Episode 2: “Al Regreso A Juarez” by Blanca Bañuelos-Hernandez

Transcription:

A lot of folks, a lot of people who aren't from this country, do not know how to take care of the land because we've been dislocated from our own land. [MUSIC]

My name is Blanca Bañuelos-Hernandez. I currently live in Albuquerque. I lived in between Colorado and Albuquerque, however I am originally from Juárez, México. My pronouns are she/her/ella. What I would consider the medium that I work with, I would just say that I generally just do storytelling through any type of visual material. Everything I create is a story about me and a lot of it focuses on my story of migration and that sometimes shows whether it is acrylics and that's how I started off as an artist, was using acrylics. And now what I focus on the most is illustration so I transitioned into like digital art and it’s just because it doesn't occupy as much time. You know, like, we live in a capitalist society so we’re in the constant like go go go, so digital is what has worked with me through my busy schedule and that's what I’m using right now and that’s why my art featured in the story book is, a digital illustration.

I would say that overall what I try to integrate into all the art that I create is just my authentic self. It is a place where I feel like nobody should have a say in what I should do, what I can't say, what I can display, what I can't display. So I always try to be unapologetic through my art. It goes back to my roots of being a young person at 16 and the Trump administration kicking in, and getting involved in community organizing, you know, and that led me into the “immigrant rights movement” and like I vividly remember like people were just being like, “we are here to stay, we are unafraid” and I think like that's where that narrative of unapologetic, came into what I do as art.

For me I try to call out as much as possible the systems of oppression that not only oppressed me but have oppressed my parents. And a lot of that is calling out the immigration system, whether that is border enforcement, or whether that is even the industry itself like the private detention centers, or even just the police you know, the presence of police.

I always intend to make something look pretty and draw attention and there being a message in there. Art for me, when I was much younger, when I first arrived to the United States, was my safe space because I didn't need to speak English. Art for me is also healing, it is my medicine. As previously an undocumented person and even as someone who has residency now it’s like I don't have access to health insurance. Thankfully I found art to be therapy for me. There's so much going on here, so much anger, like let me put that in art.

The art piece is “Al Regreso A Juárez”. I would say it's a love letter to México and specifically to Juárez. I had to move from Juárez a long time ago, you know, and this piece for me means a lot. It has a lot of different meanings. It very much has trauma in there of leaving home and never knowing when you're going to be able to go back home or if you’re even going to be able to go back home. And so in this piece there's three different layers to it. There's the sky and then there's the wording around the maguey and then there's the border and the border is in black and white and it has like the ICE car in it. And this is a reflection and a love letter to my first time back home in 18 years. I never thought that I was going to be able to go back home, I never thought that I was going to get the privilege to be able to return to my land. And visually the first time, like the sunset that is in the art piece is the sunset that was there when my first night in Juárez and that's what “Al Regreso A Juárez” for me means, a love letter. A love letter that I'm finally back home and there's that abundance and joy there too in this piece. But also that reality of I’ve been forced to stay in this country. I didn’t choose not to go back home. It was because of the border that exists, because of the materialization of the border, with the presence of ICE and CBP, I wasn't able to go back home. It's a very personal piece, that love letter of like, “oh I'm finally back home and there's a beautiful sunset in front of me and I am so happy that I'm here on the other side and I am able to go back safely to the United States and not face that deportation”. 

The maguey has a lot of meaning to me. The maguey reminds me of home and I use that all throughout my art too. It's my little like signature, I would say. The maguey is a feminine plant and it has a lot of meaning to México too. The plant is very sacred, the plant was used for sewing wounds and stuff like that. So even like that recognition of how sacred plants are to me, what maguey means to me and just connecting all those pieces in this art. [MUSIC]

I'm from Juárez. So even just thinking of the process of coming into the United States, that's also represented within the art piece too, you know, if you just take a deep look into the art piece. In Juárez, one of the biggest things that has changed the quality of air, the quality of living, is the maquiladoras, which was done through NAFTA, which was done through US imperialism. Those maquiladoras changed life for people in Juárez. But not only the maquiladoras. The building of borders created the situation where not only like was the air quality really bad, but also NAFTA was very much about removing people from their lands in México. What these globalized corporations do is that they set up shop in poor areas and then they leave. I didn’t really think about like “oh how is that environmental conditions pushed me out of home” because I didn't have that privilege to sit down and be like “ these maquiladoras that are feeding my uncles, my aunties, my grandparents is actually killing us at the same time. There's no time to sit down and be like oh this is actually messing our air. How is it that the dump is in Juárez is messing up our air. It's not lack of education or anything like that, it's just the way the oppressor does their work where they make sure that those that are oppressed do not know who their oppressor is, you know. And that's very much true in like migration too, you know. A lot of people end up leaving their homelands because it's like “well there's no work.” But why isn't there no work? It's because of globalization. What I try to display in my artwork is migration and understanding that each structure issue that we encounter is due to some type of environmental condition. 

By the simple act of creating art is the way that I celebrate myself and for my community something that I would say has failed within the immigrant rights movement is that we just see ourselves as immigrants. It's really really important to see ourselves beyond that governmental term that has been placed on us you know because we're not immigrants. We are immigrants because of a governmental term and for me to be able to be like, “no I'm an artist” is very important and I should celebrate myself for that but also celebrate other immigrant/migrant artists as well for recognizing that they are not just immigrants, they are not just undocumented people, they are not just temporarily people in this land, like they are artists. We're caretakers, we’re also doctors, we’re different things you know. We're not just this term that the government has given to us because we're so busy we get lost in this world of just believing that term that has been placed on to us that we forget to nurture what actually brings abundance and joy to us. By continuing to create our artwork, we're sharing our stories, we're also like fighting that narrative that exists about immigrants and I think it's really important that especially youth recognize that their art is very powerful. Anybody who is oppressed, who takes time to create for their own well being and the well being of their community, celebrate them fully for that. We should be creating for the purpose of ourselves before creating for the purpose of anybody else. [MUSIC] 

MUSIC & SOUNDS USED:

Theme music : Water Fluid - Music by ItsWatR from Pixabay

Migrate Gaya Downtemp o - Music by REDproductions from Pixabay