New Bakersfield art exhibit shows off work by detainees at Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center
Feb. 21—A new art exhibition is soon opening in Bakersfield, with the intention of showing off the works of several artists living just down the road. While many exhibitions aim to highlight the talent and dedication of the artists, this one has a deeper purpose.
The work featured in "Voices in the Shadow" is largely the product of detainees held at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center. They have worked in collaboration with two Bakersfield-based artists to spread the word about alleged conditions at the facility and petition for their release.
Exhibition organizers hope the new show will cause Bakersfield residents to ask questions about what it means for an immigrant detention center to be present in their community, and think about how such conditions developed in the Central Valley.
"There's a real opportunity to begin to have a different kind of conversation," said artist Elizabeth Spavento, who is organizing the exhibit with her husband, an artist and Cal State Bakersfield instructor Jared Haug. "When you're fighting to just have your basic needs met, whether that's access to fresh food or more than an hours worth of outside air a day, there are ways to do that more humanely."
A class-action lawsuit has been filed seeking the release of Mesa Verde detainees during the coronavirus pandemic. When asked to comment on the art show, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Spokesman Jonathan Moore said in an email the agency could not comment because of pending litigation.
"However, a lack of comment should not be construed as an agreement with or stipulation to any allegations," he wrote.
Both Haug and Spavento belong to an of artist's group called Border Patrol. The group has put on exhibitions in the past. With this recent effort, Haug said he and his wife hoped to act as a conduit between the folks inside Mesa Verde, "to get their words and images out into the broader community."
The show grew out of letters Haug and Spavento sent to detainees inside Mesa Verde. They volunteered with a local group whose mission is to provide companionship to the individuals, who are largely cut off from outside contact, especially during the coronavirus pandemic.
Through their correspondence, the couple learned one of the men who they had been assigned, Walter Cruz-Zavala, was a dedicated artist and used his drawings to fill up the "endless days" inside of Mesa Verde.
Held in detention for around three and a half years, Cruz-Zavala is fighting being deported to El Salvador, where he fled from when he was 14. On two occasions, immigration judges have granted Cruz-Zavala protection under the United Nations torture convention and have allowed him to stay in the United States. Yet, the Department of Homeland Security has appealed each decision, keeping Cruz-Zavala detained as his deportation case is dragged out.
With little to do while he fights yet another deportation attempt, art has served as a rare escape. With limited supplies, he has used anything he can get his hands on for his work. One of the pieces on display in the exhibition is a drawing Cuz-Zavala made on a strip of bed sheet.
"Art has been what has sustained him. I think it's a meditative practice for him," said his attorney Raha Jorjani. "It's one of the few things that he can exert control over in an otherwise dehumanizing system that has taken away all other agency from him."
As the exhibition has gotten closer to opening, more and more detainees have become involved. In addition to the artwork of Cruz-Zavala and other current and former people held at Mesa Verde, detainees collaborated with organizers to photograph their meals over a week and they posed for pictures, taken through a computer webcam.
"(People should know) how messed up ICE is, and how messed up the separation of people and their families is, and how messed up everything is that is going on on the immigration side," said Mohamed Mousa, an immigrant from Egypt who has been held at Mesa Verde since December 2019. "We believe that it is so inhuman. We're people right here. We're real life stories. Everybody has his own story."
Due to the pandemic, visitations to the exhibition, located at 2816 K Street, must be made online at border-patrol.net/upcoming. Appointments can be made starting Feb. 27. Only five people will be allowed into the exhibit at one time.
You can reach Sam Morgen at 661-395-7415. You may also follow him on Twitter @smorgenTBC.
