Concurrent Panel Session Ten
Abstract Title
Paranoia is Not Patriotism: The Murder of José Antonio Elena Rodríguez
Start Date
8-4-2018 1:00 PM
End Date
8-4-2018 1:50 PM
Abstract
My artwork entitled, “Paranoia is Not Patriotism: The Murder of José Antonio Elena Rodríguez” highlights American xenophobia against Mexicans and Mexican Americans, which is heavily invested in militaristic control of the Mexican-American border. José Antonio Elena Rodríguez was shot in 2012 in Nogales, Mexico by Border Patrol agent Lonnie Swartz who was standing guard in Nogales, Arizona. Rodriguez was going home from a basketball game when Swartz shot him through the fence. His mother, Araceli Rodríguez, has been fighting the United States in court to acknowledge their responsibility in José’s murder. In Gloria Anzaldúa’s book Borderlands/La Frontera: The NewMestiza, she says:
To survive in the Borderlands
You must live sin fronteras
be a crossroads. (217)
The term “sin fronteras” means without borders. As Dr. Michaela Walsh noted at the last Ray Browne luncheon, the border between the U.S. and Mexico is like a wound. The border, which disrupts the natural space that exists in both countries, endangers all citizens. Rodríguez’s case shows how faulty borders are; how justice can be denied when fear and national posturing occur. While Anzaldúa’s “borderlands” encompass a request for an unrestricted dialectical place for identity, she is also concerned about what occurs to humans in the in-between of delineated geographical spaces. That is the question my artwork seeks to illuminate.
Dimensions of the Work: The work is a three-dimensional piece that is 11.5 x 7.5 x 4 inches. It requires an outlet for an electrical component.
Materials: Photo paper, printer ink, acrylic paint, and wood.
Works Cited
Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands/La Frontera: The NewMestiza. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 1999. Print.
Paranoia is Not Patriotism: The Murder of José Antonio Elena Rodríguez
My artwork entitled, “Paranoia is Not Patriotism: The Murder of José Antonio Elena Rodríguez” highlights American xenophobia against Mexicans and Mexican Americans, which is heavily invested in militaristic control of the Mexican-American border. José Antonio Elena Rodríguez was shot in 2012 in Nogales, Mexico by Border Patrol agent Lonnie Swartz who was standing guard in Nogales, Arizona. Rodriguez was going home from a basketball game when Swartz shot him through the fence. His mother, Araceli Rodríguez, has been fighting the United States in court to acknowledge their responsibility in José’s murder. In Gloria Anzaldúa’s book Borderlands/La Frontera: The NewMestiza, she says:
To survive in the Borderlands
You must live sin fronteras
be a crossroads. (217)
The term “sin fronteras” means without borders. As Dr. Michaela Walsh noted at the last Ray Browne luncheon, the border between the U.S. and Mexico is like a wound. The border, which disrupts the natural space that exists in both countries, endangers all citizens. Rodríguez’s case shows how faulty borders are; how justice can be denied when fear and national posturing occur. While Anzaldúa’s “borderlands” encompass a request for an unrestricted dialectical place for identity, she is also concerned about what occurs to humans in the in-between of delineated geographical spaces. That is the question my artwork seeks to illuminate.
Dimensions of the Work: The work is a three-dimensional piece that is 11.5 x 7.5 x 4 inches. It requires an outlet for an electrical component.
Materials: Photo paper, printer ink, acrylic paint, and wood.
Works Cited
Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands/La Frontera: The NewMestiza. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 1999. Print.