Los Refugiados (The Refugees)
2020
Ceramic, Textile, Wood, Resin, Metal, Paper
Dimensions Variable
Los Refugiados is my attempt to tell the story of Latin American immigrants through the language of the traditional Mexican Nacimiento or nativity scene. Instead of kings and shepherds, I filled the scene with clay figures of everyday people—workers, mothers, children—drawn from all walks of life. At the center, the Holy Family becomes immigrants themselves, crossing the border in search of safety. The Christ Child is not the usual fair, blond baby, but a Mexican child. Mary and Joseph wear garments from Mexico and Guatemala, grounding them in the histories and struggles of immigrants.
For me, this reimagining compels us to see Mary, Joseph, and the Christ Child as what they truly were: refugees fleeing the violence of an unjust system of power. Their story is not distant or abstract—it echoes the lives of immigrants and refugees today.
Around the nativity, I placed small clay figures engaged in daily life alongside sculptures I created to speak to harsher truths—family separation, children in cages, the cruelties of the border. In today’s political climate, I feel it is urgent to hold up the humanity of immigrants and refugees. Los Refugiados is both altar and reminder: the nativity story is not just a story of faith, but of migration, resilience, and survival.
