Immigration Art Rebrands the Reform Movement

March 1, 2013— -- intro: Hopeful,'Unapologetic' Art Rebrands the Immigration Movement

The immigration advocacy movement has gone through a rebranding in the past few years thanks, in large part, to a group of West Coast artists who have shifted the movement's tone to a more hopeful one. They are known as artivists for their combined artist and activist role. Here are some of the most amazing works.

quicklist: 1title: "Who's the Illegal Alien PILGRIM?" text: Yolanda M. Lopez made this poster in 1981. The reactionary tone of her work stands in stark contrast with the current movement's hopeful slogans.

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quicklist: 2title: Your Fight is My Fighttext: Favianna Rodriguez is one of the most visible artists of the immigration reform movement. Based in Oakland, California, Rodriguez has shown her work at museums like de Young Museum in San Francisco, and lectured on the use of art on civic engagement at Stanford University. This images reads: "Tu Lucha Es Mi Lucha" (Your Fight is My Fight).

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quicklist: 3title: Undocumented, Unafraidtext: Rodriguez's take on "Undocumented, Unafraid."

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quicklist: 4title: Dolores Huerta text: Jesus Barraza of Dignidad Rebelde created this portrait of Dolores Huerta. Huerta is a labor leader who co-founded the United Farm Workers (formerly known as National Farmworkers Association) with Cesar Chavez.

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quicklist: 5title: A Human Right text: Melanie Cervantes of Dignidad Rebelde is the creator of "Migration is a Human Right" According to Cervantes' website, this "is a print dedicated to all the people who move across the land in an effort to live a dignified live."

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quicklist: 6title: Undocumented Appareltext: Undocumented Apparel, a spoof on American Apparel was created by Julio Salgado.

"You backpacked across Europe and they called you adventurous. I crossed a border to save my daughter's life and they call me a criminal."

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quicklist: 7title: Strong Womantext: Salgado is the creator of Muxer Fuerte. Comunidad Unida. (Strong Woman. United Community).

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quicklist:8title: No Papers, No Fear text: Sin Papeles, Sin Miedo (No Papers, No Fear) was a banner used at a civil disobedience event in Tennessee. The event was part of a bus ride accross southern states with Charlotte, North Carolina as its final destination for the DNC 2012. This caravan was known as the Undocubus. The banner was made by Cesar Maxit.

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quicklist: 9title: Flying Hightext: This artwork was also created for the Undocubus caravan by Maxit.

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quicklist:10title: No Splashtext: Ramiro Gomez created "No Splash (Detail)" earlier this year. Gomez's work documents the predominantly Hispanic workforce that keeps up the beautiful homes in and around the West Hollywood neighborhoods where he lives and works. This painting, according to his blog, is a reinterpretation of David Hockney's iconic painting 'A Bigger Splash'.

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quicklist: 11title: At the Park text: In "Rosalinda and Tanner at the park" Gomez offers an expression of what he sees as a male nany in West Hollywood.

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Hopeful,'Unapologetic' Art Rebrands the Immigration Movement

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