The awareness of being looked at: giving a view of the tianguis stall

Frances Paola Garnica Quiñones

El Colegio de San Luis, San Luis Potosí, Mexico.

is a Conacyt postdoctoral fellow at El Colegio de San Luis. She holds a master's degree and PhD in Social Anthropology with Visual Media from the University of Manchester, UK. Her research topics include the perception and imaginary of spaces, Chinese migration in San Luis Potosi and ritual and therapeutic uses of peyote from a biocultural territory defense approach. She is co-director of the documentary ...And I'm not leaving the neighborhood! (2019).
Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6957-1299

Image 1

Tianguis: a place to watch

CDMX, 2012.

Once a week the Ruta 8 de Mercados sobre Ruedas is installed in eight different neighborhoods of the CDMX. People visit with certain expectations of the place:

The tianguis is a light bulb on, a journey, a back and forth, going in search of something with the desire to get something, open space, without walls, without walls. There is room for everyone; it is a tradition, an adventure, a means of sustenance, a job and a chinga. - Rodrigo, dealer.

Picture 2

"The tianguis can be seen, smelled and touched" (Jorge, art dealer).

CDMX, 2013.

The atmosphere of a tianguis is generated in large part thanks to the work that tianguistas put into the presentation of their stalls.

The main expectations of a tianguis from the perspective of the marchantes are that, 1) its installation is on the public street, 2) there is an atmosphere of exploration, sociability and personalized attention, 3) there are products that are not found in other establishments and at low cost, 4) the visit is recreational and enjoyable, 5) there is room for maneuver in the commercial exchange, such as bargaining and bargaining.

Picture 3

"Why do I always get hungry at the tianguis?" (Carlos, dealer)

CDMX, 2013.

These expectations are not the result of a marketing study where the preferences of the potential clientele were calculated and then the tianguistas created and executed an action plan accordingly. They are the result of the observations and adaptations made by the tianguistas in order to set up a street sale. They bring together a series of knowledge about the use of space, hygiene, product presentation, interaction with vendors and internal social organization. Since stalls are usually passed down from father to son or daughter, this knowledge is acquired and inherited over decades of coexistence with vendors.

Picture 4

Assemble the stand

CDMX, 2013.

At eight o'clock in the morning, the constant whistle of the devils or chargers alerts pedestrians walking in the middle of the traffic of devils (wheelbarrows). Heavy wooden boards on the floor mark the place of each stall. Half-assembled stalls, like skeletons, wait to be dressed. But the tianguistas must take into account the rules imposed by the association itself, the government and the neighbors of each neighborhood: install the awning of the indicated color, have the stall tubes painted in the same color, do not exceed the allotted meters, do not ruin flower boxes or fences of the neighborhood, keep the boxes and other materials tidy in the back of the stall and avoid cables, ropes and obstacles in the aisles, among others.

Picture 5

Diablero

CDMX, 2013.

The diableros perform work that requires great physical effort. A diablero can carry up to 100 kilos. They load, unload, assemble and disassemble the tubes of the stand. They can also act as assistants, serving customers and giving "testers" to the vendors. For many migrants, this job is their first entry into the world of work in the CDMX, as the requirements are minimal.

Picture 6

Assistant

CDMX, 2013.

The stall owners usually hire employees to help them unload the merchandise and set up every day. The tianguistas who do not have their own cargo truck hire freight drivers who store the merchandise in their truck overnight and deliver it early in the morning to the neighborhood where the tianguis is to be set up.

Picture 7

The tailor of the post

CDMX, 2012.

Abel, an assistant at the banana stand, resembles a tailor who puts the finishing touches on the stand. A native of Veracruz, he considers his trade to be that of a farmer, but he has developed diverse skills over ten years of handling the stall's structural materials. Abel prepares and adapts the stall for possible weather conditions: clear, rainy or windy. He uses coins that he wraps and ties around the corners of the stall's canopy to get a better grip. He says he likes this work because it awakens his creativity.

Picture 8

The art of banana placement

CDMX, 2012.

Abel takes the bunches of bananas from the rows he already formed and, with a curved knife, skillfully cuts the top of the stem without splitting the bananas, making the joint look flatter:

I'm giving them a view. It's more attractive; the bananas look fresher and more appetizing..

Giving a view consists of working on the aesthetic and spatial presentation of the stand and the products that compose it.

Picture 9

The stocking stall

CDMX, 2012.

A few meters from the banana stand, Olimpia is unpacking the merchandise from her hosiery stand. Her mother inherited it from her. After a hired loader assembles her two-meter stand and places large drums full of clothes, Olimpia arranges the merchandise. As part of give view to her stall, she also often dresses her merchandise, a strategy that has helped her sell.

Picture 10

Giving sight is inherited

CDMX, 2012.

On the front counter, Olimpia places colorful socks that she has had dyed, because it's cheaper. She stretches them along the corner of the stall, creating a rainbow of nylon. Light filters through the transparent material, highlighting the delicate patterns of the stockings, which are hung like invisible legs. Bundles of stockings portraying several white-skinned blonde women hang at the front of the stall, swaying delicately in the morning breeze.

From my mother I learned to show my stockings like this. She always told me to hang up my stockings just like this. They look great, don't they? Don't they? Look at them. - Olimpia, tianguista.

Picture 11

Variety in 2 meters

CDMX, 2012.

The extensive variety of merchandise that Olimpia handles includes more than a hundred different products. After three hours of arranging socks, tights, leggings, tights, stockings, lycra skirts and so on, Olimpia arranges her seat, which consists of a stack of box tops on a storage box, and checks on Galleta, her little French Poodle who is napping very comfortably on a cushion.

Picture 12

Giving a view is innovation

CDMX, 2013.

During the 1980s, before the Free Trade Agreement, the tianguis were the place where innovations were found. Things that were not allowed to be sold were sold freely in the tianguis. It was a place of novelties. People liked to find something new, even if it was the same thing, but in a different form, for example, curiosities, like jicama. Instead of selling it in a jar, you put a stick to the slice of jicama and it becomes a special popsicle called "jicaleta". That's something innovative and it was sold at the tianguis. Fruit covered with chocolate, things like that. The idea was to look for something attractive, something curious. It was more than just satisfying a desire to consume. - Roberto, tianguista.

Picture 13

Recognition comes through the eyes

CDMX, 2012.

On Sunday more foreigners arrive and I would imagine that in their countries there are not as many things as here. It is a marvel for them to see our work, because it is not easy to arrive and find everything already shaped, washed, cut, sliced; it is a great task that we do from very early in the morning and they are amazed. And they see it as a treasure that we have. I don't know, maybe, if we had it every day, it became more habitual and maybe you don't value it so much. You see the enthusiasm, the expression on their faces, how they stand with their cameras, film and ask for permission. Many are more observant. They try to see the structures we have to work with, because it is not easy, and they are even more amazed when they go the next day and there is nothing of what they saw the day before.. - Abel, tianguista.

Picture 14

The good trader

CDMX, 2012.

The tianguis reminds you not to assume that there are no faces on the fruit. Here at the tianguis, you can see that the vendors work for the goods. They share their knowledge about the produce, how it can be eaten. It's a more direct approach, not like in the storefronts. - Octavio, art dealer.

Picture 15

Oranges with a view

CDMX, 2013.

