J. Leigh Garcia
April 5, 2018 (Utopia) & April 6, (Dystopia), 2019
Serigraph, Edition 8 & 8 of 60
15 x 11 in.

Although families have been separated at the border since mid-October of 2017, it wasn't until April 6, 2018 that General Jeff Sessions announced the Zero Tolerance Policy directing "federal prosecutors to criminally prosecute all adult migrants entering the country illegally." Because children cannot be held in a detention facility with their parents, the number of children separated fro parents skyrocketed to an estimated 2,000 children from April 19 to May 31. In June of 2018, a federal judge, Dana Sabraw, issues an injunction against the separations, and ordered the government to put the thousands of affected families back together. However, government data released in March of 2019 shows at least 245 family separations since the policy was halted in June 2018. "As a biracial Latina, a seventh-generation Texan of European descent on my mom's side, and a granddaughter of Mexican immigrants on my dad's, I have followed the roots of my own ancestry to shape my artistic practice. Major events in Texas history such as the Mexican-American War, Battle of the Alamo, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and Bracero Program have created a complex relationship between my two cultures: Texans and Mexicans. The residual racial discord that has resulted from these historical moments-particularly, the racialization and displacement of unauthorized Latinx immigrants-is both the context and focus of my work. Through printmaking, papermaking, and installation art, I encourage awareness of our current immigration and foreign affairs policies through the lens of my biracial cultural identity.

J. Leigh Garcia is an artist born and raised in Dallas, TX. Garcia received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Master of Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in printmaking from The University of North Texas. Garcia is currently a Print Media and Photography Professor at Kent State University in Kent, OH."