Huaraches

These prints deal with the struggles and sacrifices one has to endure in order to reach a Utopian place. My inspiration for this work is the story of my immigrant parents from Jalisco, Mexico, that left family and friends behind in order to achieve the "American dream." The flowers represented are a collaboration with my mother who cross-stitched pillowcases, table cloths, and numerous other goods in order to help her family during her upbringing in Mexico. She continued this practice up until her early 40s. Rogelio Gutierrez's Untitled silkscreen prints were created in part of the 'Utopia/Dystopia' portfolio, curated by artist Miyo Stevens-Gandara. Miyo invited 26 artists to each pick two cards from a full deck, incorporating a diverse range of interpretations and ideas into a single, unified collection. Here, Gutierrez portrays the Huarache, a type of Mexican sandal, that exists as a material symbol of identity and culture across generations and spaces. Black diagonal stripes represent spatial separation in his dystopian print, but the repeated flower-patterned imagery represents a sense of shared identity across these gaps.