La Pared Que Habla: A Photo Essay about Art and Graffiti at the Border Fence in Nogales, Sonora.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- ALVAREZ, MARIBEL
- Source
- Journal of the Southwest; Autumn2008, Vol. 50 Issue 3, p279-304, 26p, 12 Black and White Photographs
- Subject
- ART
BORDERLANDS
GRAFFITI
GEOGRAPHIC boundaries
INSCRIPTIONS
- Language
- ISSN
- 08948410
The article describes and analyzes several photographs about art and graffiti at the border fence in Nogales, Sonora. The images are evidence of a persistent desire to speak the story of the border in a hypervisible way. It notes that the visual tactics of social discourse are mostly visible only on the Mexican side of the border. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security prohibits artistic embellishments of the fence and removes graffiti regularly. The romantic folk image of Nogales started to change in the early 1980s due to human concentration and environmental degradation brought about by the industrial boom.