Recognizing Latino Immigrants Through Art
Art is vital to community development and convening and a great way to get a community involved in art is through creative engagement. Creative engagement is defined by the Arts and Planning Toolkit as, “…an approach to community engagement that uses creative tools and artistic experiences to help diverse stakeholders imagine new approaches to planning processes and spark creative problem solving,” (2020). The definition mentions problem-solving as a function of creative engagement, art needs to help provide a solution to a problem. For my project, I’d like to propose an art installation, specifically a mural, for the Latino immigrant community in New Brunswick. My art piece will show the struggles that Latino immigrants from all across South and Central America have faced and overcome throughout the years in diaspora, to empower and inspire past, previous, and future Latino immigrants in the New Brunswick area.
The Latino population in New Brunswick is plentiful, as the community makes up almost 50% of the New Brunswick population. The article Latino Migration to New Brunswick (Yoza-Mitsuishi, 2020) breaks down the different groups who have immigrated since 1948, starting with immigrants from the Caribbean. Between 1948 to 1980, most of the Latino immigrants moving to New Brunswick were from Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. From the 1990s through the present, Latino immigrants have mostly come from Mexico. Latinos are also the largest and fastest-growing racial/ethnic minority group in the United States (Ornelas, Yamanis, & Ruiz, 2020). Despite the New Brunswick population being so heavily inhabited by Latino Immigrants, Latino immigrants have faced overt racism due to their immigration status, “ On a daily basis, they face anxiety and trauma by and in anticipation of the immigration regime,” (Rodriguez, 2020). The racism surrounding Latino immigrants is far greater than that of any other racial or ethnic group. Due to the continuous negative political discourse that has been surrounding Latino immigrants, I think it’s important to highlight this community to show the trials and tribulations they have faced and overcome. The earlier groups of Latino immigrants that migrated to New Brunswick, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Dominicans, can help represent the resilience of Latino immigrants and provide hope for the new and future generations of Latino immigrants. Art has the power to provide hope and strengthen the Latino community in New Brunswick. An article titled Arts, Culture, and Creativity as a Strategy for Countering the Negative Social Impacts of Immigration Stress and Gentrification states, “the arts provided opportunities for social interaction, built a sense of place and community identity, created context for the understanding of differences, and built resilience to inequality,” (Rubin, Chomitz, & Levine, 2021). Utilizing the stories from the groups who immigrated between the 1940s to 1980s, I believe a beautiful mural embracing the strength and resilience of Latino immigrants can be a very powerful message for those who are struggling currently, as well as those who will immigrate into the New Brunswick area in the future.
For my piece, the first change agent will be the Catholic Charities Diocese of Metuchen. They are a non-profit organization that provides immigration services to immigrants in the New Brunswick area. They have a location in New Brunswick, the Unity Square Community Center. They provide aid in obtaining citizenship, green card applications, and temporary protected status. This group could help provide the outreach and community engagement surrounding the mural as well as act upon the quality of life improvements. This project will help feed into their mission by providing the support necessary to complete this project. My second change agent will be New Brunswick Tomorrow’s Esperanza Neighborhood Project, a neighborhood initiative that helps provide Latino immigrants in New Brunswick with the resources for a better life in the United States. They focus on empowering neighborhood leaders, supporting families, equipping entrepreneurs, and creating safe neighborhoods. They recognize the struggles of being an immigrant and the sacrifices immigrants make by leaving their country to move to the U.S. This art piece directly aligns with their initiatives and they would be a great help in providing the community engagement necessary to make this project come to life.
In New Brunswick, French Street is a hub for the Latino community. For this reason, I want my mural to be put up on French Street. On the corner of French and Suydam Street, there is a grey building that would be a great spot for the mural to go. I think it’s important to implement creative placemaking into the blueprint for this piece. Rubin, Chomitz, and Levine explain the importance of creative placemaking on communities, “Creative placemaking emphasizes artistic and cultural diversity, activates cross-sector partnering, and strategically attends to revitalizing local economies and social and environmental capital via arts and culture,” (2021). This location is on a busy corner in New Brunswick, so the piece will be seen and appreciated by many people from all walks of life. It’ll help bring to light who this community is while empowering those who fit into the mold of being a Latino immigrant. This mural will provide a space for this community to come together and hopefully allow those who don’t identify with the group to gain a new appreciation for the struggles and hardships they’ve overcome. It’ll help liven the hub of the Latino community in New Brunswick and draw more people who do and don’t identify as Latino immigrants into the area to support local businesses.
Latino immigrants in America have faced a set of hardships far different than that of a natural-born citizen. Despite these struggles, some of those who immigrated in the 1940s to 1980s have found success and overcome a lot of the struggles that the new wave of Latino immigrants is facing today. This mural will provide those in the Latino immigrant community in New Brunswick who are currently struggling a beacon of hope by seeing the past struggles their counterparts have overcome. It’ll also be inspirational to those who have found success after immigrating by reminding them of their resilience to overcome the trauma that systemic oppression surrounding Latino immigrants has put upon them.
References
Ornelas, Yamanis, T. J., & Ruiz, R. A. (2020). The Health of Undocumented Latinx Immigrants: What We Know and Future Directions. Annual Review of Public Health, 41(1), 289–308. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040119-094211
Rodriguez. (2020). “I Was Born at the Border, Like the ‘Wrong’ Side of It”: Undocumented Latinx Youth Experiences of Racialization in the U.S. South. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 51(4), 496–526. https://doi.org/10.1111/aeq.12357
Rubin, Chomitz, V. R., Woo, C., Li, G., Koch-Weser, S., & Levine, P. (2021). Arts, Culture, and Creativity as a Strategy for Countering the Negative Social Impacts of Immigration Stress and Gentrification. Health Promotion Practice, 22(1_suppl), 131S–140S. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524839921996336
WHAT IS CREATIVE ENGAGEMENT? . Arts and Planning Toolkit. (2020). Retrieved October 5, 2022, from https://artsandplanning.mapc.org/creative-engagement/
Yoza-Mitsuishi, K., (2020) Latino Migration to New Brunswick Today
