Description

Statement for Tan Lejos de Dios; Tan Cercas de los Estados Unidos

(So Far From God; So Close to the United States)

This uncompromising border image is rendered in the narrative montage style common in Mexican murals. It was drawn on a single large stone with a broken edge that Luis used to create the profile of the mountains on the Mexico/El Paso border. It vividly depicts real events that occur daily along that frontier while drawing on references to archetypal images from classic Mexican and Western European art history (ie: Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People…except in this case she’s running away toward a razor wire fence that she can’t cross). We believe that this print, with its non-romaticized and unflinching manner, is a small but powerful piece of Mexican and American art history.