This may be the last in my series honoring asylum seekers for a while. It is an intimate capture of the bond between parent and child. I so loved the ancient classic Maya bone structure of the mother's face... timeless beauty. I wonder if they are still alive-- and together. Our administration will go down in history for crimes against humanity. I must say here that the brutal saga of America's asylum seekers hit a nerve. When reports revealed what "Zero-Tolerance" was doing to families, children, even babies, I'd had enough. I was determined to do something. I saw my niche when the plumbing collapsed at the old Benedictine Monastery, Tucson's primary migrant shelter. A dozen porta-johns were brought in and volunteers built outdoor showers with garden hoses, PVC pipes, pallets, tarps. I and a lovely Catholic lady cleaned all of them daily, and continued to do so until the Casa Alitas Program relocated to their new facility farther south. The refugees were conscientious and always offering to help. The physical stresses they had suffered were evident in what I cleaned, and it was heart-wrenching. These are the ones we depend on to clean OUR toilets and who tirelessly devote themselves to our worst jobs, in the shadows, so that we Americans can have a better life. There were days it was so overwhelming I'd dissolve in my car before I could leave. I felt a need to lift up the humanity of these remarkable "throw-away" people who had suffered so much and come so far. That need gave birth to this series of artworks. Comments are closed.
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