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<\/b>As the Republican presidential candidate has loudly and repeatedly vowed\u2014among other things\u2014to build a wall along the United States\u2019 southern border to keep Mexican immigrants out, a Bay Area-based artist hired two Mexican immigrants to likewise build a wall\u2014out of pi\u00f1atas\u2014to bring people together and denounce hate, brick by brick.<\/p>\n
During the opening reception of \u201cWe Are Against the Wall,\u201d people gathered at Southern Exposure, a nonprofit art gallery on 20th and Alabama streets in the Mission District.<\/p>\n
Artist Sita Bhaumik debuted her pi\u00f1ata wall project, which is composed of nearly 400 pi\u00f1ata bricks and stands eight feet tall and 11 feet wide, on Sept. 9.<\/p>\n
Bhaumik commissioned Victor Martinez and Francisco \u201cPaco\u201d Leon, owners of Pi\u00f1atas Las Morenitas Martinez in Oakland, to make the pi\u00f1ata bricks for the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we all know, this election season has been just really frightening and incredible,\u201d Bhaumik said. \u201cThis issue of immigration, which always is a topic of discussion in American politics, has just taken this really incredibly ugly and painful turn. So I thought of the responsibility to address that as an artist, with the show being right before the election.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bhaumik first pitched the idea to her curator Michele Carlson last year. But as momentum for the wall\u2014and the candidate pushing for it\u2014increased, Bhaumik\u2019s project became ever more relevant. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTo me, the fact that it\u2019s a proposal is one of the most frightening things, because it\u2019s an idea,\u201d Bhaumik. \u201cAnd people are getting behind it. It\u2019s a rallying cry for folks to get excited. And get excited about what? This thing that means\u2014to me\u2014racism and hatred and xenophobia and division of people.\u201d<\/p>\n Though the art project is an obvious reference to the proposed border wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, Bhaumik also drew inspiration from the Berlin Wall and the more recent Israeli West Bank barrier (often referred to as the \u201cApartheid Wall\u201d) one that separates Palestinians from each other.<\/p>\n There is however a reason why Bhaumik specifically chose pi\u00f1atas: Bhaumik\u2019s mother, who is Japanese-Colombian, told her that in Colombia, they would break seven-pointed ceramic pi\u00f1atas at Christmas, a symbolic gesture to destroy the \u201cseven deadly sins.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo for me, the wall is like an eighth deadly sin,\u201d said Bhaumik. \u201cAnd to me, it\u2019s always been strange to love something so much that you\u2019d want to make a pi\u00f1ata out of it and want to smash it. And it\u2019s because it\u2019s really supposed to represent evil. And you smashing the pi\u00f1ata represents your rejection of evil.\u201d<\/p>\n But it was the profession of pi\u00f1ata making that Martinez, a native of Zacoalco de Torres, Jalisco, found a way to support his family. Always interested in expressing his creativity by working with his hands, Martinez began making pi\u00f1atas in Mexico in 2004. He immigrated to the United States in 2006, where he began a decade-long stint working in construction.<\/p>\n It was there in construction where he would meet another Mexican immigrant Francisco Leon, who would become his eventual business partner and close friend. The two opened their pi\u00f1ata store in Oakland about a year ago. They no longer work in construction.<\/p>\n \u201cI stepped up to work on this project because, apart from promoting our own business, we want to raise a consciences in people,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cSo that they don\u2019t vote and stand behind the ideas of one person, whose message is based on racism.\u201d<\/p>\n Leon agreed.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis affects us and many Latinos. Personally, I\u2019m against a wall. That\u2019s why we are very pleased to be involved in helping with this project,\u201d said Leon, who is a native of Puebla. \u201cWhat I think Sita is doing is raising awareness but at the same time, it\u2019s something fun and something where people can release anger.\u201d<\/p>\n People attending the closing ceremony at Southern Exposure will get a chance to release that anger on Oct. 15, when attendees will bash the pi\u00f1ata wall until it no longer stands.<\/p>\n \u201cThey exist to be destroyed. You don\u2019t buy a pi\u00f1ata and hold on to it for 20, 30 or 100 years. You buy it to destroy it,\u201d Bhaumik said. \u201cAnd for me the only reason to build a wall is to destroy it. And what better form than a pi\u00f1ata.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [su_slider source=”media: 31560,31572,31570,31563,31571,31568,31566,31567,31558,31559″ limit=”40″ link=”image” target=”blank” width=”700″ height=”460″ autoplay=”0″ speed=”500″][su_slider source=”media: 29856,29857″ limit=”30″ link=”image” target=”blank” width=”700″ height=”460″ autoplay=”0″ speed=”500″][su_menu][\/su_slider] As the Republican presidential candidate has loudly and repeatedly vowed\u2014among other things\u2014to build a wall along the United States\u2019 southern border to keep Mexican immigrants out, a Bay Area-based artist hired two Mexican immigrants to likewise […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":31571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[11635,11639,11637,11631,11629,11633,11627],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-31557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-francisco-paco-leon","tag-pinata","tag-pinatas-las-morenitas-martinez","tag-sita-bhaumik","tag-southern-exposure","tag-victor-martinez","tag-we-are-against-the-wall","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n