Twice a week Roberto, tianguista and representative of Route 8, buys 90 kgs. of oranges in arpilla, as many kilos of Valencia oranges, grapefruit and pineapples.

In Abastos, a higher monetary value is given to oranges that "have eyesight", that is, those that are large in size -and therefore heavier-, uniform in color and without blemishes.

Picture 16

Automatic and manual aesthetic selection

CDMX, 2013.

At the Central de Abastos, a machine sorts the oranges by size and, via a conveyor belt, sorts them into compartments. Once the oranges have fallen into these compartments, two fruit sorters pick them up and manually select the oranges that have spots or dents.

Some fruits get leaves stuck to them when they are growing and get stained. We take care of this. We select the best ones, and the ugly ones we remove so that the fruit has a better presentation. This is what helps people consume more.- Ángel, worker at the Central de Abastos.

Picture 17

Back at the post

CDMX, 2013.

Roberto finally arranges the oranges in his stand. These oranges have gone through a selection process that is part of a chain involving the aesthetics of the product. The oranges with the "best look" are given at a more expensive price to the dealer. Roberto also sources oranges for juice, pineapples and grapefruit.

Picture 18

Map of a tianguis stand set up in the vicinity of the Velódromo sports center.

CDMX, 2013.

These are the basic elements that make up the assembly and presentation of a Ruta 8 citrus stand. Variations tend to occur with respect to the type of products being sold, the neighborhood where the stand is set up, where space may be larger on some streets than on others, and the needs of the vendors. Annexes are more tolerated in Velódromo, where there is much more space than, for example, in La Condesa.

Picture 19

Social control and view

CDMX, 2013.

Roberto, as a representative of Ruta 8, along with the coordinator of the Markets on Wheels Program and a representative of a neighborhood committee, review the news to measure risks, threats and points for improvement. They set out to carry out the monthly supervision of Ruta 8's facilities in the Condesa neighborhood. The criteria for this supervision focus on the presentation of the stall and the use of the space.

Picture 20

Aisle width

CDMX, 2013.

Roberto measures the aisle space together with the coordinator. Maintaining an adequate width is important to maintain a comfortable and safe circulation of people. We also check that there are no annexes or extensions of stalls beyond the permitted measurements, to avoid unfair competition among vendors.

Picture 21

Annexes

CDMX, 2013.

An annex is any extension of a tianguis stall. Annexes can obstruct the circulation space of the aisle and also invade the space of another trader's stall. Some tianguistas also denounce the invasion of their stalls with annexes of others:

If I don't complain, I get more space tomorrow.. - Tianguista of Route 8.

Picture 22

Inches away from unfair competition

CDMX, 2012.

Exceeding the spatial limitations of a stall can translate into a problem for tianguistas. The consequences of annexes are often complaints by customers and neighbors to the local government or the media, which contributes to a damaging public image of the tianguis and the suspension of working days for traders by the authorities.

Picture 23

Walking without burning

CDMX, 2013.

It is also checked that there are no hot stoves, boxes, electric cables or other objects that could compromise the safety of the marchers. In the image, these indications are directed to merchants of stalls that do not necessarily belong to the Ruta 8 association but that are installed in some neighborhoods together with them. These stalls may be independent or belong to other tianguista associations. However, for Roberto it is important that these stalls abide by the rules, because otherwise "we can all be lumped together".

Picture 24

Circulators

CDMX, 2013.

The criteria that are reviewed during an aisle supervision are based on the people who walk the tianguis, especially those with limitations, such as the elderly, children in strollers and people with disabilities.

Picture 25

Taking care of the dealer's space

CDMX, 2012.

The tianguis plays an important economic and social role in the leisure time of this marchanta and her son. The tianguis, in addition to saving her a long trip to a park or other recreational place, is inexpensive. CMDX residents grow with the tianguis, whether out of necessity or entertainment, and the tianguis grows along with them. Recurring clientele is a tianguista's main income. Therefore, taking care of the stalls and avoiding complaints from neighbors helps to maintain the tianguis economically and socially. But, beyond work, tianguistas have maintained relationships with up to four generations of marchantes, many are close and trusting, and there have even been several cases of marriages between tianguistas and marchantes.

Picture 26

The little test

CDMX, 2013.

The housewife is suspicious and the salesman redoubles his courtesies. - Carlos Monsiváis (2000, p. 223).

Picture 27

The neighbors

CDMX, 2013.

In neighborhoods such as La Condesa, the political participation of neighbors through neighborhood committees has forced tianguistas to pay special attention to the aesthetics of their stalls. Complaints in high-class neighborhoods reach the tianguis representative very quickly, and if they are not addressed, the neighborhood committees often take legal action. Roberto thinks that in these areas people get more involved because they have the time to do so, while complaints are infrequent in lower class areas because:

People are too busy working and don't have time to participate. - Roberto, tianguista.

Picture 28

Cars vs. stalls

CDMX, 2013.

"Oh no, why didn't you tell me, I didn't know today was tianguis day!" said a young woman to the security guard of the building she was exiting. Next to the young woman's trapped car, vendors who were supposed to be assembling their stall were standing on the pavement next to unpacked packages of the merchandise they were supposed to be selling. One of them commented to the others, "We're losing a good day's work."

Image 29

Improvisation

CDMX, 2013.

The most flexible thing in the universe is space, there is always room for another person and another and another, and in the Metro, human density is not synonymous with the struggle for life, but rather, the opposite. Success is not about surviving, but about finding space in space. How can two objects not occupy the same place at the same time?

Carlos Monsiváis (2000, pp. 111-112).

Image 30

Residential rights or right to work?

CDMX, 2013.

The temporary solution is to install the post around the car. This type of situation causes tension and conflicts with neighbors and sparks discussion about who has more or less right to the street. The tianguistas prioritize the neighbors' right to the street in virtue of their right to work on the established day.

Image 31

The apron, pride at work

CDMX, 2013.

"You can catch me tired but never without the desire to sell," reads the apron of this helper. It is common to find these types of messages that reinforce the tianguistas' pride in their work.

Articles published in the media and in some government speeches, use words such as "combat" or "attack" together with the words "tianguis" or "informal commerce", "disorder", "garbage" and "dirt". Faced with such public opinions, Victor, tianguista leader, responds:

There are all kinds of people, those who like and those who do not like to go to the tianguis, but if they lack something, they go to the tianguis. Many people used to say: "filthy tianguistas", but it is a filth of work, it is a filth of effort, it is a filth of necessity, it is not a filth of laziness or of sitting down and getting dusty. It is something that, finally, must be respected because the work of a garbage collector is as worthy as that of a tianguista, as of an engineer.

Image 32

Improvisation

CDMX, 2012.

At the end of the day, diableros, fleteros and vendors meet again to exchange notes and anecdotes of the day while the leaders see to it that no one is left behind and that the garbage is collected. Leaving the street dirty would mean one more complaint to the detriment of the Ruta 8 installation. Sometimes this task can last until ten o'clock at night, as the garbage collectors are often late. In some neighborhoods, Ruta 8, through quotas, hires private garbage collection services because, according to the tianguistas, the public service often does not show up.

