migration in the United States, artists ventured into projects of highly visible, counter-public practices. Much of the work these artists produced was in the form of poster art that sought to represent the historical realities of the Mexican presence in the United States and to affirm the influence of Chicano/Latino cultures in this country's heritage. The thematic range of this artistic movement was concerned with the recognition of a territorial history that predates the very foundation of the United States as a country, as well as with the current material and cultural conditions of Mexicans and Chicanos. Some artists took a decisively more critical stance toward society and governmental institutions involved directly with migration affairs, positioning themselves as political activists while at the same time striving to be more intentionally broad in their artistic orientations. Although their work always found a certain audience in the mainstream art world, it was primarily created by and exhibited for the Chicano/ Latino community and the community's sympathizers.
 
While immigration was among the themes of interest to Chicano artists in the United States throughout the latter part of the 1960s and 1970s, it was only part of a larger set of concerns addressed in the works of this period.5 During the late 1970s and early 1980s, as the immigration issue rose to national prominence, Chicano art became increasingly diversified, a trend influenced by the growing attention paid Chicano artists by mainstream art markets and fine arts institutions. It was not until the 1980s that the topic of migration returned more forcefully as a central preoccupation in the growing body of Chicano/Latino art. Beginning with early efforts during the 1980s, which included exhibitions by El Taller de Arte Fronterizo/the Border Art Workshop (1983) and El Taller Binacional de Serigrafía,7 the border and the experience of migration began to appear as a thematic and aesthetic point of departure for many Chicano artists and curators. Perhaps one of the most significant-if not the first-major art exhibition on migration was held at the Diego Rivera Studio Museum in Mexico City in the early 1990s. This exhibition was based on retablos from the collections of Jorge Durant and Douglas Massey, two noted sociologists and experts in Mexican migration studies. Other exhibitions emerged throughout the 1990s, encouraging the development of significant showcases of the migration/border experience in many venues. These include the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art and Centro Cultural la Raza, San Diego's joint curatorial venture La Frontera/The Border (1993) and the multiple editions of inSite, a binational project mounted along the San Diego/Tijuana corridor. Exhibitions like these served as further evidence of a growing public recognition of the immigrant/border experience and the importance of the arts as a public forum in which to discuss and engage ideas.
 
Today artists from both sides of the border continue to address migration issues. Their artwork is taking many forms, and, while the earlier generation of pioneers who responded to the national dialogue on migration and migrant rights head-on did so without much support, contemporary artists have the benefit of a much larger network of public sympathizers. The current manifestations of pro immigrant sentiment are unprecedented in size and scale. Perhaps the most nationally visible demonstrations were the 1 May 2006 "Day without an Immigrant" rallies in which immigrants from many nationalities and their supporters took to the streets, mounting a peaceful yet forceful plea to the nation for recognition and humane treatment.
 
As in earlier historical periods, artists are once again becoming directly involved with the protest movement, their voices and their work forming a vital part of demonstrations in cities throughout the country. The impact of these art-based strategies can be also witnessed in our own community in Northwest Indiana, albeit on a smaller scale. Here local protesters incorporated cardboard signs and icon laden attires into their rallies and performed creative chants and routines as they gathered on the streets. Demonstrations like these make clear the inextricable link between the street protest and the museum-both showcases of art that grows out of the impulse and necessity of a community to express itself beyond the legalistic or inflammatory rhetoric that has dominated the debates on immigration to date.
 
As a body the artwork resulting from this political atmosphere is doing the important work of examining the human side of an ongoing and pressing debate that affects both Latinos and non-Latinos nationwide. I believe that the majority of the artwork produced with the expressed intention of addressing immigration has value to the entire national community, speaking in an immediate way to issues, which, if left unresolved, could very well negatively impact us all.
 
This exhibition showcases a diverse selection of artwork and demonstrates the broad range of artistic strategies, iconographies, and positionings assumed by Chicano and Mexican artists in response to the issue of migration. The work featured here presents the wealth and multiplicity of approaches of a community not only showing us their faces, caras, but opening their hearts, corazones, in hopes that we might better understand the phenomenon of migration in this country.
 
