Puertas fronterizas / Border Doors

Since 2014, Claudio Pérez, Spanish teacher in the Modern Language Department at Sandia Preparatory School, has taken his advanced Spanish-language students to El Paso, Texas where they utilize their Spanish skills to interact first-hand with immigrants and advocates at the Cristo Rey Border Immersion Program. Upon their return to Albuquerque, students illustrate a series of doors containing colorful and powerful imagery that tells the stories of the people they met and reflect on major themes of immigration at the border. The doors encourage visitors to consider the lived experiences of immigrants at the center of a complex historical relationship between the United States and Mexico. 

Doors are points of entry, access, passage, movement, exit, and escape. Metaphorically, doors signify opportunity, uncertainty, hope, change, and transition. Puertas fronterizas / Border Doors is an exhibition of student work done between 2019 and 2024 that contemplates the symbolic door–unlike a physical border wall or fence–as it relates to the immigrant experience. Doors open and close; the border doors shown here demonstrate the passageway of people and their dreams for a better life.

The mixed-media doors featured in the exhibition are interpretative collages and paintings of five central issues relating to immigration: Artificial Intelligence and Immigration; COVID-19 and Essential Workers; Kids in Cages; Family Separation; and Superheroes and Immigration, which highlights the victims of the 2019 El Paso Walmart mass shooting.

Artists participating in this project include: HiiLani Alderete  •  Ajmain Ashraf •  Hasnain Ashraf •  Mohammed Assed •  Daniela Baca •  Benjamin Bartlett •  Luke Bemish  •  Jack Bilan •  Patrick Blewett •  Charlotte Clark-Slakey  •  Stephen Emeanuwa  •  Kaden Epstein •  Javin Felipe  •  Jayne Clifton Fife  •  Alexandria Forrester •  Ava Garcia-Wesley •  Jacob Gutiérrez •  Caden Hallenbeck  •  Gillian Hoffman  •  Dylan Holtrop •  Lillian King  •  Cedar McCall •  Rowan McJimsey •  Robert McWilliams  •  Jacobo Montoya •  Mary Montoya  •  Trina Nguyen •  Sonia Patel •  Carlos Pérez •  Michael Pratt  •  Kiki Rodríguez  •  Emily Sanchez  •  Julia Silva •  Lauren Staples •  Jaxon Tregembo.

Available student artist statements are hyperlinked above.

This exhibition was curated by the Albuquerque Museum in collaboration with Claudio Pérez of Sandia Preparatory School.

For more information on the Puertas fronterizas / Border Doors exhibition, contact Albuquerque Museum at (505) 253-7255 or email [email protected].

This exhibition is made possible in part by The City of Albuquerque and Albuquerque Museum Foundation.