When I listen to others’ stories of immigration, my mind organizes the information into a map-like image. As we share our experiences lived throughout our journeys, I synthesize what I hear like a designer, applying balance, unity, rhythm, contrast, pattern, hierarchy, and emphasis to every narrative. I filter their words through my own interpretation, life experiences and world view. When I make art inspired by others’ experiences, the marks are my own, not theirs.

With these pieces, however, I wanted the process of making them to be different. I invited ten Latina immigrants from the Soñé una Milpa project, and their family members to make their own marks on handmade paper circles. I prepared squeegee bottles with over-beaten pigmented pulp in many different colors. During a party that J. Leigh Garcia and I threw for the women, I asked them to pulp-paint the circles with freedom. The marks they made were celebratory in nature. Children, grandmothers, husbands, aunts, uncles, and close friends participated. The marks made on these circles celebrated the valuable life journeys of the immigrant women.

A participatory and collaborative body of work in nature, Camino de Esperanza carries evidence of the unselfconscious marks of the participants as well as of the carefully planned and hand crafted design of the artist.

Please visit our project website: unamilpa.com for more information about the stories of the resilient women that inspired this artwork.