Sweet saints: devotions to Cosmas and Damian in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Renata Menezes

is a professor in the Anthropology Department of the National Museum, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (ufrj). D. (2004) and M.A. (1996) in Social Anthropology from the Graduate Program in Social Anthropology of the National Museum, ufrj (ppgas/mn/ufrj). Coordinator of the Laboratory of Anthropology of the Playful and the Sacred of the National Museum (Ludens). Researcher at the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico.cnpq and Faperj's "Cientista do Nosso Estado". renata.menezes@mn.ufrj.br

Morena Freitas

is an anthropologist at the Superintendence of the Institute of National Historical and Artistic Heritage (Instituto del Patrimonio Histórico y Artístico Nacional (iphan) in Sergipe, Brazil. Researcher at the Laboratory of Anthropology of the Playful and the Sacred (Ludens/...).mn/ufrj). D. in Social Anthropology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. morebmfreitas@gmail.com

Lucas Bártolo

D. student at the Graduate Program in Social Anthropology of the National Museum of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (ppgas/mn/ufrj), Brazil. Researcher at the Laboratory of Anthropology of the Playful and the Sacred (Ludens/...), Brazil.mn/ufrj). Master in Social Anthropology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. bartolo.lucas@mn.ufrj.br

Virtual exhibition poster Sweet Saints: Devotions to Cosmas and Damian in Rio de Janeiro

Leear Martiniano, 2020

During the months of September and October, Cosme, Damien, Doum and the ibejadas circulate and are exhibited in religious stores.

Thiago Oliveira, 2015.

Since the beginning of September, the shop windows announce the arrival of the season of saints' sweets. Until October 25, the day of Crispim and Crispiniano, passing through October 12, Children's Day, a festive-religious calendar is established in the city of Rio de Janeiro around the celebration of childhood. In the religious articles stores, the images of Ibejadas, Cosme, Damião and Doum are the most sought after in this period, when the terreiros and churches are used to celebrate children.

Season of sweets in the markets

Thiago Oliveira, 2015.

The typical sweets of Cosme y Damián

Thiago Oliveira, 2015.

White candies, typical candies, sweet pots, traditional candies, industrialized candies, homemade candies... Welcome to the incredible world of candies! Coconut candy, sigh, paçocajujube, lollipop, milk candy, peanuts (pé de moleque) and pumpkin. Many of these sweets only appear on the shelves once a year, in September: they are the typical sweets of Cosme y Damián.

There are those who like to give more than just candy, mainly toys.

Thiago Oliveira, 2015.

In celebrations organized by a larger group of devotees - in the street or in neighborhood clubs - or by the community of a terreiroThe toys can be more special, such as bicycles and remote-controlled cars, and recreational activities and games are scheduled throughout the day. Distributions take on a charitable dimension when school supplies, food and clothing are also donated.

The assembly requires the development of a technique, without renouncing affection.

Thiago Oliveira, 2015.

The assembly technique is a family apprenticeship, in most cases through the maternal line.

Thiago Oliveira, 2015, Vaz Lobo.

At home, families usually organize themselves in an assembly line: candies are taken out of the packages and placed on the table, and each person is in charge of putting one or more types in a bag, which is passed from hand to hand until it reaches the person in charge of closing it with a stapler or a ribbon. Ideally, each bag should have the same amount and type of candy as the others, so that no child is harmed. And the saints are watching! But the bags can't be assembled too far in advance because the candy can melt. Once the bags are filled and closed, it's time to separate the ones that will go to the neighbor, the nephew, the work friend's daughter. There are people who have been giving for decades, there are those who are starting now, to greet the arrival of a baby, and there are those who continue practices inherited from their ancestors.

Far beyond the candy, Cosme y Damián's bags also contain promises, family traditions and childhood memories.

Thiago Oliveira, 2015.

The sachet with the effigy of the twin saints is considered the most traditional, whether it is made of paper or plastic.

Lucas Bártolo, 2016.

For many, the saints also participate in the celebration, eating the sweets. Cocadas, suspiros, pumpkin candies, etc. are also offered. Many Cosme y Damián altars contain candies and soft drinks as offerings.

As they are associated with the orixás twins, Cosmas and Damian also eat the food of the gods. In addition to sweets, the saints eat caruru, omolocum, acarajé and chicken. At home or in the terreiros.

Offerings to Cosmas, Damian and Doum in a religious articles store.

Thiago Oliveira, 2015.

Offerings to the saints in the Roman Catholic Church

Renata Menezes, 2012.

Offerings to the saints e orixás in a terreiro

Lucas Bártolo, 2016, Cavalcanti.

The big day is approaching. Tickets and invitations are distributed to avoid crowds and alternate distribution in the neighborhood. Information about the houses that distribute the bags of candy circulates among the children, who begin to draw an affective (and sweet) map of the city.

In groups, led by the eldest or even by an adult, the children leave home early and spend the day roaming the streets, running after candy. The party draws an affective map of the city, delimited by strong or weak candy places, near or far from home, where there are good or bad bags. The bags are distributed at doorways, in squares, in churches and shrines, in schools, daycare centers and orphanages, on foot or by car. Families gather to drink and give sweets. Some like to celebrate the day as if it were the birthday of the twin saints, opening the house and arranging a table with cake, guarana, blancmange and sweets. In small bags or on the tables, the sweets are, on the 27th, food for the saints and the children. The day of Cosme and Damian is a playful experience of the city.

Running after candy: a playful experience of the city

Correio da Manhã/Arquivo Nacional, September 1971.

Thiago Oliveira, 2015.

Early in the morning, the sound of the first sneakers crunching as they race through the streets heralds the start of another day on September 27. It is an extraordinary occasion when the children take on an autonomy that they will probably only really have when they are no longer children. In groups, led by the eldest or even by an adult, the children leave home early in the morning and spend the day running through the streets, or rather, running after candy.

In several neighborhoods of the city, we find patterns of grouping that can be compared to old photos, like the one we see below. There is a pattern that seems to repeat itself, in a movement of children through the streets of the city that sets adults and children in motion.

The party as a moment of anonymous and generous (and sweet) exchange with the unknown.

Isabela Pillar, 2013.

"I will give the candies at the door to the street children." This is how many devotees answer us when we ask them how they are going to make their feast. Cosme and Damien Day puts the focus on the relationship between the home and the street and puts its boundaries in suspense. It is a moment of anonymous and generous exchange with the unknown.

Among the various ways of giving sweets, the most widespread is the distribution through the door of houses and buildings. The devotees try to organize a queue, giving preference to lap children and pregnant women, but, in general, there is a small commotion in front of the houses. Another very popular modality is that of "throwing the candies forward", throwing them over the wall to the small crowd. Some donors stand out precisely for this practice, throwing not only candy, but also toys and money.

Recap of the day's achievements

Thiago Oliveira, 2015.

Lying about their age, not being recognized when they try to get two bags in the same house, knowing where the best bags are, asking for candy in the name of a supposed younger sibling... these are tricks that children use to get the most candy. It's part of the game to get the adults to bend, who warn: It's a bag for everyone! I only give candy to little kids! Anyone who goes out with anyone is no longer a child.

The festival is a playful and religious tradition that consists of a great game

Lucas Bártolo, 2014.

The smiles of the children are, for some, the great reward of the party..

Thiago Oliveira, 2015.

Isabela Pillar, 2013.

