El Polvo

El Polvo was my senior thesis exhibition. El Polvo is Spanish for the word powder. This is what Mexican immigrants in the 1910’s described as the powder that they were being sprayed when they crossed the U.S/Mexico border. Many were not aware that they were being fumigated with DDT. I focus on this specific moment in U.S. history to remind the world of the maltreatment that my ethnicity has endured over centuries. El Polvo is an amalgamation of catholic imagery, symbols of the United State’s habitual mistreatment of Latinx, and my lived experience in Yakima.

This exhibition contained a shrine made out of pallets and crates. The shrines held apples, candles, paper plates, and a Campesino’s hat dipped in slip. Some of these items were fired and turned into a fragile shell of their original state. The item of the shrine that was untouched by slip was an apple picking bag. This segment was an ode to my community back home.

El Polvo also contained a nude ceramic figure of a Campesino. Clothing dipped in slip is on the floor of the gallery. This figure is crucified on the wall with white powder covering his eyes and hair. White streaks roll from his eyes down his body, while he stands on green military cans. The white powder is referencing back to the fumigations. The figure’s nudity refers back to Mexican immigrants having to strip naked at the border as they are sprayed with pesticides. The figure is crucified to have the audience empathize with Latinx field workers as they do with Jesus. Despite this being a crucifixion, the figure is standing with his hands in the air resilient as many Latinx immigrants have been over centuries of oppression.