In Reference To: Mexican Women of San Francisco

Forty-four photographs of objects belonging to forty-four different Mexican immigrant women living in San Francisco form a digitally printed mural outside Galería de la Raza, in the heart of San Francisco’s currently tumultuous Mission district. Though related to Alejandra Regalado’s partnership with the gallery, the placement of In Reference To: Mexican Women of San Francisco in the area is both fitting and fortunate. Not only does the mural continue the tradition of conflict-confrontational and activist art in the district, but it speaks directly to the idea of ownership—one of the most crucial concepts at the core of the fight.

Created during her 2014 artist-in-residency at Galería de la Raza, Regalado’s digital mural is only a small part of her larger work, which includes photographs of 500 different Mexican immigrant women from six different cities across the country, as well as photographs of the specific objects chosen by each woman as a reminder of the life she left behind in Mexico. The objects of the mural, which range from clothing and kitchenware to art, appear in a grid-like arrangement against the stark white background of the wall. The result is reminiscent of the cold, documentarian archeological displays found in museums. However, the white background contrasts with the more colorful objects and allows the richness and beauty of Mexican style and culture to survive the detached aesthetic.

Alejandra Regalado. In Reference to: Mexican Women of San Francisco, 2015; digital mural; 10.6 ft. x 24 ft. Courtesy of the Artist and Galeria de la Raza, San Francisco.

Those aware of the project’s entirety may question Regalado’s decision not to include the photographs of the women in the mural arrangement. Arguably, the exclusion of the women gives these objects an existence of their own—one of separateness and abandonment. The exclusion also forces a dialogue between viewers and object, a dialogue pertaining not only to identity—cultural and otherwise—but also to ownership. The mural could be compared to a “lost flyer” or even the contents of a lost-and-found box itself. The mural begs the question: to whom do these objects belong? And because the mural is in constant interaction with the public and the community in this part of the city, the question also echoes and participates in the sometimes silent yet tense discourse currently taking place in the Mission—a discourse repeatedly asking the question: to whom does the Mission belong?

The mural, public in nature, is a medium that lends itself to the state of its surroundings. Regalado’s mural, for better or for worse, places itself in the center of a rising conflict, and by its own disposition participates in the discussion, saying to all who view it that home may be elsewhere. The mural asks viewers to either claim these objects through familiarity or to consider the objects as foreign and to associate them with someone outside themselves. These questions are both powerful and dangerous. The same way a stranger can arrive at a place and stake claim, the mural can belong to no one and everyone all at once.

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Vanessa Flores is a writer and MFA candidate at California College of the Arts. She lives in Oakland. 

In Reference To: Mexican Women of San Francisco is on view at Galería de la Raza, in

San Francisco