The smile of the children is, for some, the great reward of the party - if we wanted to talk about the possible interests of giving candy, it would certainly appear as the main desired retribution for the act of giving. But children are not just guests at the party: multiple, diverse, also make it. If with adults children learn to be grateful for the bags earned and also to distribute them, it is in the company of friends that they develop the tricks to take candies, especially to take them more than once in the same house.

Some people like to celebrate the day as if it were the birthday of the saints, opening the house and organizing a table with cake, guarana, manjar, sweets and many colorful balls. The delicacies can only be offered to the guests after singing happy birthday to Cosme and Damien and serving the seven children gathered around the cake. At these tables, the presence of twins is considered a blessing. From the sequence of photos, it can be seen that many families have been doing this practice for decades.

A domestic celebration to Cosme and Damian

Personal collection of Glória Amaral, 1990 (estimated date).

The birthday of the saints

Lucas Bártolo, 2014.

Thiago Oliveira, 2015.

Novenas, masses, baptisms and processions mark the program of the churches of the different branches of Catholicism (Roman, Orthodox, Coptic) that receive thousands of devotees on September 27, who also distribute candies, toys and food to children and needy people. Many religious traditions have the practice of charity and help as fundamental values and on the day of Cosmas and Damian, the donations made in these spaces are a way of putting these values into practice.

Donation of toys and food at St. George, St. Cosmas and St. Damian's Orthodox Catholic Church

Thiago Oliveira, 2015.

Multiform characters, Cosimo and Damian can be presented as Catholic martyrs, physicians, twins, orixás African, child protectors or child entities, among other conceptions about them that also appear combined. They are present in many pantheons, assuming specificities in each of these contexts.

In Brazil, the devotion to the saints was associated with African traditions of twin worship, highlighting the hybridization with the Ibejis, orixás children protectors of twins in the Yoruba tradition. It is from the approach of Cosimo and Damian to Ibeji that their functions were redefined: from protectors of doctors and pharmacists to protectors of children, of double births and of the health of twins. In the Brazilian religious universe, saints were linked to childhood, hence the distribution of sweets to children as a way of celebrating them.

In Catholic churches, the saints may be young or adult, identical or different twins.

Thiago Oliveira, 2015.

Ana Ranna, 2013.

The saints are now three. Idowú, younger brother of the Yoruba twins Ibeji, here in Brazil is Doum, brother of Cosme and Damián.

Thiago Oliveira, 2015

Ibejis, the orixás ninõs of the Yoruba tradition, protectors of ninõs and twins.

Lucas Bártolo, 2015.

The saints are now three. Idowú, younger brother of the Yoruba twins Ibeji, here in Brazil is Doum, brother of Cosme and Damián.

Thiago Oliveira, 2015

The sacred sweetness of the Children

Morena Freitas, 2016.

The sacred sweetness of the saints, of the ibejadas and of the children is venerated with sighs, cocadas, candies, cakes and guaraná. This sweetness smells, sounds, colors, melts our hands, invades our noses and mouths; and to feel this sweetness is to feel the Children.

Devotion to the saints implies an intense communication that goes through looks, gestures, words and things and involves affection, emotions and desires. Devotion unfolds, therefore, far beyond the bags of candy..

Lucas Bártolo, 2019.

Thiago Oliveira, 2015

The multiple forms that this devotion assumes express the Brazilian cultural diversity. Cosme and Damian in the literature of cordel and carnival.

Thiago Oliveira, 2015.

Lucas Bártolo, 2015.

Hybrid identities: alternative and irruptive identity aesthetics.

Technologies, transnational migration, mass tourism, trade and mediatized communication have generated intense social flows that we call global. From them derives the circulation of cultural goods that, in addition to deterritorializing and reterritorializing traditions, generate exchanges that engender novel hybridizations. Some of them are the result of mixtures of elements from societies that were previously distant and alien. There are different hybrid cultural products represented in "in-between-medium", ambivalent identity aesthetics. Homi Bhabha recognizes as hybrid that (object or subject) which arises from the exchange between two traditions and which generates something different (which is no longer one or the other). Hybrid products are, then, those that arise from the fusion of two or more aesthetic traditions and that make explicit the presence of both referents as allusive components.

Through socio-digital networks, Encartes invited academics, students, visual artists, filmmakers, collectives and photographers to participate in a photographic contest with images that capture objects, subjects, places, landscapes, rituals recreated by the aesthetics of hybridization. We were interested in receiving images showing features that generate hard, unusual, antagonistic, paradoxical or ambivalent mixtures. Hybrid products show the creativity to create alternative identities such as, for example, body marks of youth cultures, recreations of products generated by diasporic strategies of relocalization, emblems of ambivalent national, religious or ethnic identities; cult objects that transgress religious or spiritual traditions; fusion in food, costumes, regional dance choreographies, architecture, crafts, redesign of transgender bodies, and so on.

We received dozens of photographs and an evaluation committee selected the ones that complied and adhered, both in quality and affinity, with the theme of the call on hybrid identities.

By reading the winning photographs as if they were parts of a text, we can recognize that hybridity is transversal. It is present both in traditional contexts, such as religious festivals, in which the selfie accompanies the representation of a Roman centurion during a Staging of the Stations of the Crossas in ancient archaeological sites that today are the site of ceremonies of invented ancestralities (as is the case of Stonehenge), or in different places and urban territories. Hybridity articulates spaces, memories, traditions, representations and actors.

The dances of conquest are currently stagings of memory in which the history of evangelization is kept alive, but they also function as anchors of new representations. This conjugation generates realities, fictionalities and fictions turned reality. A chinelo embodies the traditional Old Man of the dance acting as a being of terror in the Halloween style, without having to give up being guadalupano. The masks are a characteristic element of the baroque tradition, but in the present they not only simulate cultural resistance under the appearance of the assimilation of European faces, but they also place, in the same mask, the symbolization of opposing faces that fight in the Guerrero dance: the chinelo (representation of the white and bearded European conquistador) with the tecuani (the daredevil jaguar). In contrast, tattooing has conquered a new support for the baroque iconic act: the body. In the photograph entitled "When you're not around, I paint!" the body of a woman, presumably Mexican, can be seen, with an enchanted garden tattooed on her body and, between the space of her blouse and skirt, the face of a Thai-style deity can be seen.

Hybridity is first and foremost a glocal phenomenon, energized by global technologies, markets and migratory dynamics, but embodied in bodies rooted in local traditions. Technology through cell phone cameras appears to co-create the images of cultural hybridity by assembling different temporalities that take place in the same performance. The cameras also deterritorialize and resituate practices. In the image taken during the feast of Epiphany in the city of La Paz, Bolivia, shows that the same scene is captured and projected simultaneously by different cameras, whose projection in socio-digital networks deterritorializes the ritual act. Cell phones are also gadgets of catrinas and the deceased that superimpose planes of existence that parody between fantasy and the cultural heritage the Day of the Dead.

Another hybridizing vector present in the photographs is that of migration. In an image recreates St. Nicholas of Bari practicing the yoga posture bhujangasana, printed on the wall of a street in Bari. This photo captures the syncretism between the devotional aesthetics of the Catholic saints and the asanas of Buddhist yoga practice. Immigration is also a generator of surprising hybridizations such as the following the Ganesha-Guadalupewhich inscribes the mother of Mexicans as a deity in a Hindu temple in the border city of Tijuana.

