On October 12, 2022, I attended the Harbage Page’s exhibition, which focused mainly on the U.S. – Mexico Border Project. Susan Harbage Page was born in Ohio and has spent most of her life crossing borders. She has a master’s degree in Photography and a master’s degree in Music. When she was ten, her life goal became to understand crossing borders. Susan and her family went on a European camping trip. They crossed multiple borders. At Romania’s border, Susan and her family were held under police custody for a day. Due to this experience, she became interested in investigating the interworkings of border patrol. In this reflection, I will write about two of her sculptures influenced by her discoveries at the U.S. – Mexico Border Project.
The first artwork displayed was The Anti-Archive, which consisted of photographed images of personal items that belonged to people who attempted to cross the border. It included a red bra, broken glasses, black jeans, and a passport. These images triggered a sharp pain in my heart because they belonged to someone. Maybe a father, a sister, or a child. We are becoming more aware of the hardships thousands of immigrants encounter at borders. For example, families are separated, locked in cages, and hardly fed.
The Second artwork was the Monument to Life Givers. This artifact portrayed 53 brickers, each representing a body found on June 27, 2022. These individuals died at the US-Mexico border after being left behind by human smugglers in San Antonio, Texas. Just like The Anti-Archive, this piece touched my heart. It caused me to feel empathy for the victim’s families when I tried to imagine the pain they must have felt. The majority of the time, when people make the harrowing journey to migrate to the United States, they are in search of a better life. An example would be Mexico. In Mexico, the push factors are high violence, a terrible economy, and low opportunities.
These two relics lead me to question certain things. First, did the human smugglers feel apologetic when immigrants died in their care, or were they only interested in their financial aspirations? Secondly, did they regret their decisions? Lastly, the Harbage Page’s exhibition is relevant to LAS101 because it demonstrates the struggles of Latin American countries. In Mexico, thousands of immigrants seek asylum. Refugees come from parts of South America searching for a better life. To understand these citizens, one must understand how their country impacts them and why they strive for a better life.
Thank you for sharing your experience in the Harbage Page Exhibition! I found it heartbreaking reading the part about the brickers and learning how these people were left to die in an unfamiliar place. I find it frustrating when people condemn others for crossing boarders, yet never attempt to understand this side of their story. I believe that Susan Harbage Page did an amazing job at illustrating their struggles and stories.
Hi Vianka,
Thank you for sharing your perspective on the Harbage Page Exhibition. It sounds like Susan Harbage Page does a great job of capturing the struggles and violence of crossing the US-Mexico border in her work. In particular, the Monument to Life Givers artwork that captured the 53 lives lost in a human trafficking scheme at the border is gut-wrenching. I agree these immigrants are looking for a better and more prosperous life in the United States. The boarder crisis is such a complex issue, and human trafficking is one of the most unfortunate byproducts of it. I am glad Susan Harbage Page continues to capture the struggles of the border in her artwork in order to bring awareness to the atrocities of the border crisis.
Thank you for this reflection. I also got the chance to visit the Harbage Page exhibition and generally had similar thoughts. However, I appreciate you bringing up the human smuggler perspective, which I hadn’t considered. I completely agree that the exhibition added a certain human element to my approach to thinking about Latin America because it forced me to imagine those specific people, like the father, sister, and child you mentioned, and how their lives were concretely affected by the tragedy.
Hi Vianka,
I really enjoyed your reflection. The fight to cross the Mexican-US border is a big issue today, yet we only hear the US perspective on it. I like how you brought up the emotions attached to the problem because we often forget that. I went to an exhibit similar to Harbour Page’s at the US-Mexico border in Arizona. I was also emotional because, like you, I remembered that the migrants belonged to someone. It is important that we keep seeing exhibits such as this because it reminds us about the severity of the issue and helps provide solutions.