Flowering: Here, There and Everywhere is the second blog in a series of articles from the 14th edition of the SeedBroadcast agri-culture Journal. Due to the rapidly changing and challenging times of COVID19 we have postponed the printing of this issue until later in the year but hope that you can access this poignant and timely edition on line and past issues here.
Thank you so much Emily for your contribution.
FLOWERING: HERE, THERE, AND EVERYWHERE
Emily C-D
We planted a seed and the flower gifted us so many more. Did you know that ideas are seeds too?
Plants have been a constant inspiration in my artistic practice, and my recent art with seeds is part of a trajectory of work that merges environmental and social issues. Last summer I joined forces with activists to expand the conversation around migration, inviting the public to understand the phenomenon through the larger lens of nature in an artistic, participatory process.
Florecer Aquí y Allá (To Flower, Here and There) is a trans-local migrant rights art action that occurred on July 6, 2019 in 14 different communities in North America all the way from San Pedro Sula, Honduras up to New York City. The call to action was made by ODA, or Otros Dreams en Acción, an organization based in Mexico City and dedicated to mutual support and political action for and by those who grew up in the United States and now find themselves in Mexico due to deportation, the deportation of a family member, or the threat of deportation. Dreaming our ideas together, we felt that the migration conversation is mired in negativity and difficult to understand political frameworks. Florecer was our proposal to breach the topic on a more emotional level that would inspire people to open their hearts and consider migrants as part of a larger picture of humanity in movement in a world that is in fact constantly in motion.
As I see it, flowers spread their seeds on the wind to where they need to go to grow, meanwhile we humans are building walls and laws that impede our movement and therefor our growth. Could we be inspired by our plant teachers to let ourselves move to wherever we dream and deem is fertile soil for reaching our human potential?
So it was that we landed on the concept of FLORECER, which in Spanish literally means to flower or bloom, but can be understood in a broader context as to flourish. Together we formulated six shared proposals of what migrants need in order to live and prosper here, there, and everywhere:
1
Abolish Migrant Detention
We flourish here and there when we are all part of the solution. Detention and deportation are not part of the solution.
2
Families Belong Together
We flourish here and there when laws and policies protect families, women, and children. Separating migrant families is a crime against humanity.
3
Diverse Communities
We flourish here and there when our diversity is valued and protected. Natural ecosystems thrive with diversity, and human culture is no exception. Discrimination is dehumanization, lives are on the line.
4
Safety & Inclusion
We flourish here and there when governments invest in structural change to guarantee mobility with human rights. Safety and inclusion for migrants creates safer communities for all of us.
5
Education & Jobs
We flourish here and there when we all have equal access to education and employment free from exploitation. This is the key for strong (trans) local economies.
6
People Before Papers
We flourish here and there when the human rights of every single person do not depend on any official paper. Documents should create access instead of inequality.
As a central action of Florecer in the Zocalo,
or main square, of Mexico City, we decided we would construct in community a monumental mandala made out of painted banners and seeds—corn, rice, and beans, staple crops that feed humanity across the globe. Much of the
so-called migrant “crisis” is in fact fueled by the Climate Crisis, as communities are forced to move from their homelands because of their inability to continue to cultivate there the foods that have for millennia been the basis of their culture and basic nutrition. As such, the seeds we used in the installation held not only great cultural significance, but also immediate hunger stanching value, the reason for which at the termination of the event, all the seeds used in the construction of the giant 50 ft. mandala—nearly 700 lbs total!—were donated to local shelters so that migrants might eat.
While I was busy calculating, cutting, and painting yard upon yard of canvas in preparation for the event, Maggie Loredo, co-director of ODA, was working hard to organize simultaneous public actions with migrant groups and allies across the Americas, the idea being that art, music, and seeds can cross the borders that try to divide us. What was a beautiful surprise to all of us was that five of the communities decided to create their own versions of the mandala that I had designed for installation in the Zocalo. This was truly the power of pollination, community art that crosses borders!
Children painted together in Sunset Park, Brooklyn with the Red de Pueblos Transnacionales, Stop Shopping Choir, Global Exchange, and the New Sanctuary Coalition. In Tijuana, Espacio Migrante and Dreamers Moms created a gorgeous rendition with colored sawdust. La Resistencia in Tacoma, Washington did a wonderful poster with different native plants springing from the stems. In Tapachula on the southern border of Mexico, Iniciativas Para el Desarrolllo Humano brought people together to create a mandala out of fruit, plants, and hand-written notes. And in Chicago, Organized Communities Against Deportation chalked their demands and dreams onto the street. This is the power of art that belongs to everyone!
WE PLANTED THE SEEDS TO FLOURISH HERE AND THERE.
We hope this is only the beginning.
#FlorecerAquíyAlla
#MigrantSolidarity
For more information about ODA, please visit www.odamexico.org
In Spanish “ODA” translates to ode, or a poem meant to be sung. We believe in the power of arts and culture to learn from one another and to tell our stories from the inside out. We believe in our potential as a community to make positive change in the aftermath of deportation and exile. We believe in our right to be from two countries, to belong aquí y allá.
Emily C-D is a bilingual illustrator, muralist, sculptor and seed saver, originally from Maryland, based in Mexico, and working on both sides of the border. She partners with diverse communities, creating in collaboration works that seek to cultivate wonder and respect for the living world and our place within it. Please follow her @emilycdart on IG and check out her full portfolio at www.emilycd.com