Diaspora is also taken into account in the cultural goods that circulate in the electronic mass media. These are the new producers of imaginaries that are embodied or placed in other landscapes, generating exchanges between fiction and reality. Here we show a traditional cylinder maker in the streets of Mexico City masquerading as an abominable Grinch who hates Christmas, but at the same time disguises himself as Santa Claus, the patron saint of commodified Christmas. On a wall in BoliviaThe graffiti places the fantastic Spiderman -a famous American comic book hero- cleaning the shoes of Chapulín Colorado -a Mexican humor antihero produced by one of Mexico's most famous television networks, Televisa, through Canal de las Estrellas. The creativity in this graffiti generates an image that can be read under the keys of the Latin American imaginary and the discourse of decolonization. For this reason, this photo was chosen for the cover of the magazine. The cultural industries also promote shows and massive sporting events. The soccer World Cup is experienced as national recognition and encourages people to take the public square and to wearing the colors of the uniform with a sculpture of the DavidThe building is a prototype of classical art and Greek beauty, in a place as remote as the city of Montevideo.

Hybridization also generates moral transgressions that operate in the blurring between the private and the public, the religious and the profane. This hybrid landscape is achieved through the photographic exercise of placing sexual diversity in the light of day, of setting up an altar in a popular lingerie store in a traditional city such as San Luis Potosi, where the visual creator of the image saysIt's not fiction, it's not reality. It is a combination: we create realities, accepting what surrounds us".

In sum, the photographs show us that hybridity goes hand in hand with decontextualization and its new creative assemblages capable of transforming meanings. The best example of this can be appreciated in the photo of the burqas put into operation by a collective of feminist women to cover their faces in a March 8th demonstration; in this new political assembly, the burkas, far from signifying female submission, manifest a dissident political expression.

Renée de la Torre Castellanos and Arturo Gutiérrez del Ángel

Centurion

Alejandro Pérez Cervantes. Saltillo, Coahuila, March 2018.

Participating character in the annual representation of the traditional Viacrucis in the Ojo de Agua neighborhood, in the southern periphery of the city of Saltillo, Coahuila, where there are evident syncretisms, crossroads and unusual intersections between tradition and modernity.

Shamanic drifts in the druid temple

Yael Dansac, Stonehenge, United Kingdom, June 21, 2017.

The celebration of the summer solstice at Stonehenge is a multitudinous event that brings together unexpected religious mixes and serves as a showcase for hybrid identities.

The Old Man of the Matachines Dance

Marco Vinicio Morales Muñoz, Ciudad Aldama, Chihuahua, 2018.

The character of the Old Man in the matachines dance in the feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Ciudad Aldama, Chihuahua, symbol and representation of evil in popular catholic religiosity.

Mask fusion of the chinelo-tecuani

Sendic Sagal, Tenextepango, municipality of Ayala, Morelos, July 23, 2022.

Aesthetic-festive synthesis of the identity fusion between the symbols of the Chinelo and the Tecuani; dialogue and revitalization between the two main popular traditions in Zapatista lands.

Smile

María Belén Aenlle, Feast of the Epiphany in La Paz - Bolivia.

It was taken at the Epiphany Feast in La Paz - Bolivia. Times, cultures, different traditions and two cameras (the girl's family's and mine) converge in the same space and in a smile.

Mortuary postmodernities

Yllich Escamilla, Coyoacan, Mexico City, 02 Nov 2021

The omnipresence of cellular devices generates a passivity of public space performances, which show an ambivalence between Halloween and Day of the Dead.

St. Nicholas of Bari practicing yoga posture bhujangasana

Yael Dansac, Bari, Italy, September 4, 2020.

In the streets of Bari, allusions to the patron saint are omnipresent. Migratory flows and Psalm 103:12 inspired this mural where the Bishop of Myra unites East and West.

Gaṇeśa and Guadalupe. A Mexican goddess in the Hindu universe.

Lucero López, Coyoacán, Mexico City, 02 Nov 2021

Ceremony in honor of the god Gaṇeśa in a Hindu temple, performed by migrants of Indian descent residing in Tijuana. The inclusion of the Virgin of Guadalupe symbolizes, among others, their new life in Mexico.

The Grinch of the Historic Center

Yllich Escamilla Santiago, Historic Center, December 24, 2021.

His name is Juan, he is the pillar that supports his family, he is an organ grinder and resists the inclemencies of life and weather, even the pandemic that hit us three years ago, depending on the season, Juan Organillero is characterized to make his job more striking and earn a few coins.

Two superheroes

Hugo José Suárez, La Paz (Bolivia), 2021

On a wall in La Paz, two opposing heroes are depicted: Chapulín Colorado and Spiderman, Mexico and the United States face each other. But the American superhero shines the Mexican's shoes. The image is intervened by third parties: one paints the Chapulín's nose with red, and another one draws an X with aerosol. From the streets, the roles of international cultural products are reinvented...

Michelangelo's David swelling for Uruguayan Celeste

Carlo Américo Caballero Cárdenas, Montevideo, Uruguay, June 25, 2018.

At the Montevideo City Hall, people flock to the public screening of the 2018 Uruguay-Russia World Cup match, gathered around the life-size replica of the David (made in 1931, there since 1958), which is dressed for the occasion with the national shirt and shorts. The Charrúa soccer identity and the Europeanist architectural-statuary typology of the capital are fused: in such a way that an urban landmark of 18 de Julio Avenue, which emulates the canon of Italian Renaissance aesthetics, is popularized and becomes one more fan among the passion, the clamor, flags and the colors of the oriental team.

Transvestism at the tianguis

Martín Ortiz, Tianguis de las vías, San Luis Potosí, March 2023.

In a city as traditional and religious as San Luis Potosi, the simple act of showing in the light of day the games we privately play with gender and pointing a camera at them, tells the story of a rupture in everyday life. Something deserves to be seen, but what is it?

The neoprovince mixes tradition with novelty. Hostile contexts with characters that exalt them. It is not fiction, it is not reality. It is a combination: we create realities, accepting what surrounds us.

Black Block, Memory and Pandemic

Yllich Escamilla Santiago, Eje Central Tunnel, at the height of Garibaldi, Historic Center, October 2, 2021.

March to commemorate the October 2 massacre. Still in pandemic, the resistors took to the streets, despite the contagion peaks. Supporters of the Black Bloc marched along Eje Central up to Tacuba Street, where they were blocked.

When you are not around, I paint!

Saúl Recinas, Mexico City, July 13, 2023.

The photograph is part of a postdoctoral project on body aesthetics, otherness and stigma configuration, which aims to understand to what extent body aesthetics, mainly related to tattooing, contribute to the crystallization of stigmas and social segregation.

Replica of the image of Santa Muerte in the Noria de San Pantaleón, Sombrerete, Zacatecas

Frida Sánchez, La Noria de San Pantaleón, Sombrerete, October 2017.

This figure is a replica of the image of Death in the town of Noria de San Pantaleón, in the municipality of Sombrerete, Zacatecas. The original image was carved around 1940, however, it was burned because candles were left burning on the altar.

Uses and contradictions of urban infrastructure

All human beings have a spatial dimension. This condition is intimately linked to the collective ways of thinking, feeling and acting in the world; it is for this reason that the public spaces we inhabit and transit as part of everyday life constantly become scenarios in dispute, not only in their territorial but also in their symbolic dimensions. It can be said that the act of intervening in a public space is, in turn, a struggle to win a place in collective thought.

