The Daily Nexus reported that UC Santa Barbara’s Art, Design & Architecture Museum recently hosted the third public activation of "Gemidos de la Tierra," a memorial created by artist Jackie Amézquita. The exhibition, held on Día de los Muertos, honors victims who lost their lives in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers since 2003.
Amézquita created the project as her Master of Fine Arts thesis at UC Los Angeles in 2020 after searching for an asylum-seeking sibling and encountering a list of immigrants who passed away in custody. During the museum presentation, Amézquita and collaborators Natalie Godinez, Hedy Torres, and Johnny Pérez added 57 new names to the installation, bringing the total to 298 individuals across 15 panels.
The artist hand-casts each name onto carved wooden panels before a live audience, utilizing regional soil and a mixture of masa de maíz. Independent curator Daniela Lieja Quintanar, SBCC instructor Melinda Gandara, and museum curator Ana Briz noted that the exhibition fosters community engagement, raises awareness of local impacts, and grants physical recognition and dignity to those who died in immigration custody.
The exhibition remains on display in the museum setting through Nov. 29.
