Over the past 10 years The Bronx has experienced an unprecedented growth in our Mexican population mostly having settled in Mott Haven and Melrose neighborhoods of our borough from 1.7% of the population in 2000 to over 5% as of 2010. And it’s not just The Bronx but the city’s Mexican population has increased as well during the same time.
Lehman College in The Bronx responded to this trend by establishing the first ever Institute of Mexican Studies, otherwise known as The Jaime Lucero Mexican Studies Institute, in the East Coast.
Now, the Bronx Documentary Center brings us a landmark exhibition of Mexican photographers and documentary journalist showing us their community through their own eyes.
From the BDC:
Mexico is too often represented by American photographers traveling south across the border. In this exhibition, five Mexican and Mexican-American photographers reverse that dynamic, focusing their lenses on the complex duality of their lives and on the United States itself. In these photos, the gaze is not at a Mexico defined by the US, but at Mexicans exploring and defining themselves as they navigate the Mexican and Mexican-American experience today.
Ruth Prieto Arenas opens a window into the lives of Mexican immigrant women in New York City, where they are masters of their own world, where they control their time and their choices, where they have a safe haven. Chuy Benitez’s panoramic photographs capture Houston’s vibrant Mexican-American community at a moment of explosive growth. Fernando Brito’s images of bodies dumped in the Sinaloa countryside by drug cartels bring home the tragedy created by the United States’ insatiable drug consumption. Alejandro Cartagena has spent much of the last decade examining the Mexico-US relationship along the border in various documentary photo series, including Suburbia Mexicana, Between Borders and The Car Poolers. Mauricio Palos’ photos, from spring break in Cancun to Detroit’s bleak streets, brilliantly highlight the historic contradictions between our two countries. In this exhibition, the gaze is not at a Mexico defined by the US, but at Mexicans exploring and defining themselves as they navigate the Mexican and Mexican-American experience today.
EXHIBITION RECEPTION
Saturday, Nov. 15, 6:00PM – 9PM
Free and open to the public
ON VIEW
Nov. 15 – Jan. 12, 2014
Thursdays and Fridays 3PM – 7PM
Saturdays and Sundays 1PM – 5PM
FEATURING
Chuy Benitez
Fernando Brito
Alejandro Cartagena
Mauricio Palos, Boreal Collective
Ruth Prieto Arenas
RSVP to the Facebook Invitation: https://www.facebook.com/events/397388083745250/
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