Margarita Castanon
La Mariposa Monarca Atrapada (The Trapped Monarch Butterfly)
Artist Statement
As of 2018, it is estimated that there are about 89.4 million immigrants in the U.S. The total number of undocumented immigrants range from 10.5 million to 12 million since the exact number is undetermined. Often, the people in this group can be reduced to nothing more than a number and the humanity behind that group is taken little into consideration. As the media and politics divide people on the topic, it is important to remember undocumented immigrants are not just a number. In this work, I am interested in bringing awareness as well as educating people about social issues through my artwork. This piece explores the emotions and feelings of confinement and inner vulnerabilities felt by some immigrants due to restrictions and obstacles. These restrictions may be border policies, immigrant status, family separation, racism, dehumanization, mental health issues, financial instability, death, trauma, etc. These restrictions vary depending on individual experiences.
As a daughter of two former undocumented Mexican immigrants, I have been able to witness some of the struggles and issues that arise not only in my family but others as well. For me personally, I have always felt my parents had these barriers because of their immigrant status. They were undocumented immigrants who have resided in the U.S for more than 24 years, but still have limitations due to their status. Financial struggles, no health insurance, and family separation were part of our daily lives. It was not until my father lost his mother that I truly saw the effects of family separation. The helplessness I felt watching my father struggle with the loss and knowing he could never go to her funeral, made me more interested in using my artwork to bring awareness. The heavy weight I felt inside as I heard my sister discuss how he used video call to say his goodbyes and watch my grandmother’s funeral, made me angry and sad. I wanted my father to be present to bury his mother, but I could not do anything. If he left the country, he would not be able to come back. My frustrations took me on a journey where I decided to create a piece that would show these feelings of entrapment and hopelessness I sometimes felt.
While working on my artwork, I spoke to others about these issues and topics. I talked with immigrants, documented and undocumented, their children, friends, and family. I realized I was not alone feeling these feelings of entrapment, anxiety, helplessness, and depression, all due to this large topic of immigration. As I spoke to others, they shared their personal feelings and these conversations, often emotional, brought up similar discussions. Many children of undocumented immigrants spoke to me about their anxiety of the current political climate as well as their fear of the unknown. The fear of coming home and having their parents gone and deported. The fear of a family member dying and their parents never seeing them again. For some, these things had already occurred, and they were struggling to cope. For many, they felt all these restrictions and boundaries held opportunities back such as college, financial stability, good mental health, access to jobs, or for some having a normal childhood. As I built my installation, I kept all these discussions in in my mind to help me decide what I wanted this installation to portray. I wanted to represent this large group of people including my family and myself, so I choose to represent them through the butterfly.
The butterfly and its symbolism vary among cultures. It is a symbol of transformation, personal growth, challenges to come, hope, endurance, change, life, and a representation of the soul. As human beings continue to make personal connections to the butterfly, it comes as no surprise when immigration activists adopted the monarch butterfly as a symbol. The usage of the monarch butterfly symbolizes the immigrant’s ability to survive, move, and be resilient. It is both a representation of hope and the difficulty to break free in the immigrant struggle. The monarch butterfly migrates to Mexico for survival just as some immigrants migrate to the U.S for the same reasons. We associate the butterfly to be a creature who flies and goes where it please.
In this installation, I use burlap as a physical barrier. Burlap is known to be strong, hard to tear, and can stand up to great pressure. It is water resistant and has many applications from clothing to gardening. I feel the burlap connects to the resilience and endurance that undocumented immigrants have, but at the same time, its strength provides a barrier. The butterfly, trapped and caught in the net like burlap, illustrates the feelings of entrapment the immigrant might feel. It can be interpreted by a boundary, border, wall or obstacle that limits the freedom of the butterfly. The burlap net embodies these feelings of confinement and restriction that undocumented immigrants and their families feel. It is a juxtaposition between the free moving butterflies and the confinement of a physical barrier.
Some immigrants overcome these barriers and some never do. Some take years to break past the barriers and some never get past them. Some cope with these barriers in a variety of ways, good or bad. For my parents, their coping was through religion. They used God and the church as a sanctuary where they found comfort and safety from all the issues they had. Other immigrants find other things or ways that help them cope while stuck with these barriers. When my parents finally got their residence cards after a year-long process, I felt like they had broken through the barrier were accepted. I recognize they are privileged and now have more opportunities than those undocumented. For some people, those barriers will always exist and for other it will take years before they can break free and truly fly.