Muertos y Marigolds

200 USD prize – deadline July 31st – please see our socials for submission requirements and details – we look forward to seeing your interpretation of this year’s theme

We, Chicanos/Mexicanos/Mestizos etc, invoke the image of the chained mariposa (or Papalotl in the Mexica language of Nahuatl) to stand in solidarity with all Indigenous peoples who have and are actively being targeted and captured due to state violence and border surveillance. Indigenous peoples have migrated freely between the North and South of the so-called Americas for thousands of years. The phrase, “We didn’t cross the border; the border crossed us!” empowers us as we bear witness to the intentional destruction of our communities and separation of our families in the name of facism and white supremacy.

No one is “*illegal” on stolen land and peoples have every right to migrate, just as the monarch butterfly, in a practice of fulfilling and sustaining their lifeways. The “Bracero Program” that existed from 1942-1964 and “Operation W*tback” carried out in 1953-1954 are two sides of the same fascist coin that has sought to exploit our labor, our citizenship statuses, and our sense of belonging in the name of re-producing the myth of American Exceptionalism through our food systems and workforce. Particularly since the first Obama Administration in 2008, our families have been unlawfully abducted and detained in outrageous numbers to feed the military and prison industrial complexes as they profit off of Brown and Black captive bodies in ICE detention facilities or unjustly deport and even seek to disappear our people in the name of extraction. Though folks have been more active in protest during this newly emboldened white supremacist administration under Trump, we have long been fighting facism in detention and must continue to do so regardless of what party is in office. We call on our communities to show up in solidarity and make a statement that “aquí estamos y no nos vamos” and demonstrate support for all of our migrant siblings and all those Indigenous peoples impacted by Imperialism across the globe–from Turtle Island to Palestine.