Objects from the Borderlands: The U.S.–Mexico Anti-Archive
For ten years I have documented and collected objects from the U.S.–Mexico Border,
creating an “Anti-Archive” that challenges who is worthy of documentation,
attention, and remembrance. My work on the border—a geopolitical flash point in
which contested bodies (race), contested statuses (refugee vs. “illegal”), and contested
histories are bound together—is a witnessing that serves its purpose only if
others witness it in turn. The work serves as source material for scholars and citizens to engage
and interpret. The work functions as a sort of reliquary, with photographs
accompanied by clothing and objects found on the border.
In 2007 I began making yearly trips/pilgrimages
to photograph objects left behind by undocumented migrants crossing the U.S–Mexico
border between Matamoros, Mexico, and Brownsville, Texas, and west to Laredo
and Eagle Pass, Texas. As Gloria Anzaldua says in her groundbreaking book Borderlands La Frontera: The New Mestiza,
“The U.S.–Mexican border es una herida
abierta where the Third World grates against the first and bleeds. And
before a scab forms it hemorrhages again, the life blood of two worlds merging
to form a third country—a border culture” (p. 25). This Border Culture and the
space in-between is central to this project, which takes an ever-evolving imagined
space and concretizes it as a collection of specific objects, first as they are
found in the landscape, then as they are archived, and, finally, as they are united
in exhibitions. This work creates a narrative of memory that stands as a corrective and a challenge to the
dominant histories housed in state-sanctioned archives.
Border Fence near Brownsville, Texas, 2015
Plastic boat found of the north bank of the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo River
used to cross into the U.S. near Brownsville, Texas and Matamoros, Mexico, 2015
Border Wall from the viewpoint of someone
about to cross into the U.S. near Hidalgo, Texas, 2014
100 miles north of Brownsville, Texas and the border,) 2014
Riverbank Near Brownsville, Texas, 2014
Campsite Near McAllen, Texas, 2011
Belongings (Pills, Blue Shoestrings, Bible,
Goggles, Toothpaste, Socks, Red Shirt)
Hidalgo, Texas, 2013
Girl's Shoes (Pink Love Shoes),
Near Brownsville, Texas, 2013
Glove, Toothbrushes and Orange, Plastic String,
Hidalgo, Texas, 2013
Bullets, Near McAllen, Texas, 2010
_Laredo_Texas_2011.jpg)
Nest (Hiding Place), Laredo, Texas, 2011
Khaki Pants, Brownsville, Texas, 2010
Cross, Laredo, Texas, 2011
Clothes and Wall, Hidalgo, Texas, 2013
Yellow Toothbrush, Anti- Archive
Object No. 15, Brownsville, Texas, Found 2008
Red Bra, Anti-Archive
Object No. 8, Brownsville, Texas, Found 2008
Comb with Scratched A, Anti-Archive
Object No. 76, Brownsville, Texas, Found 2008
Eyeshadow, Anti-Archive Object No. 136,
Brownsville, Texas, Found 2007
Toy Soldier, Anti-Archive
Object No. 240, Brownsville, Texas, Found 2008
Detention Center ID Bracelet, Anti-Archive
Object No. 274, Matamoros, Mexico, Found 2009
Woman's Black Shoe, Anti-Archive
Object No. 307, Brownsville, Texas, Found 2009
Man's Hemmed Shorts, Anti-Archive
Object No. 320, Brownsville, Texas, Found 2010
Woman's Pink Underwear, Anti-Archive
Object No. 346, Brownsville, Texas, Found 2010
Border Patrol Coffee Cup, Anti-Archive
Object No. 522, Brownsville, Texas, Found 2012
Goggles, Anti-Archive Object No. 502, Laredo,
Texas, Found 2011
Spanish Language Bible, Anti-Archive Object No. 506,
Hidalgo, Texas found 2013
Hidalgo, Texas found 2013