The Migration Collection
My interest in Mexican immigration developed very closely with my interest in the practice of photography during my years as an undergraduate student at California State University at Los Angeles. I worked there with Ralph Guzman, a political scientist, who was actively involved both professionally and personally in defending the rights of the foreign-born. My affiliation with Prof. Guzman led me to better appreciate the power of art and the role that the visual arts play in the debate over immigration, and he encouraged me to engage in further study in the field at the University of Notre Dame. At Notre Dame I worked with Julian Samora, professor of sociology, who provided opportunities and guidance that enabled me to participate in some pioneering research in immigration studies that he and other colleagues (such as Ernesto Galarza and John Price) had begun. He also invited another graduate student, Jorge Bustamante, and me to co-`write his book Los Mojados (1971). My involvement with this project allowed me to utilize documentary photography to create a portrait of Mexican migration to the United States. It was my work as a documentary photographer and my growing appreciation for the effect of visual evidence in promoting deeper understanding and empathy for the experience of Mexican migrants that pushed me to become further involved in the Chicano/Latino arts community. I came to believe that images could be utilized to advance sociological knowledge in ways that served to augment a qualitative understanding of society and to enable sociologists to communicate findings on a more emotional and immediate basis.
 
Since then I have assumed many roles in the community: photographer, collector, promoter, exhibitor, lecturer, art patron, gallery owner, publisher, arts organization and museum board member, and-perhaps of most concern here-archives collection builder. These varied roles have not only influenced my collecting interests but also my sensibilities and biases in understanding and appreciating Chicano/Latino art in a decisively much broader context than when I first began collecting.12 While my initial ventures into collecting tended to focus on the political efficacy of the artwork, my own experience and growing familiarity with the body of Chicano/Latino artwork allowed me to enter into a more intimate relationship with the art, and I came to know and value the particularities of each medium and technique, the range in iconography employed by the artists, and most importantly, the biographies behind the practice.
 
My collecting of Chicano visual arts began during the 1960s with poster art and prints, and later incorporated drawings, watercolors, and paintings. Yet it was not until the early 1980s and my first acquisitions of the serigraphs produced at Self Help Graphics, Inc. (SHG), an important art center in East Los Angeles, that I seriously assumed my identity as a collector. My conversations with Ramón Favela also contributed to the formation of this identity.13 Shortly thereafter, Sister Karen Boccalero, founder and director of SHG, and I began a close working relationship that lasted until her untimely death in 1997. At her urging, I became involved in promoting SHG nationally and assisting her in developing new projects, one of which was a special atelier that would accompany an exhibition focusing in part on Mexico. The workshop, under the auspices of Talleres Binacionales de la Frontera, resulted in a very fine portfolio of 20 serigraphs, titled Carnalismo, Compadres y Hermanos. The portfolio included artwork produced by several outstanding Mexican-born artists who were living permanently in the United States.
 
 
In 1987, Sister Karen again requested my help in raising money to develop an etching workshop that would complement the printing workshops that SHG had already successfully managed. Together, with private funding that I secured from several colleagues, we produced 10 etchings, The New Immigration Portfolio, which was accompanied by a title page and related text that Lada Black created in handset letter type. The participating artists proofed each of the etchings with a master printer in their respective areas of residence, and Esquivel Romero printed the entire edition (100) in Mexico City and in 1989 also released it in Los Angeles. This portfolio became part of my collection and is featured in this exhibition.
 
My work with SHG allowed me to gain intimate knowledge of the dynamics of art making and to learn about the immense commitment of Chicano and Mexican artists to visualize the lives of their communities through creative practice. Most importantly it allowed me to understand the immense needs our artists and cultural workers have for opportunities-economic, material, and otherwise-to continue their important work as griots. My schooling with Sister Karen went well beyond my personal encounter with the arts as a spectator, and through her example I learned to become an advocate for artistic expression and an avid supporter of the continuing contributions Chicanos and Mexicans make to the creative heart of our country. Her passion and commitment to the arts continue to fuel my own practice as a collector.
 
Perhaps most beneficial to the actual building of my collection, however, was the establishment of a commercial gallery- Galería Sin Fronteras, Inc., launched in Austin, Texas in 1986 as a result of Sister Karen's urging-to provide a venue for artists who could exhibit their work without fear that it would be rejected because of its cultural or political content. Galería Sin Fronteras began as a community based operation in the East side of Austin, the bedrock of the Chicano community in the city, but eventually moved to a prime location in the business district, between the State Capitol and the University of Texas campus. This shift was purposeful and sought to extend the reach of the artwork presented in the gallery beyond an exclusively Latino market. The strategy was extremely successful in gaining accessibility to different art markets and in expanding the perceived acceptable geographies for Chicano art in Austin and beyond. Through the gallery I was able to exhibit the work of Chicano artists and others who embraced our ideals and whose work provided leadership in gaining attention for the socio-cultural and political milieu of Chicanos/Latinos in the United States.
 
