Along the border wall in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico, there are murals painted along the wall. When I walked along, I picked out some of my favorite murals and decided to do a mini close reading for each.
One of my favorite murals is the mural of Diana. Diana was a woman who grew up in Agua Prieta, Mexico and then moved to Douglas, Arizona with her family. Mark, one of the people that work at Frontera de Cristo, said that he lives in Douglas and she was the local librarian.
His kids would go into the library everyday and Diana would know them by their names, assist them in reading, and overall made everyone happy. Once DACA was removed in 2017, Frontera de Cristo decided to do something special. Since they already do a vigil of people who have passed away while trying to cross the border, they decided to also take a moment for all the people who were impacted by the resignation of DACA.
During the vigil, the floor opened up and they decided to let other people speak. Diana was one of those people who spoke up. She said, “Hi. My name is Diana. I’m a dreamer.” I thought this was a very powerful story because it showed that you never know what people are going through. Because of this Diana has not seen her family in over 30 years.
She can go to Mexico to visit, but she will not be able to get back into the US. I thought it was interesting because she had become an important part of society as a librarian. Now she cannot visit her family and has been “stuck” in America in fear of one day being deported.
My next favorite mural is the mural of “The Creation of Adam.” Except it’s not the same exact thing. In fact, the hands are completely touching, implying that the creation of Adam and all of humankind is complete. When you look at the mural from a certain angle, all you see are the hands and a halo-like light around them.
But when you look straight at it, it looks broken. Not only does it look broken, but when you look through the wall itself, you will see the barbed wire. This implies that the creation of God is broken due to the forced separation by mankind.
Not only is it broken, but you can infer that the artist of the mural is deeply heartbroken by the building of the wall, as are many people in the towns of Agua Prieta and Douglas.
The last mural that I want to talk about is the mural of the bean. The way that the wall was built is very important in this mural. The wall pillars are built with slants in them. So from one side of the mural, it’s one photo, but on the other side, it tells a completely different story.
On one side, you see a photo of a bean in the middle of what seems like a universe. But on the other side, you can see a plant sprouting from the bean. There is also a God-like creature with its hands around the bean, making it look like it’s the universe’s creation.
This to me implies that we are all cut from the same cloth in a way. It shows that we all came from the same place so harming one person or group of people is essentially harming all of us in different ways.
Another thing that I noticed about the murals is that all of the animals that were painted on the wall migrate out of necessity. Whales and sea turtles migrate because they need to mate and go to warmer water. Butterflies and horses migrate to the south for warmth.
Hummingbirds migrate for food. All of these animals are put on the wall as if they can no longer migrate due restrictions. When you think about it, people also migrate out of necessity too. That is one of the main reasons for people immigrating, they need to immigrate to escape poverty, put food on the table, to be with loved ones, etc.
By preventing this from happening, it can cause major damage to the people it affects.
That being said, I think that the murals on the border wall tell an excellent story. If you ever get the chance to experience this, take the opportunity as it will change your life and perspectives for the better.