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Reversal of Fortune |
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 installation view photo by Paul Baker |
REVERSAL OF FORTUNE is an installation/performance
piece that premiered at Galeria de la Raza in July, 1996. I
built an installation in the gallery, and every week performed
readings with a tarot deck I made from immigrant stories I collected.
Who were the immigrants under attack
in California? Let's be specific. Mexican, Central American
and other Latino immigrants were under |
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Since
the U.S. Border Patrol was created in 1924, no agent has been
convicted for shooting and killing a Mexican. The records for
at least the last twenty years, which show dozens of Mexicans
shot and killed and dozens more wounded along the U.S.- Mexico
border, including beatings numbering in the hundreds, continues
to make one feel as though it were open season on Mexicans along
the border." (Roberto Martinez; National Network News, Vol.
VII, July-Aug. 1994, p.1) Are these attacks over? There are over 125 million migrants in the world today. Only about 1% of them migrate to the U.S. each year, despite the hype about immigrants flooding U.S. borders. The UN estimates that about 10,000 people are displaced as refugees each day. Of the top 15 U.S. immigrant-sending countries in 1992, for example, five of them could be tied to a U.S. military presence: Vietnam, the Philippines, El Salvador, Korea, and Iran. At the time this show was developed, we were fighting the Republican Governor Pete Wilson, and his Proposition 187 that would require educators and medical professionals to deny public services to those "suspected" of being illegal immigrants and report them to the police. Fortunately, the Governor of California lost that battle. If you live in California long enough, you beginto understand how dependent the economy of this state is on immigrants. When is this militarized border state going to acknowledge this?
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reversal of fortune readings ---- |
