Natalia Cuevas
BFA ’19
Dale, Dale, Dale is an interactive installation that touches upon systemic and symbolic violence against Latinx immigrants using the traditional act of piñatas to reference the commodification of a community and culture. I plan to construct 50 life-size, human-shaped piñatas, each representing a migrant-dependent industry particular to each state within the United States, as a way to explore to the vulnerability, pain, and resilience of the migrant workforce. I will juxtapose the celebratory essence of the piñata with impending violence within our economy to encourage a deeper understanding of one another and connect viewers to the social/political realities of the migrant workforce. This project will examine the overwhelming sense of animosity towards migrant labor in order to debunk the myth of the “job stealing immigrant”, and seeks to expose the underlying hypocrisy surrounding exploitation of migrant labor, immigration policies, and anti-immigrant sentiment within America. This project will not only explore my own family history and community, but will also help me understand my positionality as a first generation Mexican-American within the context of migrant labor.
Library Mentors: Jamie Vander Broek and Sheila Garcia