Inaccessibilities

How infrastructure excludes certain bodies and urban practices in everyday uses.

Urban reliefs

Jessica TrejoMexico City, Mexico. July 21, 2022.

Balderas Street in Mexico City, Cuauhtémoc district.

Urban Palimpsest

Oscar Molina PalestineMexico City, Mexico. March 1, 2020

Near Paseo de la Reforma, on Sundays, antique vendors offer their products at the La Lagunilla flea market. Customers and merchants take the lateral and the bicycle lane as parking, hindering the mobility of cyclists.

Reforms

Oscar Molina PalestineMexico City, Mexico. January 24, 2021

The investment in Paseo de la Reforma to provide safe mobility routes for cyclists has been great. However, the sidewalks continue to be dangerous terrain for wheelchair users, who prefer to use the deserted bike lanes.

Crosswalk elementary school

Carlos Jesús Martínez LópezZapopan, Jalisco, Mexico. June 21, 2022.

On Antiguo Camino a Tesistan Avenue, not even the warnings and adjustments to the façade of this elementary school can stop the fast pace of the cars.

Parallels

Miriam Guadalupe Jiménez CabreraGuadalajara, Mexico. November 2015.

Minimal benches

Juan Carlos Rojo CarrascalMazatlan, Mexico. April 23rd, 2021

The sidewalks in Mazatlan are shrinking almost to the point of disappearing, making it difficult for people to walk on them.

Railing or ladder?

Priscilla Alexa Macias MojicaTijuana, Mexico. July 17, 2022.

Residents of a peripheral neighborhood adapted the fence with holes that serve as steps to cross an alley that leads them quickly to the nearby shopping mall.

Road Vulnerabilities

Forms of vulnerability associated with daily traffic, understanding the relationship between bodies, vehicles and roads.

Brazil and the "Future Solutions" projects: Uses and contradictions of the urban structure

Fábio Lopes AlvesCascavel - Paraná, Brazil. July 6, 2020.

The image shows how "future solutions" projects exclude certain people.

Daily vulnerabilities

Fábio Lopes AlvesCascavel - Paraná, Brazil. August 22, 2018.

Image shows a child's willingness to interact with an unknown homeless person

Jumping the puddle

Fernanda Ramirez EspinosaMexico City, Mexico. June 28, 2022.

Photograph taken on the way back from training. We were near the young man's house. It had rained and the roads became steep and difficult to ride on.

Gambling

Leonardo Mora LomelíMexico City, Mexico. September 14, 2021.

In the daily comings and goings, the pedestrian seems to enter into a game between earning a living and keeping it by crossing the roads. At each step, depending on his skill, he gains points or loses life.

The rules of the game

Leonardo Mora LomelíMexico City, Mexico. September 14, 2021.

The most complex part of this game of mobility is to know how to avoid the vicissitudes of the urban board: players who do not follow the rules, cars that invade turns, instructions that become inaccessible to the neophyte. Vulnerability is the constant.

Web of danger

Thania Susana Ochoa ArmentaMexico City, Mexico. March 30, 2022.

In the heart of Mexico City's Historic Center, a spider's web of yellow ribbons warns of the danger of a hole in the ground.

Improvised assistants

Victor Hugo GutierrezMexico City, Mexico. December 2019.

Lupita and her companion's journey through the Pantitlán station of the Metro. There are several stairs and no elevator along the transfer between Line 1 and Line A, which makes the infrastructure inaccessible for people with reduced mobility and people with disabilities. Given the lack of accessibility, the solidarity of users is important for Lupita's displacement.

Accessible in dry

Laura Paniagua ArguedasMexico City, Mexico. May 13, 2021.

Rain is denied in our cities designed and built "dry". Infrastructures stifle the possibilities of movement for people with disabilities.

Heartbeats

Laura Paniagua Arguedas, Cartago, Costa Rica, October 19, 2019.

Cognitive disability presents for the person moments of strong emotions in an enabling world, which generates fears, isolation and discrimination.

Everyday vulnerability

Juan Carlos Rojo CarrascalCuliacán Sinaloa, Mexico. January 23rd, 2009.

This is how children have to cross the street to go to school. Even holding their mother's hand, they run the risk every day to attend a public elementary school in Culiacán.

Warning

Hugo Jose SuarezLa Paz, Bolivia. February 2021.

Faced with an increase in robberies and the inefficiency of the authorities, neighbors are turning to their own law.

Adequacies

Interventions by people with respect to public or vehicular infrastructure, in order to better adapt the practices and services performed or to meet other needs.

Waiting

Reyna Lizeth Hernández Millán, Mexico City, Mexico. March 06, 2022.

At the edge of the periphery, a swing is located at the foot of the railroad tracks.

The king of sound

Reyna Lizeth Hernández Millán, Mexico City, Mexico. November 28, 2021.

In the San Juan market, the statue of a lion watches over the local merchants.

Adaptation

Eduardo Lucio García MendozaOaxaca, Mexico. July 31, 2022.

The young man spinning is a parkour practitioner in Oaxaca, he adapts to the space where he is practicing.

Sneaky reviews

Critical look of passersby on public space, from graffiti, stencils, stickers, always considering that the message is directed to the practice of transit.

Unity is strength

Frances Paola GarnicaSan Luis Potosi, Mexico. July 2022.

Faced with the threat of the removal of 867 trees, neighbors and activists spoke out against the project, informing about the benefits of the trees.

The Border Wall in Tijuana. Photographic Prints of the Art Oblations/Interventions in Memory of the Dead Migrants 1999-2021

Guillermo Alonso Meneses

El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Tijuana, Mexico.

orcid:

Guillermo Alonso Meneses, Playas de Tijuana, 1999, autumn.

The images belong to a film (slide) and printed photos, later scanned, obtained with a Minolta DYNAX 500 si Reflex analog camera, with a 28-80 AF Zoom. They correspond to one of the first artistic interventions on the wall in Playas de Tijuana that was made on the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the launching of Operation Gatekeeper/Guardian 1994-1999. The installation took place at the end of October. Large letters were placed on a wooden stand, with the legend "alto a guardián" in capital letters. Inside each letter were drawn dozens of calaca skulls; the calaca or skull emerges as an important iconographic and symbolic element. And separately, to the right, several wooden panels painted in white were installed with the names, origin and age -or else, the legend "unidentified"- of 473 migrants who had died in those first 5 years. The installation with the names was reminiscent of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., where the names of thousands of Vietnam War dead and other Southeast Asian conflicts are inscribed on a black granite wall. As so often before, only the names of the victims and their powerful memory remain on public display.

Guillermo Alonso Meneses, bulevar airport, 2000 and 2004.

This image was taken with a Kodak cx7430 digital camera on May 29, 2004. In the Via Crucis of the year 2000, where the airport road turns before reaching Colonia Libertad, an installation was made with a central cross where a figure made with pants and shirt represented a crucified migrant. On both sides there are three smaller white crosses with the years 1995 to 2000 and at the bottom the number of migrants killed each year at the border guarded by the Guardián operation. The wall is the original, painted in red; and although it cannot be seen in its entirety, below the installation was painted the legend: "how many more?"

