#EmbroideringtheBorder #OurLadyofGuadalupe #StitchingSocialJustice #TheArtofAsylum

Artisans Beyond Borders 2024 Spring/Summer Newsletter: Borderland Recuerdo Workshops, Exhibitions, Shelter News and more…

During the school year, students from across the U.S. often come to the Tucson/Nogales sector for Border Immersion studies. At our favorite workshop this Spring, a large group of students, guided by Shelley K. White, Associate Professor and director of Experiential Learning at Boston College’s Global Public Health and the Common Good, joined Bordadora profesora Wendy Lopez Aguilar and this writer for a hands-on Border Arts Workshop.

“…Your story and experiences were so moving! The art was beautiful, and so was our experience practicing it…” Emma. This transformative experience allows the participants to connect with the asylum-seekers on a deeper level, understanding their struggles and resilience through art.

“… participating in this restorative work, I found the art to be super healing and restful…” Miryam

The Recuerdos de la Frontera that each student created at the workshop inspired them to curate their own exhibition of storycloths “Presente: El Arte de la Humanidad.” back at Boston College. The storycloths they chose, hand-stitched by asylum seekers sheltered in Nogales, were then auctioned off by the students to benefit Undocumented students.

The students took the initiative to create a beautiful Instagram page, https://www.instagram.com/art.for.migration.justice/, to bring attention to the Storycloths. Check it out, and be sure to follow and forward. They set an example for all of us by using art and culture to move the needle forward and subvert the ongoing dehumanization of migration. We are so proud of them!

Bordando Esperanza Exhibitions in Boston and Miami

This Spring also, our exhibition “Bordando Esperanza – Embroidering Hope” mantas created by asylum-seekers stranded at the border from 2020 – 2023, opened at Suffolk University Center for Diversity and Inclusion. The exhibition was joyfully represented by Sister Lika Macias, Director of the shelter La Casa de las Misericordia y Todas Naciones in Nogales, Mexico.

After the Suffolk University exhibition closed, the exhibition went to the University of Miami. After learning about Wendy’s experience migrating from El Salvador with a child, students again took the lead and organized their own student-led bilingual guided tours of the exhibition.

We’re looking forward to September when Bordando Esperanza will be showing at the University of Chicago. Students will hang the show, and makers from the Borderlands—Tucson and Nogales, Sonora—will be in attendance to inform and hopefully inspire.

Shelter News

Never Abandon your Dreams

Embroidered by Ana from Ecuador, at the shelter La Casa de las Misericordia y Todas Naciones

The average wait to cross the border legally and petition for asylum is now 6-8 months. Families who’ve made it to the Arizona-Mexico Border are lucky to secure space in a shelter.

Now, after almost eight months of waiting in shelter La Casa de las Misericordia y Todas Naciones in Nogales, Sonora, our weaving teacher Carla’s number has been called, and she is leaving legally for the U.S.

As an artisan specializing in textiles, Carla is a phenom. She designs her own apparel, sews by hand and machine, embroiders, knits, and now weaves. Even more impressive than her textile skill set is the way in which she empowers others to learn. Carla is a wonderful teacher. She’ll be an asset to any part of the U.S. where she and her family settle.

Helping artisans survive and thrive in their new communities is a big part of our core mission as it has evolved over the last few years. Your donations to the Artisans Beyond Borders website will help Carla with the resources and support she needs to realize her lifelong dream of opening a shop.

Carla teaching embroidery, sewing and weaving to children and adults

Carla has passed the baton to our next on-site resident teacher: Yandé, a textile designer from Senegal who, like Carla, is multi-talented. Delighted to add weaving to her palette, Yandé now teaches other residents and visitors in the same subtle and patient way as Carla. Both of them are blessings at the shelter and the community at large. Artisans Beyond Borders can continue to pay the teachers a modest monthly stipend for as long as donations to Artisans Beyond Borders allow.

