Hopeful,'Unapologetic' Art Rebrands the Immigration Movement
Every year, during their mating season, millions of monarch butterflies make the journey from Canada and the U.S. to a small town in Mexico called Angangueo where they coat branches and leaves like gobs of black and orange paint. Migration is built into the monarch's DNA. For that very reason, the creature has played a central role in the rebranding of the undocumented movement. The choice in symbol is simple: Migration is natural, borders are not.
Hopeful,'Unapologetic' Art Rebrands the Immigration Movement
By CRISTINA COSTANTINI (@xtinatini)
ABC News
March 1, 2013
Every year, during their mating season, millions of monarch butterflies make the journey from Canada and the U.S. to a small town in Mexico called Angangueo where they coat branches and leaves like gobs of black and orange paint. Migration is built into the monarch's DNA. For that very reason, the creature has played a central role in the rebranding of the undocumented movement. The choice in symbol is simple: Migration is natural, borders are not.
Whether it's plastered across buses, screened on t-shirts or painted on billboards, the monarch has spread quickly thanks in large part to a group of West Coast artists -- including Melanie Cervantes, Cesar Maxit, Jesus Barraza, Ernesto Yerena, Julio Salgado and Favianna Rodriguez.
Through their work, these artists have helped shift the the movement by making art that reflects a "proactive rather than reactive" tone said Rodriguez, a California-based printmaker and activist. Phrases like "Undocumented and Unafraid," "No Papers No Fear" and "Migration is Beautiful" have grown in popularity -- a stark contrast from some of the movement's former reactionary refrains like, "Who's the Illegal Alien, Pilgrim?".
