Published: Jul 19, 2009 12:30 AM

Modified: Jul 19, 2009 11:46 PM

Artist paints, lives immigrants' story
UNC's Campus Y acquires painting of Mexican-American folkoric and political artist

MARIANA RIVERA RODRIGUEZ, Correspondent

In the state of Michoacán, Mexico, the monarch butterflies come every winter to settle in the forest. They gather by the millions, blanketing the trees in orange. The butterflies have flown from Canada, through the United States, to Mexico.
Cornelio Campos, who made his journey across the border 20 years ago, paints folkloric and political art. Some of his work depicts prejudice, social and political, against Mexican immigrants. He paints about the wall between Mexico and the United States; about making a living in a new country; and about the controversy over whether to allow illegal immigrants into the United States.

One oil painting is especially important to him because UNC's Campus Y recently acquired it to display on campus. In its center is a monarch butterfly. The journey of the butterflies from Canada to Mexico, Campos says, is the perfect "representation of no borders."

Campos crossed the border in 1989, at the age of 19. After living with family in California he moved to North Carolina to work in the tobacco fields with his cousin. This, too, is in the painting; workers in the tobacco fields. Now a U.S. citizen, he works as an electrician.

"It's how I do my living," he said. "This I do on the side, like a hobby."

Campos' art is inspired by the struggles of immigrants in the United States. "They talk about immigrant aliens like they come from another planet," he said. "The main lesson I'm trying to give is that we don't just come here to take over. A lot of people make that comment because they don't know exactly what's behind why we come to the United States. One of my motivations is to show the other side of the coin; that we don't come to harm anyone.

"Of course, there's no guarantee that they're going to make it," he said of those crossing the border. "You risk a lot."

He started painting when he was 10 years old. His first painting was of mountains, trees and a river. He now paints cultural landscapes; images of Mexican people in their home country and in the United States. His paintings display vibrant colors and Mexican folkloric patterns.

His folkloric art is inspired by nostalgia. He paints families and laborers in villages and fields. "I've been expressing through my art what I miss down there," he explained. "The style of life is very different. When I was in Mexico I didn't really see the value of it until I was here and I started to miss things." He misses the simplicity of life in his home country, the sense of comfort and community, and mostly the family he left behind.

Campos recounts the story of the Aztec settlement that became Mexico City, how his ancestors searched for a place to settle. The prophecy foretold that they would find an eagle standing on a cactus eating a snake, and that it was there they would create their civilization. When they found the symbol they began to build a great city, their promised land. Now, Campos says, the United States is the new promised land. "Times have changed."

Campos is a quietly passionate man. He hopes to be an ambassador for Mexicans in the United States. "A lot of people who have the chance to go down to Mexico somehow get familiar with the art, even if it's not the same [as mine]. They say, 'Oh, this reminds me of when I was in Mexico.' And I think that's good; it makes me feel better about how people think of us here in the United States."

When asked if he is glad he came to the United States, Campos hesitates.

"I'm glad but it's taken me a long time to realize that," he said. "Here I have more chances to do what I like to do."

The painting bought by UNC was the result of his return to painting from a 10-year hiatus. In those years, as he worked and tried to make a living, he observed and experienced the environment that immigrants had to live in day-by-day and how it contrasted with the environment back home in Mexico. But his paintings, he says, are for all immigrants. They speak of the struggle of humanity, the struggle of change and movement.

Campos wants the United States to understand why people move from country to country, that they have been doing so for centuries.

"When they try to stop people from immigrating from one place to another, I think they're trying to stop something that comes naturally to human beings. We've been immigrating for as long as we've existed. Back then it was amatter of different countries. Now the focus happens to be on Mexico.

"Immigration," he said, "is as natural for us as it is for the monarch butterfly."


http://www.chapelhillnews.com/news/story/51034.html