Coffins

Guillermo Alonso Meneses, Airport Blvd., 2003.

Another installation in the same area, halfway between Colonia Libertad and the main airport building, next to the highway, was made by Baja California artist Alberto Caro. At the end of October 2003 he installed nine coffins painted with different colors and motifs, on each one he painted the year, the number of victims and vertically: "deaths". Later he added a tenth coffin with the legend written in black: "how many more?" And in 2004, on top of this last one, three white signs were placed with the year 2004, the number of deceased, which was 373, and in vertical: "deaths". The installation of coffins is an iconographic singularity, it represents the death of migrants, and the statistics reflect the rescued and identified victims who are those who achieve a dignified burial. Its visual impact is greater because of its evident symbolism, by factually linking the wall with death and turning it into a necro-artefact of an opprobrious necro-politics (necro-politics in the descriptive sense; not in the sense of the analytical category proposed by Mbembe). Taken with Kodak cx7430 digital camera on May 29, 2004.

Guillermo Alonso MenesesThe crossroads next to the boulevard or road to the Tijuana airport and on the descent to Colonia Libertad., 2003 a 2004.

Crosses, a Roman instrument of torture and execution widespread in the Latin world of antiquity and re-signified in Christianity as a symbol of Christ [versalitas]inri[/versalitas], a sacred symbol of redemption and forgiveness, were placed on the border wall to remember/denounce the deaths of migrants. "When someone dies, their family brings a cross with their name on it to their grave" (Smith). Also because two of the original celebrations were the Christmas posadas (the pregnant Virgin Mary and St. Joseph as migrants) and the Stations of the Cross of Catholic Holy Week. Since at least 1997 there has been an annual count, for each death counted a white cross was placed with information of someone identified or else, with the legend "unidentified". The detail of the cross has the name and age of a young victim and a postcard with the main motif of the 2003 Playas poster. Obtained with Kodak cx7430 digital camera, May 2004.

Sore and necro-expositor installation

Guillermo Alonso Meneses, airport boulevard and the limits of Colonia Libertad, respectively., 2004.

In 2004, in addition to placing a hundred white crosses on the airport boulevard, Michael Schnorr and other BAW/TAF members painted on four planks, which were anchored to the border wall at intervals and in the spaces of separation, the representation of a bleeding wound with a meaningful phrase: "The border... an open wound. Gloria Anzaldúa had written: "The U.S.-Mexican border is an open wound where the Third World grates against the first and bleeds. And before a scab forms, it hemorrhages again, the lifeblood of two worlds merging to form a third country -a border culture" (1987: 25). The necro-exhibitor, as a display case and reliquary of mortal remains, consists of a piece of furniture where there are still some wilted and dried marigold flowers (the photo is from several days after the Day of the Dead in 2004). Behind, as a scenographic background, a huge marigold flower in the center of which, as a stanza of a skull: "unidentified... by their government forgotten". On the ground to the left of the image you can see the 2004 sign that reads: "Guardian here began... ten years later, 3000 deaths achieved". On the cross above, a wilted flower from the last celebration and a postcard with the main motif of the 2004 Playas poster. This installation was made in the same place where years ago was the cross with the crucified migrant. Taken with Kodak cx7430 digital camera, May 2004.

Guillermo Alonso MenesesPlayas de Tijuana, 2004.

A significant date was 2004, the 10th anniversary of the Border Patrol's Operation Border Patrol Guardian on October 1, during which time there were an estimated 3,000 victims. The commemorative art installation consisted of three canvases (4.2 meters long by 2.5 meters high) and a wooden plank of "triplay" (2.5 meters long by 2.5 meters high), anchored to the wall, showing a calaca sitting in a desert landscape at the foot of a saguaro tree holding two empty gallons symbolizing death by dehydration and heat in the deserts. On the complementary tarpaulins was written the skull "Guardian... here it began. Ten years later, 3000 dead achieved." The installation was painted by Todd Stands and Susan Yamagata, and funded by CRLAF directed by Claudia Smith and the Coalición Pro Defensa del Migrante. The emblematic elements of the iconography are the calaca (a half-body skeleton) and the empty water gallon symbolizing thirst and death by dehydration in the desert. Augé noted: "Memories are molded by oblivion as the sea molds the contours of the shore" (1998:12). The images also show how the steel wall, after more than a decade, was crumbling due to the corrosive power of the saltpeter from the sea, pulverizing the steel into rust. Another metaphor of the memory/forgetfulness dialectic. Taken with Kodak cx7430 digital camera, May 2004.

11 years of Guardian and altar

Guillermo Alonso MenesesPlayas de Tijuana, 2005.

The photographs were taken with a Kodak cx7430 digital camera, October/November 2005. That year the installation of synthetic tarps with printed photos and names commemorating eleven years of Border Patrol operations in the region, and the altar of that year placed against the fence on the sand of the beach stand out. The cempasúchil, braceros to burn copal, candy calacas and candles stand out. Behind a painting with the theme of the desert that ironically shows the presence of civilian vigilantes among the "dead". The year 2005 was the year of the migrant-hunting movement called Minuteman. The wall that can be seen, irregular and imperfect, was built to replace the original one. Months later it was rebuilt.

Border gates

Guillermo Alonso MenesesPlayas de Tijuana, 2005.

In 2005, the installation of three paintings with three gates used for the "Posada del Migrante" (Migrant's Posada) on the renovated fence of Playas, next to the lighthouse, stands out. After that celebration they were taken to the beach, near the lighthouse. Two doors are closed, symbolizing the effects of the wall and surveillance, the third is open, but opens onto the lethal deserts of the border; quite a death trap. Each painting is 2.5 meters long by 1 meter wide. The authors were Todd Stands and Susan Yamagata. Funded by CRLAF and the Coalición Pro Defensa del Migrante. The photograph was taken with a Kodak cx7430 digital camera.

Protest against the Minuteman

Guillermo Alonso Meneses, Playas de Tijuana, 2005.

In the spring of 2005, a demonstration was held in the United States against the MinutemenThey had nothing to do with the pro-migrant organizations in Tijuana. The place is the Parque de la Amistad/Frienship Park of binational character since 1971, where the border cairn is located. The paper crosses are a remembrance of the fallen migrants. On a poster board someone painted: "Make Friends, No Fences". As the days passed the wind left no trace. Another day someone hung a synthetic banner with the slogan "No al muro de la muerte/ No Border Wall". Taken with a Kodak cx7430 digital camera, May 2005.

Day of the Dead

Guillermo Alonso MenesesPlayas de Tijuana, 2007.

In 2007 an installation was made in wood, but a windstorm in Santana disbanded it a few days later. The three-dimensional work was constructed in wood and later painted with skulls or calacas with names on their foreheads, representing the more than 400 migrants who died so far this year. It was a collective work made by students of the Border Arts Workshop at Southwestern College in Chula Vista, San Diego, an institution to which Schnorr was linked.

The iconography was formed from calacas that have something of skulls of a "Tzompantli" and the "Catrina", the latter with an aesthetic that goes from José Guadalupe Posada to Diego Rivera, gave a twist. But although these manifestations have genuinely American roots that can be traced back to before 1492 or to Mexico in the 19th and 20th centuries, the fact is that the cult of the dead or the religious and profane symbolization of skulls is ancient. Belting tells us that the so-called Jericho skulls discovered more than 4000 years ago, which were covered with a layer of lime and then painted, are images of death, however much they are painted (Belting, 2007: 181). These calacas, however, intertwine the image of death with the life of memory. Obtained with a Casio EXP600 digital camera.

