Thread: Lonely Mexican Citizens

Ummmm, this is really quite sad. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nati ... 5717.story

I just don't get why they think its easier to risk their lives to come here than to change their OWN government.

Repopulating his town, 1 clay figure at a time
By Jose Maria Alvarez | Associated Press
August 12, 2007
TEOCOCUILCO, Mexico

Article Tools
E-mail Print Single page view Reprints text size: For decades, Alejandro Santiago's picturesque hometown in southern Mexico has said goodbye to its youths as they left to seek work in the United States. Now the Oaxacan artist is trying to repopulate his town -- at least metaphorically.

With a $100,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, Santiago has undertaken an ambitious plan to create an army of life-size clay figures.

So far he has created some 1,500 statues, each about 4 feet 4 inches and 150 pounds, to represent the youths who have abandoned this hamlet in impoverished Oaxaca state. No two sculptures are alike, he said, and many of the faces reflect the hardship of migrants' lives in both Mexico and the U.S.



Santiago said the inspiration for the project came six years ago, when he returned home after a three-year stay in Paris and was struck by Teococuilco's empty streets.

Low wages and an inadequate number of jobs drive thousands of Mexicans to migrate every year to the U.S., turning rural communities such as Teococuilco into virtual ghost towns.

"Where are my friends, my relatives?" he asked the town's remaining residents, mostly young children and the elderly. "They are all in the United States? I kept asking and asking. Night fell and not one soul came to visit me.

"I didn't know how many to make at first, but I knew I had to repopulate the town," he said in an interview last week.

In 2003, Santiago decided to experience for himself what it's like to cross the U.S. border illegally. He went to Tijuana, met a smuggler who set him up with fake papers and tried to cross.

In Tijuana, Santiago passed by thousands of crosses on the wall marking the border, placed there by activists to represent those who have died trying to enter. He was quickly caught by U.S. immigration officials and returned to Mexico, but that image burned into his brain.

He estimated those crosses numbered about 2,500 and settled on that number, plus one, for his project. He says the extra figure symbolizes that there is always one more person who is leaving, risking his or her life to try to reach the United States.

The Rockefeller Foundation grant is helping him complete all 2,501 statues and pay his crew of 35. He expects to finish the collection by month's end.

The sculptures will then make a journey of their own, traveling to the northern city of Monterrey for their first exhibition in September, Santiago said. He hopes to show them later in the United States and then bring them home to be installed on Teococuilco's empty streets.

When that happens, the artist promised a party.

"We will be celebrating the migrants' return," he said.

more articles in /news/nationworld

Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

duplicate