Actions To Relate To Oneself: Final
Currently Untitled
Growing up to where I am now, my mother and father would tell me stories of how they made it to this country all by themselves. The former left her home of Peru and went via airplane to find work and make a life of her own. But the latter went through a much harder experience to leave Ecuador and come to Miami. As a source of inspiration, I grew amazed of how my father struggled through everything detrimental and arrived to the land of prosperity barefooted. That made me think of the important issue of illegal immigrating and how immigrants always struggle against all odds to reach a better life to this very day. When watching the news, I still hear the tragic stories of how immigrants tried to cross over the border, only to be caught by immigrant officers and facing fines and imprisonment. Art tells stories and I want my sculpture to remind us of what we did to get here. What many others, especially Cubans and Europeans, are going through to come to the United States. Having been inspired by many immigrant stories and movies about the issue like ‘The Marksman’ and ‘Sin Nombre’, I thought my creation should be a boat. The kind that immigrants travel on. I crafted what would be the bow with the building blocks of wood from home. The front and back are cut circular. What is noticeable of the piece is the abundance of wood sticks and twigs held together by hot glue to create the stern. I was reminded of how I made the wings of the Enigmatic Angel Shield with the same kind of material. I wanted to replicate the same shape into the boat, but couldn’t because I was unable to hold them still without the pieces falling off. So I came with an alternate strategy, gathering twigs and sticks from my neighborhood and FIU, to make the stern. As I was building the front piece by piece like a puzzle, I saw how the allotments left something like holes all around. It gave me an impression of how the boat seemed damaged and incomplete. I recall seeing photos of those types of boats tend to be full and packed with many immigrants. There might be issues that tend to come with transporting lots of immigrants to another county. With how you look at it, the boat appears all dirty and damaged, especially at the top. One side is fully constructed whereas the other is left with little progress done. Literally incomplete. It’s like how my father went through whilst migrating to the United States. He had no shoes and no money to even buy one, so he had to walk all the way barefooted. Mom was one of the lucky ones to have resources to prosper by, especially shoes. Even when he finally obtained a pair, he had to find those abandoned in the trash or on land. The phrase ‘one man’s trash is another man’s treasure’ ran through my mind. Life is never easy. People tend to find that out the hard way. There are no easier alternates. Even if there are, they’re very little in between. So by building the boat as if damaged or incomplete, with the right guidance and proper mindset, a dirty boat is still a boat. A smelly shoe is still a shoe. Discarded blankets can keep you safe from the cold. That’s what my creation is: a story of hope for a better life. Recollections of what many immigrants went through to reach the United States. Stories of bitter struggles and sweet freedom. Lessons to remember by.