A New Canvas: How Generations of Immigrants Have Persevered to Create Art
“Queen Matilda”, Lady Pink’s most intricate piece and one of her favorites to create. For more of her work, visit https://www.ladypinknyc.com/ Courtesy of Lady Pink NYC
By Madison E. Goldberg and Eliana Flores-Barber
Completed December 22, 2021
(Written for our Covering Immigration Class / sections I wrote include Maria de Los Angeles, 10-year and three-year residency bar, and ending of the article)
The year is 1981. On a warm spring evening in Queens, Lady Pink, born Sandra Fabara, stepped out of her family’s apartment into the night. Beneath the hustle and bustle of the city above, in the mundane subway tunnels below, a new subculture began to emerge: graffiti.
Colorful tags and vibrant images adorned the trains as they lurched along with daily life. Among a sea of young men, was one young girl — she called herself Lady Pink. Pink’s graffiti is distinct; many of her early paintings are images of female empowerment and representation in a hip-hop subculture dominated by men. Her strikingly colorful work and determination shine through all of her work, but she gained even more attention by appearing in the classic 1983 hip-hop film “Wild Style.”
“I was 15 years old when I got into writing graffiti,” Pink said over Facetime with a smile.
“I was 16 when I started selling my artwork. I decided early on it would be a career because it seemed like a lot of fun.”
Immigrants have long remained a marginalized community, often members of the working class. For fear of deportation in recent years, many remain silent on their stories. But artists bring their voices to the forefront, providing a visual representation of life in the United States as foreign-born individuals, making strides with each brush stroke. Some start out on the walls of the local corner store or the train station, making their way up to some of the most prestigious art museums in the world.
Fabara’s mother packed her life in bags with her two young daughters and fled Ecuador in 1972. The military had overthrown President Carlos Julio Arosemena Monroy over suspicions of communist sympathy, and the country operated under a military government for more than a decade. Amid the national chaos and instability, Pink’s mother and her two daughters had enough — not just of the government, but her ex-husband.
“My mom dumped my dad and he kept chasing her, pursuing her, and wanting to get back together,” explains Lady Pink. “My mom was not having it; he kept pushing her so she left the country altogether.”
After they separated, her father returned to his first wife and had another child, only to come crawling back to her. After years of persistence to get back together, the little family made the journey to New York City, settling in the Astoria neighborhood in the borough of Queens.
The United States was run by President Richard Nixon’s administration at the time of Pink’s arrival, and the most recent immigration reform was passed in 1965, calling for “a seven-category preference system emphasizing family reunification and skilled immigrants.” This was decades before President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, with many immigrant mothers left to fend for themselves to find work and educational opportunities for their families.
People had to get creative. The system was a far cry from 2020, despite the Trump administration’s several challenges and threats to DACA.
During a time in which the Trump administration promotes anti-immigration rhetoric and policies, secondary education for undocumented people has been an ongoing challenge. Dr. Raquel Muñiz, an assistant professor of Educational Leadership and Higher Education, and a liaison at Boston College Law School, explained many students who are DACA holders still feel invisible.
“When you speak to them, for the most part they say the schools and professors largely do not acknowledge their experiences and their needs,” Muñiz said. “They are heavily reliant on their networks, and finding one person they feel comfortable disclosing their situation to.”
Another major issue for DACA holders is that they do not qualify for federal financial aid — meaning that they are entirely reliant on private lenders, which also poses a challenge. While DACA does provide some protection from deportation, it limits many educational opportunities in the United States. Some state laws even restrict which colleges accept undocumented students. Despite these roadblocks, an Inside Higher Ed report found that as of April, there were more than 450,000 undocumented students enrolled in higher education around the country.
“Tortilla Dress,” a dress made by María De Los Angeles to celebrate female identity, taking control of one's own voice, and reflecting on being bicultural. De Los Angeles’s work can be found on her Instagram account @delosangelesart. Courtesy of Ryan Bonilla
North of Lady Pink’s Ecuador, and several decades later, in Michoacán, México an 11-year-old girl packed her bags in preparation to cross the border into the United States. By her side were her five siblings, who, similar to their sister, packed up their belongings to start their new life. María De Los Angeles and her siblings made it to California in 1999 where they would soon find a home in the northern part of the state.
As a young girl, De Los Angeles became very fond of art. It was not something she started as a potential career choice, instead, it started out as something she loved to do for fun. Throughout her educational years, her dedication to art grew even deeper.
“I drew even in Mexico and then it transitioned to something that I loved and helped me navigate school,” she explains. Unlike Lady Pink, who at a young age knew that art would be her career, De Los Angeles didn’t decide to pursue art as a career until she entered university and declared her major in fine arts.
In 2010, the future artist began her university application process to schools across the country. Going through the applications, Maria said “often people would say there’s only so many schools you can pick and maybe you go to a state school but how are you going to pay for it?” This question ran through her mind. Without the aid of federal money, how would she be able to afford higher education?
This is a challenge many undocumented students face. Without the support of government funding, undocumented students would have to look for scholarship money given by either outside programs or from their desired school.
As someone who was closeted about her immigration status, De Los Angeles worried even more about applying for different financial programs which required her to give private information to a government which aimed at keeping her out of the country.
Her application process began prior to the creation of any support system for students such as the California Dream Act, which was signed into law a year later by the Obama administration. The California Dream Act allows undocumented students to “apply for and receive state-based financial aid and institutional scholarships.”
