Making art provides young people an opportunity to cultivate self-respect, build relationships, and make a statement—activities that are particularly important for children of Mexican immigrants.  Often faced with discrimination, language barriers, and other challenges of migration, these young people must find creative ways to thrive in a society that often regards them with ambivalence, if not outright hostility.   According to the executive director of a social service agency in Pilsen, they “use the arts as a tool to maintain themselves, their pride—as opposed to the street, getting involved with gangs.”  Parents, teachers, and other community members expressed concerned for Latino young men in particular.  An ethnographer paraphrased a respondent as saying, “the kind of social isolation they face, combined with all the problems associated with poverty, is like a powder keg waiting to go off for this next generation.”

School-based art projects provide an important and compelling alternative to more dangerous kinds of self-expression. “Many of us are invisible,” explained one respondent. A name scrawled on a wall is the primary public evidence of his brother’s life, ended prematurely by gang violence.   In such a context, young people need constructive ways to make their mark.  Projects that foreground Mexican cultural heritage, such as Day of the Dead festivities or baile folklórico (folk dance), turn an often stigmatized aspect of their identity—their Mexican origins—into a point of pride, as well as a source of inspiration. Students working together to paint murals can make friendships, artistic statements, and even critical social commentary, in a safe and supportive atmosphere.


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