Children’s Dreams at the US Border, by Basia D. Ellis, Ph.D., Professor of Child and Adolescent Development, Sacramento State; Curriculum Chair, Dreamer Resource Center 

Jose Guerrero’s work powerfully portrays the disheartening experiences of Latin American children who arrive to the US border with hopes for better futures, only to experience barriers and exclusion from American society. At the heart of the work is a young girl, clothed in political newspapers filled with contradictory cultural and social messages that speak to the politics that motivate her journey and frame her life story. Yet, just as these messages constitute her childhood and weigh her body down, Guerrero presents the girl mid-movement, oriented toward a nascent dream represented by the nebula to her left hovering over a symbol of equality. The girl’s poised glace upward in turn suggests an interruption in her journey by a higher power or authority, one that questions her pursuit, delays her, and seeks to undermine her hope—as further evinced by the symbol of a withering flower that she nevertheless holds on to unwaveringly. Guerrero weds conflicting symbols as he creatively reinterprets the U.S. flag, replacing its stars with the expanse of the milky way while simultaneously covering its stripes with border fencing that mark immigrants’ barriers from achieving American dreams. In similar vein, the pronounced white traces slashing the equality sign on the right and covering the girl’s left eye connote the false promises of an equal society and the child’s exclusion from any such vision. Further juxtapositions of American symbols with indigenous colors and patterns illustrate the conflicting spaces and histories that immigrant children navigate as they make their journeys north in pursuit of refuge and better lives for themselves and their families. Ultimately, the young girl’s firm yet disheartened stance communicates both the determination and disillusionment of children who endure these circumstances—as well as the urgent need to address their needs. “The Dream is Not for You” thus documents the historical formation of immigrant children’s lives, bounded by news stories and public policies that both constitute their life dreams and restrict their opportunities.