Following her university application process, she was accepted into a variety of elite programs throughout the country. For three years, she attended Santa Rosa Junior College while planning out her next steps to continue her higher education. To her luck, De Los Angeles was offered a scholarship which allowed her to attend Pratt Institute, where she graduated with a Bachelors in Fine Arts 2013. She continued her with her education at Yale University where she graduated with a Masters in Fine Arts at the most prestigious program in the U.S.
“You know, if I was going to be an artist and do this, and if I was going to go through the trouble of doing it as an undocumented student, I had to do it at a level that would matter — at the highest performance level to be competitive in the industry,” she confidently stated.
Through her art, De Los Angeles has become a storyteller, one whose art shares the tales of love, success, distraught, and hardship, serving as a space for reflection.
“I want people to really enjoy my work, enjoy it for the color, enjoy it for the honesty, for the brutality, for the passion,” said De Los Angeles.
10-year and three-year residency bar
Three years into his presidency, Bill Clinton and his administration passed The Illegal Immigration Refrom and Immigration Responsibility Act of 1996. It placed a greater emphasis on penalizing undocumented immigrants who commit crimes in the country or who stayed for unlawful periods of time. The reform was aimed at limiting the number of undocumented people who entered the country. It was with this reform that the 10-year and three-year bar were put in place, creating more fear and obstacles for undocumented families.
A year into the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act of 1996, the United States saw a surge in undocumented immigrants recieving the 10-year bar. If an individual stays in the U.S. for a year or more and is caught by immigration agents, the 10-year bar requires that individual to leave the country for 10-years, and they cannot return until the time period is up.
The likelihood of an undocumented immigrant being caught by the US government prior to 2001 was slim. “After 9/11 they (the government) started upping their information and recording fingerprints and records,” explains Paola I. Neri, a Los Angeles immigration lawyer. “From 2010 on it is more likely there are solid records.”
With an increase in record keeping, the fear of possibly being separated from family engulfed undocumented individuals. It is only after the 10-year bar has passed that they are able to begin the process of returning back to the U.S.
To begin this process, a U.S. citizen or resident has to petition on their behalf. For a potentially faster application process, family members are encouraged to be their petitioners. By filling out the required paperwork, which depends on the relationship the resident has with the undocumented individual, the approval process can begin. The application requires all sponsors to pay a filing fee of $535 and they must be able to take on the role of financial supporter. If sponsors do not meet the financial qualifications at the time, they must fill out an I-864 for affidavit support. Sponsors as well must promise to provide shelter for the undocumented person.
As an example, let’s say a woman is undocumented and her child is 21 and a U.S citizen. She’s been abroad because of the 10-year bar. In the states, her child is filling out an I-130, which is a form submitted to the United States Citizenship and Immigraiton Services petitioning for your return to the U.S. In this petition process, applications filed by immediate family members require no wait time to get approved; therefore, her petition would be approved right away. On the other hand, if a resident petitioned, it would need to be her spouse. With this petition there would be a wait time which could vary from a few months to a few years.
Similarly, the three-year bar states if an undocumented person stays in the country for six months to a year illegally, they will be barred from reentry for three years.
Obtaining a Freedom of Information Act request will help undocumented individiuals prepare for their application process. Neri states, “It’s really important to do the FOIA request to know what the government knows about you, you should have a copy of everything that belongs to you.”
Neri said that many DACA recipients in turn become petitioners for their family members to regain access to the U.S. Although this serves as a benefit, the lengthy process of the petition limits the amount of family members they are able to help. For most DACA recipients, they are only able to bring over one family member throughout their lifetime.
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DACA Students Self Advocate
Many students who are DACA holders choose to organize and advocate for themselves, especially during the Trump administration, which had heavier immigration restrictions.
Sabrina Barroso, a lead organizer of Student Immigration Movement (SIM), works with students in the Boston area to advocate for their rights as students and as undocumented or “DACAmented” young people. Because of the economic hardships many face, oftentimes students do not have traditional arts opportunities in school.
“That’s not to say that they're not interested in it. A lot of the young folks we meet are very artistic and do it on their own time,” said Barroso.
Many are faced with the struggles of a new online curriculum amid the COVID-19 pandemic, on top of financial responsibilities to their families.
“A young person who is 13, they get online from 8:30 to 2:30, on online school, their curriculum all day has nothing to do with the arts or anything creative or to get their mind off of academia.”
In the era of a massive void of information, many of the students involved with SIM get more creative with the organization’s messages outside of just social media.
“Sometimes it’s not enough to have a vigil or a twitter storm anymore. You need to think really creatively — very outside of the box — to follow our community and embrace artists,” explained Barroso.
Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, many of the students would meet up to create posters and banners to carry with them, oftentimes expressing their own stories as immigrants. “A lot of the work is a statement about something they really care about, a part of their life,” said Barroso.
Two of these students are now graphic designers, who went on to work with the Boston Leadership Academy and United Regime.
Student organizers in front of a mural they painted together in Boston. Courtesy Sabrina Barroso, SIM
Candles decorated by student organizers before a vigil. Courtesy Sabrina Barroso, SIM
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Years after their careers began, Lady Pink and María De Los Angeles continue aiming at inspiring others through their work. Their art reflects years of experiences and changes they have faced. During the past four years, under the Trump administration, many voices and stories have been silenced. These two artists use their creativity to highlight their voices and the voices of the underrepresented.
“When we are able to get away with putting up a social or political wall, most folks that give us permission for a wall or commission something, don’t want something controversial,” said Lady Pink. “It’s tricky, but the climate nowadays warrants us using our platform to voice our views and opinions and wishes and hopes and bring attention to injustice and open a dialogue. It’s been necessary to do some of these political things. I don’t really march very much, but I do paint.”