"Art can impact the social context of family dislocations and can serve as a powerful tool in encouraging an open national dialogue about Zero Tolerance in our country"
So (sew) America Cares is a participatory social art project with a commitment to raise awareness about the lives of the children separated from their parents at the border. All the faces stitched together strengthen the very fabric of our own society.
In 2018 a Zero Tolerance immigration policy was announced, requiring that all families who cross the border shall not only be separated but also charged in federal court with the misdemeanor crime of illegal entry.
This Project’s mission is to advocate for these children and to extend an invitation to anyone who would like to participate. Thread by thread, fiber by fiber, a participating community will increase its understanding of the circumstances of these children who never asked to be illegal aliens. The project consists of 10 different faces that will be repeated 100 times each to add 1000 faces. The faces had been laser etched on raw canvas to allow the participant to use any kind of thread, yarn, wool, fabric, paint etc. So (sew) America Cares has a plan: to "sew" them back, to never allow these children to be lost again, to create a quilt of 1000 faces representing a portion of these children.
We cannot allow these traumatized children to disappear and in time, be forgotten.People are encouraged to stitch, sew, knit, knot, crochet, embroider, or braid these drawings so as to symbolically recover these children’s faces and lives again.
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So (sew) America Cares is an international call for people to participate and raise awareness as to the consequences of this immigration policy and its devastating effect on children. As citizen, artist, mother and a child that suffered being separated from my family for eight years, I am concerned about the hundreds of separated children across our country.
PIONEROS
“Pioneros” is a kinetic sculpture that has a robotic mechanism with a sound loop.
The children in communist Cuba are called "Pioneros"; and have a uniform (not to be confused with American boy scouts, girl scouts, and cup scouts). The “Pioneros” swear every morning that they will grow up to be like Che Guevara. The sound loop in “Pioneros por el Comunismo” demands that children salute and respond “Seremos como el Che.” The work is typical of how children are brainwashed by repetition and memorization in dictatorships. The goal is to
believe in the hero of the regime.
Pioneros is a kinetic piece. These 6 sculptures have robotics mechanisms that at the command of a voice "Pioneros por el comunismo" they react by putting their hands up to their forehead as a sing of salute and they respond " Seremos como el Che". Children in communist cuba grow up being "pioneros" and swear every morning they will grow up to be like Che Guevara. These piece resembles the sequel of learning, memorizing and often growing up believing in someone the regime idolizes. It is the consequence of brain washing kids and how that can create a wake in adults.​
