For years I have been photographing everyday physical borders that separate us from whatever is on the other side: walls, windows, screens as well as monumental borders like the ocean. These everyday borders serve as an intimate way to investigate immigration. They combine with historical family images that include the ocean, a formidable border. This installation combines shifting images of borders with barquitos de papel, paper boats, folded from paper printed with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, adopted by the international community in 1989 and ratified by 196 countries (not including the United States). In this country, Immigration has always been a fraught issue. The Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 and Operation Wetback in 1955 reflect this difficult reality. Over the past three decades immigration has become increasingly contentious leading to more restrictive immigration laws and enforcement. But immigration is not only an American issue, it is a human issue that impacts people across the globe in ways that can be lifesaving or devastating.

My daughter’s grandparents are exiles from Cuba on one side and Haiti on the other. On both sides the ocean has been a daunting border that separates those who left from those who stayed behind. Since 2014 there have been more than 30,000 recorded deaths during migration, the majority of these are caused by drowning. As of 2022 there are more than 29.7 million refugees. Half of these are children.

Figures from UNHCR, Amnesty International, and Missing Migrants Project

The boats remind us of the vulnerability of migrant populations, particularly children and reference the barquitos in the children’s song:

Barquito de papel, mi amigo fiel, / Little paper boat, my faithful friend,

llevame a navegar por el ancho mar. / carry me away over the wide sea.

Quiero conocer a niños de aquí y allá / I want to meet children from here and there

y a todos llevar mi flor de amistad. / and take them all my flower of friendship.

Abajo la guerra , arriba la paz / Down with war, up with peace.

Los niños queremos reir y cantar. / We children want to laugh and sing