I was not alone in my work, however, as the network of Chicano/Latino artist-activists continued to grow during this period. As the relentless negative campaign against immigrants-the so-called "alien menace"-continued and intensified in our nation, Chicano/Latino artists from both sides of the border took up the issue of immigration in their work. In 1984, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (COLEF) joined with several Mexican institutions and in collaboration with Galería Sin Fronteras, Inc. and a group of Chicano art centers in the United States participated in mounting an art exhibition under the auspices of the Festival Internacional de la Raza. The festival became an annual event in many border locales throughout the next decade.17 The festival featured exhibitions and related programming and was first held at the Centro Cultural de Tijuana (CECUT).
 
The director of the Department of Cultural Studies, COLEF (and curator for Caras Vemos) Amelia Malagamba- Ansótegui invited me to loan work for the festival and for a subsequent tour in Mexico. Some 80 prints and drawings by Malaquías Montoya (whose work appears in this exhibition) were displayed at the Centro Cultural Tijuana, Mexico and at a major exhibition in Mexico City: Del Muralismo Revolucionario al Arte Chicano: La Obra de Malaquías Montoya (1986-1987). The prints also later traveled to other sites in Mexico, including El Museo de Culturas Populares in Coyoacán, Mexico, D.F. in March 1987.
 
In subsequent years a series of exhibitions enabling Chicano and Mexican artists to use their experience and talents to create strong visual images about the social realities of the border and migration were organized, beginning with Plástica Chicana (1988) and including a photographic exhibition titled El Barrio, Primer Espacio de Identidad Cultural (1989); Las Mujeres de la Raza (1990); and a mixed media show titled Los Artistas Chicanos del Valle de Tejas: Narradores de Mitos y Tradiciones (1991). Monotype workshops were also conducted at SHG; Strike Editions in Austin, Tex.; Taller Mexicano de Grabado in Chicago; Xicanindio-Artiztlán in Mesa, Ariz.; and Taller De Monotipia in Tijuana. The first showing of these works took place in Tijuana and Laredo in an exhibition titled Imágenes de la Frontera: Monotipia (1992). Several of these monotypes are included in this exhibition, and others are housed in collections that include those of COLEF, El Programa Cultural de las Fronteras in Mexico City, the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum of Chicago, el Museo de la Estampa, and the archives of SHG.
 
These festivals and exhibitions served as meeting places for many of the artists presented in this exhibition and provided opportunities for artists across disciplines to encounter each other and to experience the possibilities of working in supportive environments where their subject matter was never the "minority approach." These collective ventures began to define Chicano and border art as important, interrelated practices with much to share with each other. Furthermore, the exhibition and performance showcases organized for the festival helped to shape and circulate Chicano and border art throughout Mexico and the United States-and eventually throughout the international community- as curators, museums, and cultural organizations began to recognize the value and promise of this artistic tradition.
 
I am pleased to report that although annual events like the Festival International de la Raza have ceased, the energy and circuits of collaboration developed by these prior encounters continue to bear fruit in important artistic collaborations today. The state of Chicano and border art is strong, and museums across the nation have begun to include the work of Chicano/Latino artists in their collections, as well as increasingly exhibiting it in Latina/o-specific shows or in the larger context of American art. This practice points to an exciting future for Chicano/Latino art in terms of ideological perspective and formal experimentation-a future evidenced by the diversity of works in this exhibition. I am delighted to have the opportunity to participate in and to witness the collective showing of this body of work; to recognize the common threads and stylistic innovations present here; and to get a taste for the future experiments, already yielding engaging and complex images, that will keep Chicano and Mexican art about the border vibrant, beautiful, and relevant.
 
Caras Vemos
The works for this exhibition were selected by curator Amelia Malagamba-Ansótegui from a wider body of artwork from my collection. In early discussions with her it became clear that mounting an exhibition of artwork focused on Mexican immigration and border-related topics would require me to augment my collection. This involved a recognition of the collection's strengths and limitations and a push to acquire new work more judiciously in order to fill the collection's gaps. Some 75 percent of the works found in this exhibition were obtained through commission, sponsorship, patronage of art organizations and museums, or through my work as a gallery owner and publisher. Artists have given me artwork from time to time as well.
 
