The wall that demarcates the border between the United States and Mexico is all but invisible throughout most of San Diego. It juts into the ocean at the end of a remote beach that is difficult to access, miles from the city, and is surrounded by spotlights, towers and armed border guards.
In Tijuana, on the other hand, the wall that defines the northern border with the U.S. is not only visible, but used as a message board and canvas. The southward-facing side of the border wall that juts out just past Playas de Tijuana and into the Pacific Ocean is covered in messages, graffiti, and especially personal and political art.
Ana Teresa Fernández’s life has in many ways revolved around the border. The artist was born in Mexico but emigrated to the United States with her parents as a child and spent the rest of her childhood in San Diego. Today, Fernández’s family lives in Bonita and she lives in San Francisco, but periodically returns to Southern California and Mexico.
“I have been doing political actions around the border for about eight years now,” said Fernández, 34. On a recent afternoon she was spattered in paint because she had just returned from Playas de Tijuana where she had redone a piece of the border wall that she originally painted in 2011. Her art, called “Borrando la Frontera” (Erasing the Border), does exactly what its title says: she painted the bars of the fence on the beach at Playas in such a way that, from a distance, it looks as if a section of the wall has been removed.
“I just got so frustrated that I wanted to do something that actually, physically addressed the wall itself, like getting rid of it. Erasing it. So the idea of erasing it by using one of my tools, which is paint, I decided to go there and do a peaceful protest, which is ‘Borrando la Frontera.’”
Fernández said that this work of art symbolizes not just how she feels about physical and geographic borders, but the invisible structures of class and emotional distance, which keep people distant from one another, as well.
“Borders and fences only divide us and create distance and obstacles to listening to ourselves, a lack of communication … and so the more we can actually touch and hear and smell each other and understand each other, I think the better we will get along,” said Fernández.
Her art also deals with physicality and identity. Fernández said that she hopes to provoke curiosity and conversation with all of her art, and the symbolic erasure of the border is no different.
“I always strive for the connection, and I think the more we can understand and have an empathic approach to diversity and to cultures and to societies that we, ourselves, don’t understand or know, and the more understanding we have of each other, I think the better relationships will be built and forged,” she said.
“So as long as we have physical obstructions like this, it just allows interference to a better connection.”
More of Fernández’s art, including photos of the “Borrando la Frontera” piece, can be found on her website, www.anateresafernandez.com.
