EAGLE PASS — The border city of Eagle Pass, Texas, has made headlines for the ongoing fight between state and federal authorities over immigration enforcement.
Since last summer, a line of floating red buoys with razor wire occupied parts of the Rio Grande separating Eagle Pass from Piedras Negras, Mexico.
The city has been at the epicenter of Gov. Greg Abbott’s multi-billion dollar border security crackdown, Operation Lone Star. A popular local park that used to be a place for families and festivals is now filled with concertina wire and Texas National Guard soldiers in Humvees.
But many of the 28,000 Eagle Pass residents said immigration is part of the city’s history and identity.
A new art exhibition aims to reframe the city's image beyond barbed wire and lawsuits. Instead, it wants to highlight the diverse perspectives of people who make the border home.
The Border is Beautiful art exhibition opened earlier this month at the Eagle Pass Art & Culture Center at the heart of downtown.
Yocelyn Riojas, assistant director of the Eagle Pass Digital Arts Society, helped coordinate the exhibit in collaboration with the Eagle Pass Border Coalition and the City of Eagle Pass Art and Culture Center.
"I would describe it as our own form of protest," she said. "Finding the beauty of what is our home versus what is the media just saying. I would say nobody really asks the locals what is happening."
She said Eagle Pass continues to have a strong culture, despite the tensions around immigration enforcement. “We are so much more than that, and I believe this art exhibition reflects that,” she added. “It shares our individual experiences and our stories and the beauty of this community.”
Local artist Santos Polendo is featured in the show. He is a member of the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas based in Eagle Pass.
His painting, titled Shelby, pays homage to the indigenous roots of Shelby Park — which was thrust into the spotlight after the state seized control of it.
The artwork features a tribe member dressed in a traditional headdress. He’s taking a picture with his phone of defeated Confederate Col. Joseph Shelby submerging the Confederate flag into the middle of the Rio Grande.
Polendo said the painting puts an ironic twist to an overlooked part of the city’s history. "We celebrate the Confederate part or the American part of it, but we neglect the indigenous part of it, the native people that lived in this area,” he said. “That’s what the piece was about. It was about stirring up that conversation."
The exhibit features the artwork of nearly 50 artists from the Texas border region. Each celebrates the artists’ own interpretation of what it’s like to have roots in communities that are bilingual, binational, and bicultural.
One of artist Abel Ortiz’s paintings details his experience immigrating from Mexico to the Texas border city of Del Rio as a first grader.
His painting — titled Assimilation — features a picture of his elementary self. A boy in glasses is wearing a serious expression. The line of the U.S.-Mexico border is painted red across his face. The smiling logo for the Mexican Snack Company, Sabritas, owned by Pepsi, is on the left hand side.
"You can see that even logos, iconography from one country can immigrate, just like people do, and they assimilate into the culture where it's now existing,” he said. “So, that's where this painting sort of is based on my own personal experience of assimilation.”
Ortiz's two other artworks also touch on themes of immigration.
As you walk through the exhibit, a bright pastel painting titled La Mano Dura depicts the chaos of workers on a construction site. Another black and white sketch memorializes Sarita’s Tortilla Factory — a landmark tortilleria in Eagle Pass.
Ortiz said the exhibition offers artists an opportunity to tell their own stories. “The border really requires expression beyond words, and this is where art can provide that, he explained. "Images are powerful, and images give you experiences that you won't forget.”
The nonprofit Eagle Pass Border Coalition has fought against Abbott’s focus on border enforcement.
Eagle Pass native Jesse Fuentes is a coalition board member. He said the exhibition saw record turnout.
"We want to be seen as a positive locale,” he said. “We want to be respected for the talent and the skills that we possess and our culture and our particular story on the border, just like any other border community. If you know anyone that comes from the border, we are good people.”
Organizers want to keep the momentum going and turn The Border is Beautiful into a traveling exhibit that can be showcased in communities across Texas.
"This is like a healing solution," Fuentes said. "Come, visit, reminisce. Remember what was and what can be and [ask yourself] what kind of future do we want?”
The exhibit is on display through Sept. 30.
Scan the QR code below to view the artist catalog.
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