The collection includes a few pieces dating back to the late 1960s, primarily offset prints and serigraphs, and many works created in the 1970s. However, the bulk of the works in the collection were obtained in the 1980s and 1990s. During the past two years I also acquired some 40-plus art pieces in anticipation of this exhibition, often in consultation with the curator.
 
The work featured in this exhibition has been selected for its attention to the theme of "borders" and has been primarily created by artists who have personal knowledge of the immigrant experience. It is my hope that through their work viewers might "hear" the immigrant's voice and "see" his/her struggle-that through the intimate portrait of immigration presented here empathy might be fostered and a more reasoned public discussion about the nature and necessity of Mexican immigration made possible. By offering us a personal vision of the immigrant experience, this exhibition allows us an opportunity to be touched in our hearts, and to thereby develop a better appreciation for and a deeper understanding of the hardships and social realities that Mexican immigrants face.
 
Las Gracias
I applaud the artists in this exhibition for creating strong pieces that continue to make lasting impressions about the pressing social issue of immigration. The artists have been very generous in making this exhibition possible, and they have also been very generous in allowing me to acquire their work. I am grateful to all these artists, talleres, cultural workers, and to my colleagues in the curatorial world. In particular, I want to acknowledge Malaquías Montoya, Alejandro Romero, SHG, and the many others who contributed to the strength of this collection in its early days. I want to also acknowledge Sam Coronado/ Serie Project, María Elena Castro, Juan Fuentes, Antonia Guerrero, Gronk, Connie Arismendi, Maceo Montoya, Ramón Ramírez, Dulce Pinzón, and Pedro Lasch, to name just a few of the artists who have been very supportive, especially at a time when my art budget has been bigger than my pocketbook. I am finally very fortunate to have learned much about art from my friend and trusted colleague, Tomás Ybarra- Frausto. Gracias mi "Yoda" por tu amistad y apoyo.
 
I would particularly like to thank the Snite Museum for the enthusiastic support director Chuck Loving and his staff have shown this exhibition, and for their continuing support for Latino artists. The Notre Dame and South Bend communities have opened their doors to Latino artists by hosting several exhibitions of Latino art in recent years, including Breaking Barriers, an exhibition at the Snite Museum of Art that featured Cuban artists; the South Bend Regional Art Museum's exhibition of South Bend-based artist Ramiro Rodríguez; Saint Mary's College and Moreau Gallery's Mi Alma, Mi Tierra, Mi Gente: Contemporary Chicana Art; and the Snite Museum's many exhibitions, including Sebastião Salgado's photography exhibition,26 and last year's show Stations, which featured beautiful charcoal drawings by Vincent Valdéz. Since 1999 the Snite Museum has also sponsored an annual "Day of the Dead" altar installation, and this summer exhibited works from El Taller de Gráfica Popular, a graphic arts workshop founded in Mexico City in 1937. I am especially pleased that the Snite Museum not only recognizes the importance of Latino art but also has developed an outstanding collection of Latin American photography and the most significant collection of Olmec art in any university-based museum in the United States.
 
It is my expressed intention that the Snite Museum will receive the bulk of my collection, a wish contingent on the hope and expectation that the University of Notre Dame will continue to recognize the importance of the Snite Museum to its mission and will prioritize the construction of a new museum in the future. The collections, programming, and educational activities of the Snite Museum line up in a very significant way with the growing proportion of all Catholics who are Latino. It is possible that by 2010 Latinos may constitute well over half of all Catholics in the United States, and because of this the University of Notre Dame has a unique opportunity to continue to be a leader in advancing Catholic higher education and preparing future generations of Catholic leaders in all fields, including art.
 
I am also grateful to my assistant, Brookes Ebetsch, for her tireless work in organizing and documenting my collection and for her leadership in overseeing the publication initiatives for this exhibition.
 
Finally, I want to close by extending my deep appreciation to my colleague, former graduate student, and close friend Amelia Malagamba-Ansótegui for her vision, expertise, and perseverance in curating Caras Vemos. I dedicate this exhibition to our mutual colleague and friend, Sister Karen Boccalero (1933-1997).
 
I am convinced that we are a better country today because of immigration, despite all the doomsday predictions made by both racists and restrictionists of the past. Restrictionists do not have a monopoly on wanting security at the border and a reduction in undocumented migration. I have every reason to believe that we will be a better country tomorrow because of the new immigration, particularly if there is an increase in legal immigration that might occur if Congress enacts a fair immigration policy. I hope this exhibition will contribute to a more reasoned public discussion about the nature and impact of Mexican immigration to the United States.
 
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