Immigrant defines a wordcharged with personal and political meaning. In the United Community Center, the Latino Arts, Inc. gallery presents an exhibition to celebrate the University ofWisconsin-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts 50th Anniversary with“Raoul Deal: Ni De Aquí Ni De Allá [From Neither Here Nor There].”
An artist in residence atUWM’s Culture and Communities program, Real immigrated to the States in 1998 tostudy and raise his family. In this exhibit, Deal portrays images of Latinos strugglingwith being here, in Milwaukee, and their hearts, there, in Mexico or LatinAmerica.
Hisintricate woodcuts meticulously detail portraits of the people who told theirstories during his research for the exhibition. The black and white woodcutscarve out images like the individual’s lives do, displaced in another culture.Te eventually create something beautiful with their life here, similar to thewoodcuts, which transform a clean wood slate into a poignant print on whitepaper.
Alongsidethe 16 large scale woodcuts and one wall sized installation of the stories Dealcollected, Deal mounts poems reflecting the emotions evoked by the prints.Ximena Soza’s poetry adds further dimension to the exhibtion and personalizesthe immigration debate, Often a long, painful process living between countriesand cultures where daughters are unable to visit mothers, sons their fathers,even when ailing or on their deathbed. One last line from Soza’s poem reflects:“I am, but if I am what I am alone, I am nothing.”
Twoprints display a reverse view of a man in a baseball cap and t-shirt titled Immigration Series #3 and #4, Only What YouNeed. In these two portraits,the front of the man’s t-shirt had a saying written in Spanish, on thecompanion print, the English translation appears on the t-shirt’s back: Takeonly what you need so the other can have what they need to survive.
Manyof Deal’s powerful woodcuts were purchased, and these images graphicallyillustrate the immigration dilemma, often perspectives overlooked. These reallife scenarios were spoken by a student in her 40’s from Puerto Rico, a woman raising a family here and hadonly been home once in ten years, to see her mother, because she worked, wasgoing to college, and the trip was expensive. The situation appeared morecritical when her husband’s father died in Cuba, the husband devastated, unableto attend his father’s funeral or comfort the relatives. Taking a chance toreturn to Cuba could prevent him from returning to his family in Milwaukee.
Art,in many mediums, opens the door to conversations through less threatening meansat exhibitions. People can discuss the images, which personalize the choicesinherent to assimilating into another culture, acquiring citizenship whilemaintaining one’s heritage. Before the exhibition ends on June 7, explore theideas and live expressed through Deal’s woodcuts. Images speaking to thefamilies and new generations of Americans involved with immigration and lovedones left behind, on the other side of the debates….Individuals from neitherhere nor there.
