Video by Courtney Pedroza
The sun was beating and paint fell like rain while American and Mexican citizens helped Ana Teresa Fernández erase the border fence in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, on Tuesday.
Before Fernández made her way to the border, the activist and artist went south through Arizona, stopping at the Phoenix Art Museum on McDowell Road and Central Avenue.
Arizona State University’s Performance in the Borderlands is hosting Fernández from Oct. 5 to Oct. 16. During this statewide residency, Fernández is holding workshops, leading talks and creating a version of her famous 2012 work, the Borrando la Frontera (Erasing the Border) project.
At that time, Fernández painted the Tijuana and San Diego border fence and was almost arrested for doing so.
“Very calmly I spoke to them, I’m not trying to deface the wall. I’m here as a Mexican trying to erase or bring back the sky between this wall so that people can be reminded of what this space would look like without prison bars,” Fernández said.
After an hour of conversation, they let her continue.
Tuesday, Fernández painted the fence with Mexican police and recreated the Borrando la Frontera vision.
“These bars actually penetrate the ocean and separate it into two countries,” Fernández said. “It’s such satire to think of a wave in the ocean, half of it being American speaking English and half of it being Mexican speaking Spanish. And what that means to divide the sky and the grains of sand.”
Contact the reporter and videographer at Courtney.Pedroza@asu.edu.