Yandé and Carla dressing a table loom together

This writer with Carla and Yandé, the shelter’s current teacher. Yandé holds up an intricately embroidered Guadalupe, the empress of the Americas, with the U.S. on one side and Mexico on the other. Every square inch of Yandé’s custom piece, a month in the making, is embroidered in chain stitch!

Casa Cardo

Thanks to the collaborative efforts of Artisans Beyond Borders and volunteers, an outbuilding at a new small shelter in Tucson has been beautifully transformed into ‘la Sala de las Artesanias,’ the craft room.

For resident solo women asylum-seekers and their children, the light-filled multi-use space is a santuario, a sanctuary for imagination and soul. Generous art and craft donations from the community have already provided opportunities and materials for weaving and healing, embroidering, sewing, and more. The Santuario is now fully stocked, so Artisans Beyond Borders gratefully accepts financial donations (only) on the website to cover healing-centered arts programming for the women and children.

And more…

After six years running, Artisans Beyond Borders will be taking a Summer Sabbatical in the country from June to September 2024. This writer, for one, is looking forward to days filled with flow, long-form writing, and weaving. We wish everyone a wonderful summer. See you in September!

P.S. If you are not already subscribed to this blog and you want to continue receiving good news behind the scenes, please hit the subscribe button. We need more followers to be able to grow into a more hopeful future here on the border and beyond. Thank you!

In Border peace,

Binational Friends of Artisans Beyond Borders

Artisans Beyond Borders Summer/Fall, 2020 Newsletter

Women, Fiber art, and Immigrants ~ Profiles in Courage and Creativity

The Artisans ~ Profiles in Courage & Creativity

Last month we profiled Irma (above), an indigenous weaver and long-time embroiderer from Guatemala whose faith sustains her while she waits at the border with her toddler to apply for asylum. This month, in the face of COVID, she shares her embroidered prayer: If I am contagious Lord, may it be with your Faith and your Love.

41-year-old Esmeralda, from Guerrero, Mexico, also learned to embroider at a young age from her beautiful mother, may she rest in peace.

In her own words, she writes:

First of all, a greeting to each one of you. Being here is a bit of suffering because we leave behind all the beautiful moments of coexistence, of peace and tranquility, in our beautiful towns. As an indigenous woman, I am proud of my roots, although for others I am an ignorant and Indian woman, as the mestizos tell us. Being humiliated before society for the simple fact of being what I am “Indigenous,” is sad. Now what brought me to where I am is not knowing about the men who believe they have the power to decide if they let you live or not, it is sad. Living in fear, afraid and thinking you are not going to wake up because they have you there watching over you, you do not live in ease, everything scares you, the streets, the roads, and other towns not even to go out to travel. The only option that you have is to go out to look for protection to other countries where my children, my husband, and I can be safe. Because the truth is, I don’t want to lose anyone else from my family since losing a loved one is a pain so strong that it is difficult to overcome. Months ago, after they assassinated my Father-in-law, we fled from them, but God is so great that he would protect us and bless us in this place that we are at today and thank you to each one of you, for your valued support, Kino Kitchen, San Juan Bosco shelter, Panchito and his Christina (Voices from the Border), and you (Artisans Beyond Borders) for supporting us. From my heart, thank you and God bless you always.

Artisans Beyond Borders Bordados — *“Peace is in us”* embroidery by asylum-seeker Esmeralda at the U.S.-Mexico border during the pandemic, 2020.

The most difficult things about being here is how to pay the rent, worrying about our safety here on the border, and not having any news regarding our asylum application. Nuestro proyecto – our project: bordando esperanza – embroidering hope, also helps a lot with food, water, and electricity since it is most necessary.

When I am embroidering, I feel happy and I forget for a moment all the bad that is happening to us. It expands my creativity and brings me love and much tranquility inside my heart.

Women, fiber art, and Immigrants

Many of you have asked how Artisans Beyond Borders has managed to survive much less thrive through a long summer slammed by politics and the pandemic at the border. We survived because of donors like you and like Patricia Zimmerman from Portland, Oregon who donated her entire stimulus check, benefitting 20+ families for a full month.

