Artist Paints the U.S. – Mexico Border Wall As a Reminder of Achieving Dreams

In "Borrando la Frontera" (Erasing the Border), artist Ana Teresa Fernández painted part of the border wall that seperates Playas de Tijuana from San Diego’s Border Field State park powdery blue, in an attempt to remind us of our dreams and visions for a better life and the struggle that goes with them.

For a woman born in Mexico, the border is a powerful symbol. Projecting a future in the north, Ana Teresa Fernández’s own journey—crossing the Tijuana-San Diego border to study and build her career— mirrors the route north taken by millions of women who have come from southern and central Mexico to work in the maquiladoras and make a better life for themselves and their families. Thus, the border is a site of utopian possibility. Yet, at the same time the border wall is an aggressive reminder of the violent subjugation of Mexico through the instruments of NAFTA and the Merida Initiative and resulting drug war.

Erasing the border, then, reminds us of the power of utopian visions, of dreams and the imagination.