Julio’s Art: A homage to undocumented love

All work by Julio S

‹Using Los Angeles Negros’ music as inspiration, my dad asked my mom out back in the fall of ’79. After a couple of years of dating, they got married in ’82. They had me in ’83 and then my sister in ’87. They had their ups and lows. They battled depression on my mother’s side and alcoholism on my father’s side. But in the end, their love for each other managed to get the family through tough times.
In 1995, they were faced with one of the biggest decisions in their lives: to stay in the U.S. after our visas expired in order to save my sister’s life or go back to Mexico’s best hospital in Guadalajara, where they’d told my parents my sister was going to die. Like any responsible parent, they chose the former. They’d be damned if a border was going to stop them from saving their child’s life.
My parent’s marriage is far from perfect. But this Valentine’s, I want to celebrate the love they have for each other and the love and support they give me and my sister every single day. Even if it’s over the phone now that I live six hours away from them.

 

This is my cousin Brenda Ortega and her husband Jose Carrillo Marquez. They met in high school 12 years ago and got married in 2006. My cousin is an American citizen and for many years, Jose was undocumented. When they tried to fix his status the “right way,” Jose was sent back to Mexico. For nearly two years, I witnessed as my cousin and her daughter had to travel back and forth to visit him. The government didn’t care that their daughter was suffering so much for not being able to see her daddy. He recently received his green card and was able to return to the U.S. But no green card will be enough for all the stress and suffering they had to go through. I love you guys!›

 

 

 

 

‹Naomi is a DREAMer and her boyfriend is serving in the Air National Guard in TN.

 

 

Felipe is a DREAMer and Juan recently fixed his immigration status in the country›

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‹Alex and Nicolas are two fierce undocuqueer activists. Alex recently participated at a sit-in in San Bernardino, CA. and Nicolas was one of the many brave undocumented folks that got arrested in Alabama.

 

‹This is Prerna, a badass undocu- queer activist and law student, and her girlfriend Lindsay.

 

 

 

 

‹Nancy is an amazing undocumented mujer who is currently working on her Ph.D. and Pocho-one Fotography is her boyfriend.

Fanny is an undocumented graduate student currently attending the University of Chicago doing her masters in Public Policy and her husband David is a U.S. citizen who has been in the U.S. Army Reserve for almost 9 years. He recently came back from a deployment to Afghanistan. Unfortunately, the same country for which he has fought is the same one that might deport his wife.›

‹Daniel and Daniel are a bi-national,
mix-status queer couple from Montreal.

Sonia is an undocumented activist living in New York with William, her U.S.-born husband. This image was based on a photograph from their wedding day›

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