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10-17-2006, 03:20 PM #1
- Join Date
- Jan 1970
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- Riverside ca.
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- 182
New sneakers given to mexican border jumpers
http://www.brincosh oes.com/
The Associated Press
SAN DIEGO — The high-top sneakers cost $215 at a San Diego boutique, but
the designer is giving them away to migrants before they cross to this
side of the U.S.-Mexico border.
These are no ordinary shoes.
A compass and flashlight dangle from one shoelace. The pocket in the
tongue is for money or pain relievers. A rough map of the border region
is printed on a removable insole.
They are red, white and green, the colors of the Mexican flag. On the
back ankle, a drawing of Mexico’s patron saint of migrants.
On this side of the border, the shoes sit in art collections or the
closets of well-heeled sneaker cognoscenti. On the other side, in
Tijuana, it’s a utilitarian affair: Immigrants to be are happy to have
the sturdy, light-weight shoes for the hike — or dash — into the United
States.
Their designer is Judi Werthein, an Argentine artist who moved to New
York in 1997 — legally, she notes.
On recent evening in Tijuana, after giving away 50 pairs at a migrant
shelter, Werthein waved the insole and pointed to Interstate 8, the main
road between San Diego and Phoenix.
“This blue line is where you want to go,” Werthein, 38, said in Spanish.
“Good luck! You’re all very courageous,” she told the cheering crowd of
about 50 men huddled in a recreation room after dinner.
“God bless you!” several cried back.
Werthein has concluded that shoes are a border crosser’s most important
garment.
“The main problem that people have when they’re crossing is their feet,”
Werthein. “If people are going to cross anyway, at least this will make
it safer.”
Only 1,000 pairs of the “Brinco” sneakers (it means “Jump” in Spanish)
have been made — in China, for $17 each. The shoes were introduced in
August at inSite, an art exhibition in San Diego and Tijuana whose
sponsors include nonprofit foundations and private collectors.
Benefactors put up $40,000 for the project; Werthein gets a $5,000
stipend, plus expenses.
The shoes have kicked up a mini-controversy in art circles.
A San Diego surgeon told Werthein that she was encouraging illegal
immigration — a charge she rejects, saying people will cross with or
without her shoes. The surgeon’s wife sided with her, Werthein said, and
bought the shoes.
Chris and Eloisa Haudenschild display a pair of the sneakers at their
resplendent San Diego home. Eloisa Haudenschild said the shoes portray
an uncomfortable reality about the perils of crossing the border.
“It’s a reality that we don’t like to look at,” she said. “That’s what
an artist points out.”
Across the border, several curious migrants waiting for sunset along a
cement river basin approached Werthein as she emptied a sport utility
vehicle of white shoe boxes. One man already wore a dirty pair of
Brincos. Another, Felipe de Jesus Olivar Canto, slipped into a size 11
and said he would use them instead of his black leather shoes.
“These are much more comfortable for hiking,” according to Olivar Canto,
who said he was heading for $6.75-an-hour work installing doors and
windows in Santa Ana, about 90 miles north of border. “The ones I have
are more dressy.”
From there, Werthein went to Casa del Migrante, a Tijuana shelter that
will receive a share of the proceeds from Brincos sold in the United
States.
Jose Garcia, 30, eased into a size 10, which he said he would wear to
cross the California desert on his way to Las Vegas or Phoenix.
“Those are way too heavy and they don’t breathe,” he said, pointing to
clunky hiking boots that he tossed aside.
“Does it have a sensor to alert us to the Border Patrol?” joked Javier
Lopez, 33, who said he had a $10-an-hour job hanging drywall waiting for
him in Denver.
This isn’t the first time Werthein has tried to appeal to art
aficionados and low-wage workers alike. In 2002, she turned a room in
the Bronx Museum into a salon, painting the walls pink and inviting the
public to get their fingernails covered with work from the museum’s
collection.
Blends, a downtown San Diego boutique, displays the shoes on a black
pedestal. Werthein says Blends and Printed Matter, a store in Manhattan,
have sold about 350 pairs.
“I wouldn’t wear them and I wouldn’t want my husband to wear them,” said
Blends browser Antonieta LaRussa, 28. “But the cause is awesome. There’s
so much opposition to immigration. She’s looking at it from the other
side of the fence and asking why.”
To research the best design over two years, Werthein interviewed shoe
designers, migrants, aid workers, even an immigrant smuggler. She joined
the Mexican government’s Grupo Beta migrant-aid society on long border
hikes. She heard from a Salvadoran woman in Tijuana who said she was
kidnapped and raped by her smuggler.
Based on those interviews, she added a pocket — migrants told her they
were often robbed. She also added the flashlight — many cross at night.
Some get lost — hence, the compass and map.
“If you get lost,” she told the men at the shelter, “just go north.”It's true I am only one, but I am one. And the fact that I can't do everything will not prevent me from doing what I can do
Edward Everett Hale
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10-17-2006, 03:34 PM #2Their designer is Judi Werthein, an Argentine artist who moved to New
York in 1997 — legally, she notes.
Their designer is Judi Werthein, an Argentine artist who moved to New
York in 1997 — legally, she notes."The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" ** Edmund Burke**
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10-17-2006, 04:32 PM #3
I wonder if I can get $40,000 for my art project: Creating a limited edition line of hand crafted crack smoker kits (fancy case, pipe, butane lighter and crisp 20.00 bill)...for eventual distribution to crack heads?
This woman may have entered the U.S. legally, but she has worn out her welcome with this stunt and deserves to be booted, permanently, from the U.S. Aiding and abetting is NOT an art form, it is a CRIME!
“These are much more comfortable for hiking,” according to Olivar Canto, who said he was heading for $6.75-an-hour work installing doors and windows in Santa Ana, about 90 miles north of border. “The ones I have are more dressy.”[/b]
“Does it have a sensor to alert us to the Border Patrol?” joked Javier Lopez, 33, who said he had a $10-an-hour job hanging drywall waiting for him in Denver.
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10-17-2006, 04:44 PM #4
- Join Date
- Mar 2006
- Location
- Santa Clarita Ca
- Posts
- 9,714
She gives out "Felony Flyers"
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10-17-2006, 05:12 PM #5
There won't be. You can interpret this as aiding and abetting; however a court will not. Sorry, no charges will be filed.
Originally Posted by MW
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10-17-2006, 05:22 PM #6
- Join Date
- Apr 2006
- Posts
- 1,207
She is promoting, aiding and abedding illegal alien invaders
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10-17-2006, 05:22 PM #7
- Join Date
- Jan 1970
- Posts
- 762
I suppose she filled the heels with Mexican Jumping Beans.
This woman should be deported immediately!
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10-17-2006, 05:45 PM #8
Gabrial wrote:
There won't be. You can interpret this as aiding and abetting; however a court will not. Sorry, no charges will be filed.
aid (d)
intr. & tr.v. aid·ed, aid·ing, aids
To help or furnish with help, support, or relief. See Synonyms at help.
n.
1. The act or result of helping; assistance.
2.
a. An assistant or helper.
b. A device that assists: visual aids such as slides.
c. A hearing aid.a·bet (-bt)
tr.v. a·bet·ted, a·bet·ting, a·bets
1. To approve, encourage, and support (an action or a plan of action); urge and help on.2. To urge, encourage, or help (a person): abetted the thief in robbing the bank."The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" ** Edmund Burke**
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10-17-2006, 06:43 PM #9I'll bet, in accordance with our laws, she can be deported back to Argentina.[b]Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.
- Arnold J. Toynbee
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