Baltimore County, MD smARTS, 28 Mar 2016

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From YouTube: smARTS: Latin Americans (Fall 2015)

Description

Learn about After the Border, a bilingual exhibit telling the stories of children and families who were forced to leave their homes in Central America.

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After the border is a bilingual exhibit telling the stories.

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Of children and families who were forced to leave their homes in central america., many of them live right here in baltimore city and county..

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With us is tanya garcia,, a fellow of the creative alliance.

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And one of the creative forces behind the exhibit.

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good to see you.. Thank you for having me.. I had a chance to view a few of the exhibit aspects. --.

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I don't know exactly what you'd say: -- and they're extremely powerful.

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And so,, I first of all congratulate you on what is a really dynamic exhibit, to say the least.

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Tell me a little bit about the exhibit and what its focus is on.

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And what inspired you to put this together.

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Sure. the exhibit focuses on the stories of the youth.

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And families who have fled their homes,, particularly in the triangle countries in south america, --.

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Guatemala,, el salvador and honduras -- and these youth and families--.

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So the exhibit really talks about their journey. Across,.

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What their lives were like before,, what they experienced crossing the border.

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And what their life is like, now.

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And you captured this in many different media, correct?.

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It's a multi-discipline exhibit.

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Can you tell me some of the different types of aspects you are using?.

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Sure. the exhibit contains video, oral histories,.

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Animations, photographs, and installation pieces as well.

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The exhibit was brought to creative alliance's attention.

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Several months ago, when last summer there was 51,000 youth.

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That crossed the border into the united states to be reunited with families or flee from violence.

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And that had more than doubled than the year before that.

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So the mayor's office of immigration and multicultural affairs,.

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Towson university and lutheran immigration, refugee services.

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Really approached creative alliance to portray these stories artistically.

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Okay, now you say, life is terrible for some of these people in central america.

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In what ways?, why is it so terrible?? What is happening?.

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There is extreme poverty,, extreme violence,.

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A lot of gang violence within these countries, as well.

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And there's been a long history of internal instability.

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That has been brought about by many factors: --.

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U.S. policies, coup, d'états, and just internal conflict,.

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Civil wars and things like that., so people feel their lives, are in jeopardy.

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It's not just a matter even of people are fleeing because they don't have work or that they're saying I don't think I will be alive next week or my child will be alive next week. If we stay. it's that bad.

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Right. there is an extreme desperation why people choose to leave.

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I don't think anyone wants to leave their homes,.

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A place that they speak the language and they have family there.

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It takes a huge reason to want to leave the country.

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And then the journey itself is very dangerous as well, is it not?.

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Yeah. so there's a lot at stake., absolutely. absolutely. and you capture all parts of this, or at least people talking about it or you have images.

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We're going to take a look at some of the things that people will see in the exhibit, just to give a little sneak preview of what they can expect.

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Yeah., so there is images of-- from different artists in the exhibit.

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Levi vonk is an artist in the show..

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He photographed youth in mexico.

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He was part of an activist group in mexico talking with migrants.

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Who are fleeing their countries in central america.

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And some of the exhibit is your work as well,, which is kind of unique, right? people,, when you cur-- typically,, when you curate, you're, not curating, some of your own work..

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But you have an incredible piece about a mother talking about.

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Leaving her children behind.

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yeah, the--, I interviewed a family, a few families actually,.

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One of which was this mother..

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She talks about her-- what excruciating pain she was in.

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Having to flee her home in order to provide for her family.

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And you captured that., I wish we could talk more about it, but you captured it so beautifully, and so I encourage everyone to go to the exhibit to feel,.

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Again,, the power and the deep expressiveness of your work.

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And of the whole exhibit., and so we encourage people to do that and there's going to be a panel discussion.

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On october 13th, that's going to highlight some of these issues as well.

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So we thank you and congratulations on some great work.

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This exhibit is on view at the towson university cook, library.

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From october 12th to november 12th., don't miss it.