[Minerva Cuevas: Bridging Borders]
The term "political activist" is problematic.
I think the challenge is to
stop using the references to activism
because everybody has this agency to react to daily life
and therefore generate political actions.
--[NEWS CORRESPONDENT] At the U.S.-Mexican border,
--a fence separates two worlds.
--Poverty to the south.
--Wealth to the north.
[CUEVAS] In general, I think my work is the research I do.
I planned a project for the Mexican and U.S. border.
My general idea was:
If there is a border, there could be a bridge.
I had never been in the area of the Rio Bravo.
I learned that the historical border is the deepest part of the river.
At the end I found an area that was a kind of natural bridge.
And I decided to use the rocks in that part of the river
to cross from the U.S. to Mexico and back.
I was marking the rocks with limestone
just to make a sign of the crossing.
You could see this dotted line going across the Rio Bravo.
With the installation, there were elements related to walking--
like walking sticks
and books talking about the Chihuahuan desert.
The act of walking from south to north was the most political act you could do.
[NEWS CORRESPONDENT] President Trump's proposed wall
along the U.S.-Mexico border
could cost nearly 22 billion dollars.
As first reported by Reuters,
it could take about three-and-a-half years to build.
[CUEVAS] You learn about the border through media.
It's connected to limits or control.
Violence is a very strong element in this perception
of what's the border.
Along the river, you have some border patrols;
but, there were no signs.
The whole area was free of any fence or wall.
Not witnessing anything connected to that kind of mediatic violence,
it's the first liberation.
You realize that what is intimidating is the desert itself.
Lately, I've been invited as part of talks
that have to do with climate change
or urban development
and the idea of "the artist as an activist."
There is this expectation of one action generating a lot of change.
Books and projects can be important,
but they won't be a solution.
The problems or the crisis in the world is generated by everybody.
So it has to be also a massive reaction what changes reality.
[CROWD CHANTING] No ban, no wall!
No ban, no wall!
[CUEVAS] Nationalism nowadays is linked to violence and the Other
and the differences between communities
rather than some kind of uniting element that is more necessary nowadays.
The wall wouldn't stop immigration.
The wall only reinforces this original imaginary
that's connecting the border with violence.
In fact, it would empower human trafficking.
It seems that the reactions are now getting a little bit more extreme
in terms of rethinking what's being human
and what do we want from not only politics
but from our daily lives.
How do we want to confront our reality.