Patricia (Pat), a serious handweaver, heard about ABB through the Weaving a Real Peace (WARP) newsletter. She says it hits all three of her hot buttons: “Women, fiber art, and immigrants” and when she received handpicked mantas in the mail, she was hooked.

Like many of us, Pat takes it personally. She told us how frustrating it is to witness a long-time friend unable to get a green card to work legally in the U.S. though he is married to a U.S. Citizen. “He and his family are the most decent, hardworking, and honest people I know,” she says.

Pat’s generous offering is the single largest donation we have had to date. Donations through the website this summer have been a godsend to the women and men we serve, especially now. While most of us can stay safe in our homes here in the U.S., asylum-seekers in Nogales feel blessed to have found a rare bed at a shelter for themselves and their kids. A few have been able to find a cheap room to rent. Others bed down each night at the town’s bus station.

New ABB Materials Fund

Embroidery and crochet materials people donated from all over the U.S. sustained ABB ever since we began in the summer of 2019. Some needleworking materials were new and still in the package, and some were wonderful vintage finds from thrift stores. Unfortunately, non-colorfast vintage floss bled in the wash one too many times. We still had enough new unopened materials in our stash to get through the worst of the pandemic this summer and the artisans were grateful for the supplies. Now that the shops are opening up again in Nogales, artisans can pick out their own materials from their favorite fabric store(s) such as the more culturally aligned (and in many ways, superior) Mexican thread they love.

Going forward, part of your donations will be going to the Artisans Materials Fund so they can purchase their own embroidery materials and supplies in-country. We want the makers to have as much agency and as many choices as possible and we want to support the local economy in Nogales.

Artisans Beyond Borders News

Design for social justice & community well-being

ABB has been chosen by the University of Arizona School of Art “Clients in the Community” class to collaborate on “Designing for Good,” with the focus on Social Justice: how good design makes a difference in the well-being of the community. From designing ABB ephemera to new social media, we are thrilled to work with such talented young designers, and we can’t wait to see what they come up with.

Artisans Beyond Borders ZOOM Presentations to begin in October

Starting with a ZOOM PowerPoint presentation for the Migration Ministries Committee at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Columbus, Ohio, ABB is happy to offer congregations, social justice committees, Artisan Guilds, and college-age students a 30 minute PowerPoint presentation of our inspiring origin story with a Q & A and a digital “trunk show” of available mantas for each presentation. Participants can choose their favorites and when possible learn more about the individual artisans who created the work.

The resilience of the makers in the face of insurmountable odds humbles us beyond measure and inspires us to do better. Their personal stories bring the truth of migration to the table and give us the chance to understand how current policies impact families on our Southern border. To arrange a presentation for your group, email us at Artisans Beyond Borders

In truth and grace,

Tucson (and beyond) Friends of Artisans Beyond Borders.

*Translations by Elizabeth Gaxiola, Instructor & Doctoral Candidate, College of Education, University of Arizona.

Our Lady of Guadalupe ~ stitching sanctuary with Artisans Beyond Borders

“While she waits at the U.S.~Mexico border to apply for asylum, Irma stitches Our Lady of Guadalupe ~ Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, the spirit and soul of our cross-border cultural arts program.”

Irma from Guatemala opens our portfolio of featured artisans at Artisans Beyond Borders. While she waits at the U.S.~ Mexico border to apply for asylum, Irma stitched our Lady of Guadalupe ~ Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, the spirit and soul of our cross-border cultural arts initiative.

Irma learned to weave traditional huipils at a young age in school and embroider servilletas to hold tortillas on the table. “I am proud to make these mantas. she says. “It brings me peace and patience.”

In the rural area of Guatemala where she lived, Irma shepherded sheep and other animals on the farm. When her way of life was threatened, she fled for the border with her husband and her child. Her dream is to achieve asylum in the United States for a better future for her daughter.

For more information about makers and their beautiful work, collectors, and upcoming offerings Sign up and receive the periodic Friends Newsletter at Artisans Beyond Borders or here at Art and Faith in the Desert.