We… the gente by Sandra Fernández
Initial 8 seconds
I initially went the wrong way and went into the adjacent exhibit, and after bumbling around for a couple of minutes not really knowing what was going on, I entered through what could be considered the exit of the exhibit. Because of this, this was actually one of the first pieces of art that caught my eye. This piece was actually a part of a bigger collective, the Uptown Prints portfolio, and this one specifically caught my eye because of its color, the people who both makeup the background but are also the subject of the piece, and what is clearly the United States Constitution in the background.
Further Analysis
As I observed the piece for a longer period of time, I began to form and idea of what I thought the Fernández was trying to teach her audience through her piece. The first detail that stood out to me from the piece was the scene in the background. It is quite evident that it is a desert–I thought that it was a subtle reference through the terrain that is attempted by thousands of immigrants every year, in search of a better life here in the United states. I think that the way the people are depicted in the piece is very powerful as well, in that they can sort of be seen, but at the same time they are not entirely there. I thought that this could be considered a reference to the people who try to cross the border, but are unfortunately lost to the perils of the desert, whether it be heat, dehydration, hunger, or fatigue. I took the way that (specifically) the preamble of the U.S. Constitution could be seen behind the people as a reference to the title of the piece: We… the gente (We… the people). In the title of the piece, Fernández illustrates the main point of her piece: that all of us, not just the ones born in the United States, or the ones lucky enough to become citizens, but also the ones who have emigrated to the country illegally, are people, and are therefore protected. The final detail that really stood out to me in this piece was the SB 1070 with the slash over it. SB 1070 refers to a piece of Arizona legislation that was passed in 2010 that allowed “police to determine the immigration status of someone arrested or detained if there is ‘reasonable suspicion’ they are in the U.S. legally” (ACLU). I perceived it as a powerful detail because it shows her stance on anti-immigrant and discriminatory sentiment, and it appearing alongside the depictions of immigrants and the U.S. Constitution is what I feel Fusco can consider an “unconscious structure of belief”: that immigrants really aren’t covered/protected by the Constitution, which is not what Fernández is teaching us through her work of art.
https://www.aclu.org/issues/immigrants-rights/state-and-local-immigration-laws/arizonas-sb-1070