Crosses

Guillermo Alonso Meneses, Playas de Tijuana, October/November 2009.

One of the most ambitious, impactful and significant artistic interventions was the 2009 Day of the Dead installation, on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of Operation Guardian. The Coalición Pro Defensa del Migrante and CRLAF promoted Susan Yamagata and Michael Schnorr's proposal to build, paint and place 5100 white crosses, one for each of the deaths of migrants crossing the border in the period 1994-2009. The crosses were placed on the Day of the Dead on part of the wall in front of the lighthouse along a length of almost 50 meters, and on one side the skull written on a board with a frame of fresh cempasúchil flowers: "In fifteen years of Guardian, more than 5,100 dead are going". At the top were still the desert gates of 2005. The art installations were not only an annual ritual, intertwined as they were with the annual calendar of Catholic celebrations, but also had something of a Miccantlamanalli (offerings of the dead). Obtained with a Panasonic DMC-TZ4 digital camera.

Canadian street artist

Guillermo Alonso MenesesPlayas de Tijuana, 2010.

In December 2010 the entire fence of Playas de Tijuana at the height of the lighthouse was replaced; it was a clean slate. The place was unrecognizable and the artistic interventions that coexisted weeks before were destroyed. The first intervention on the current wall was made by a Canadian artist. The subject is a caution road sign found at the beginning of the freeways south of San Diego; it represents three members of a family crossing a highway. The technique used is that of the "stencil" or stencil. Obtained with a Pentax Reflex k-r digital camera and an AF 18-200 mm telephoto lens.

Guillermo Alonso Meneses, Playas de Tijuana, October/November 2010.

In 2010 Susan Yamagata's commemorative painting caricatures Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, known for his harsh and undignified treatment of captured migrants. It coincides in space with the mural Border Angels, A Desert Door from 2005 and the crosses from 2009. Some days they put up calacas of approximately two meters. A juxtaposition of elements began to take place, announcing the struggle for space that took place later and that saturated the wall in 2021. Something that usually happens in street art in privileged and disputed spaces. Obtained with a Pentax Reflex k-r digital camera and an AF 18-200 mm telephoto lens.

Mural

Guillermo Alonso MenesesPlayas de Tijuana, 2010.

In 2010, a graffiti entitled Border Angels [Boder Angels is a US pro-migrant organization], with stylized human figures painted in white and with a red cross inside, stands out. The whole is reminiscent of the iconography and strokes of New York street artist Keith Haring. The work has the slogan: "Not one more death!. Reform Now!" It was signed by P. Breu. At that time the space was not contested by other artists or activists and the works could coexist in the space without being totally juxtaposed. Taken with a Panasonic DMC-TZ4 digital camera.

Guillermo Alonso Meneses, Playas de Tijuana, 2012.

In 2012 it can be said that it was the last great artistic installation of these collectives that fight for the defense and memory of migrants, for the Day of the Dead. The new fence had not yet succumbed under the paint of those who fight for the space to print their mark. The place chosen was in front of the lighthouse, near the international boundary marker. A giant calaca and 18 skulls were installed, from 1995 to 2012, and at their feet a small altar with offerings. As well as a sign with the legend: "Guardian... here it began. 18 years later, 5,800 deaths achieved". It was 18 years with the Guardián operation; more than 18 years of struggle. Sponsored by the Coalición Pro Defensa del Migrante, the installation was created by San Diego artists Susan Yamagata and Todd Stands. The installation arguably marked the culmination of an era; Michael Schnorr had passed away that same year. Taken with a Panasonic DMC-TZ4 digital camera.

Veteran deportees. Other claims and commemorations.

Guillermo Alonso MenesesPlayas de Tijuana, February 2013.

Deportations began to increase in Bill Clinton's second term and increased in the Bush Jr. and Obama terms. In the summer of 2013, deported military veterans joined together and painted a mural next to the Parque de la Amistad/Friendship Park, next to the lighthouse, in Playas de Tijuana. It was born in remembrance of deported veterans, some of whom had passed away without being able to return to the US. Its presence and boom coincides with a period in which the traditional installations for dead migrants decline. Obtained with a Pentax Reflex k-r digital camera and an AF 18-200 mm telephoto lens.

Deportees 2019 restoring the mural, before and after.

Guillermo Alonso Meneses, Playas de Tijuana, February 2022.

Six years after the first intervention of the deported veterans on the fence in Playas de Tijuana, the deterioration of both the paint and the metal was already evident. It was also evident that the surface of the wall in that place was saturated with graffiti and interventions of all kinds. The images show its restoration. After two decades, with different changes that transformed it materially, the place was no longer a lonely and abandoned corner where a few times a year the dead migrants were commemorated. It had metamorphosed into an iconic place. Taken with a Panasonic DMC-TZ4 digital camera.

The wall as a tourist site

Guillermo Alonso Meneses, 2019.

The process of metamorphosis that the wall underwent in Playas de Tijuana and that turned it into an iconic scenery, soon began to attract local, national, U.S. and other tourists from other latitudes such as China. The wall underwent remodeling and reconstruction. It can be said that there is no longer space for the artistic interventions of years ago to manifest themselves alone. Belting's remark was fulfilled, there are places that become photographic places (2007: 268). From its beginnings, the wall attracted looks beyond those of activists, artists and passers-by, it became normalized as an object-place that attracts photographic cameras and those who look behind them. This had already happened with the Berlin Wall. Taken with a Panasonic DMC-TZ4 digital camera.

Guillermo Alonso Meneses, the wall on the boulevard near the airport, 2021, and Playas de Tijuana, 2022.

In recent years, the wall both in Playas de Tijuana and on the boulevard that runs parallel to the airport has undergone major changes. No one would recognize the stretches where crosses, artistic interventions and graffiti remembering dead migrants and other injustices used to hang. The same happens on the wall in Playas de Tijuana in the stretch of several hundred meters from the ocean. Photo 73 shows the saturation of interventions, photo 74 contrasts with the first photo of this essay, photo 75 shows a migrant jumping over the wall with a metal ladder. After 30 years the wall is still being jumped. The effort and work of activists, artists and organizations that for decades fought against oblivion evaporated. Soon only photographs will remain. Taken with an Iphone SE and a Panasonic DMC-TZ4 digital camera.

Bazaar Economy on the Puente del Papa (Pope’s Bridge). Monterrey

Efrén Sandoval Hernández

Efrén Sandoval Hernández is a research professor at the Northeastern Headquarters of the ciesas (Monterrey). He is a member of the National System of Researchers level 1. His work deals with "border economies" in the region of northeastern Mexico and South Texas. His most recent publication is (2020) "Winning 'clients' and managing favors. Union delegates in Monterrey tianguis", Sociological studies, 40 (118). In 2019 he coordinated (together with Martin Rosenfeld and Michel Peraldi) the book. The northern or southern hemisphere. Global production, cross-border trade and informal markets of used clothing. (Paris: Éditions Pétra / imera / ehess). He has been a professor in different national institutions, and has received funding for his research from national and international institutions.

orcid: 0000-0002-2706-9388