{"id":43357,"date":"2025-07-06T12:33:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T12:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/43357\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T12:33:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T12:33:10","slug":"ice-raids-have-not-only-inspired-activism-but-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/43357\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE raids have not only inspired activism \u2014 but art"},"content":{"rendered":"

More for families.<\/p>\n

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For decades, L.A.-based cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz has been creating one-panel editorial cartoons that condense complicated political issues into straightforward images. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s what he did with a recent cartoon for Cal\u00f3 News that depicted a federal immigration agent with a block of ice for a head, on the run from a group of people screaming and protesting, and the words \u201cICE OUT OF LA!\u201d superimposed.<\/p>\n

\"Cartoon<\/p>\n

Cartoon by Lalo Alcaraz for Cal\u00f3 News in response to ICE raids.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people want to feel solidarity, and I am happy to try to provide any kind of bridge, an image that brings us all together in anger\u2026 and feel like we’re not alone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

ICE raids have not only inspired activism \u2014 but art<\/p>\n

This week he finished an acrylic on canvas painting of a photo that went viral. The photo depicts a paleta (popsicle) cart on the sidewalk in a residential neighborhood. Missing: the vendor. <\/p>\n

The paletero was detained by agents<\/a> in Culver City. Alcaraz is selling prints<\/a> of his painting to help the man\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

Alcaraz is one of dozens of trained and experienced visual artists who are lending their skills to create images for the recent movement against the immigration raids in Southern California.<\/p>\n

It taps into a long history of art as social protest, such as posters for the Black Civil Rights Movement<\/a>, Keith Haring\u2019s paintings<\/a> for AIDS awareness in the 1980s, and Yolanda Lopez\u2019s \u201cWho\u2019s the Illegal Alien, Pilgrim?\u201d<\/a> used in 1990s Chicano Movement protests.<\/p>\n

Strong visual images give people a way to express their feelings<\/p>\n

In recent Southern California protests some participants held up a small poster-sized image showing a large hand coming out of a school building. Above it are the words \u00a1NO PASAR\u00c1N! (they will not enter) .<\/p>\n

I think people, people want to feel solidarity and I am happy to try to provide any kind of bridge, an image that brings us all together in anger\u2026 and feel like we’re not alone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2014 Lalo Alcaraz, artist, cartoonist<\/p>\n

Some two thousand of these prints were created in the last few months in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Linocut created by John Fleissner for people protesting ICE raids in Southern California. <\/p>\n

\u201c\u00a1NO PASAR\u00c1N! is a slogan that originated in the Spanish Civil War, when the democratically elected government had to fight off the fascist insurrection,\u201d said John Fleissner, the creator of the image.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a Milwaukee high school art teacher who was brought to L.A. by a labor union to organize a screen printing event at \u201cSummer of Resistance\u201d \u2014 a month-long event at Olvera Street in downtown L.A.<\/a> where the silkscreen prints were made.<\/p>\n

A poster, an image, a striking image, really hits you in the face and gets you to understand and elicits that emotional response in a split second.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2014 John Fleissner, printmaker<\/p>\n

He\u2019s inspired by artists like Jose Guadalupe Posada, who created graphic art <\/a>during the dictatorship of Mexico\u2019s Porfirio Diaz at the end of the 19th century.<\/p>\n

\u201cA poster, an image, a striking image, really hits you in the face and gets you to understand and elicits that emotional response in a split second,\u201d Fleissner said.<\/p>\n

Venting anger through profanity<\/p>\n

Two of the most common phrases you can find on handmade signs and banners are: \u201cF*** ICE\u201d and \u201cCh**** la migra\u201d. Both essentially mean the same thing.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The artist Dewey Tafoya used an image of the late writer Octavia Butler, who wrote about a future in which authoritarian governments limit people’s rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is like our \u2026 slogan and war cry for these protests,” said Savannah Rosas, a student at Otis College of Art and Design. “That simple phrase, I feel like, has brought so many people together to really speak out and to help our immigrant community and just bring our voice back.”<\/p>\n

Before the immigration raids, Rosas said she created work that evoked childhood and hyper-femininity. She grew up in Bakersfield in a working-class family. Seeing people detained who looked like her parents and grandparents shook her to the core.<\/p>\n

She created a digital print that depicts a bag of ice with those phrases on the bag.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cUs being depicted by the government as these villains was just so enraging,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Using Labubu, Snoopy and other characters to protest ICE<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The artist Dylan Jagielski says he’s influenced by underground artists like Sand One and OGBillyTheKid.<\/p>\n

(<\/p>\n

Courtesy Dylan Jagielski<\/p>\n

)<\/p>\n

Artists are also using well known pop culture characters, such as Snoopy<\/a> and Labubu<\/a> to send a message opposing ICE actions in L.A.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The artist Erica Friend used the Labubu character to communicate a message protesting ICE raids.<\/p>\n

(<\/p>\n

@insomniart<\/p>\n

\/<\/p>\n

Courtesy Erica Friend<\/p>\n

)<\/p>\n

Some Latino artists have used the chancla (a slipper, flip flop) to communicate anger.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe chancla represents that brown matriarchal power,\u201d said Gilda Posada, a printmaker based in Lynwood. \u201cIt’s a symbol usually of moms or brown aunties being frustrated and throwing their shoe at you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Posada printed 200 copies of an image she created showing a hand holding a chancla and pointing it at a law enforcement officer.<\/p>\n

According to reports of detentions, people who appear to be of Latin American descent have been the principal targets for federal agents, but Asian Americans are also concerned.<\/a><\/p>\n

Asian American cartoonist Sam Nakahira created two \u201cICE OUT OF LA\u201d pieces.<\/a><\/p>\n

Art as spiritual work<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Artist Joel Garcia used a mountain lion image, similar to L.A.’s late P-22, to communicate a connection to the indigenous origins of the L.A. area. <\/p>\n

Some visual artists are using the moment to remind people that the anxiety, disruption, and family separations resulting from detentions are happening on indigenous lands.<\/p>\n

In one work, a mountain lion resembling L.A.\u2019s famous P-22 looks straight at the viewer under the words, \u201cI.C.E. FUERA DE TOVANGAAR \u2013 LOS ANGELES\u201d (I.C.E out of Tovangaar, the indigenous name of the L.A. area).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe [mountain lion is] walking down from the heavens\u2026 like where our ancestors are and it’s coming down as a protector,\u201d said Joel Garcia, who created the image.<\/p>\n

Artists, they do spiritual triage. They assess where the work is needed, where creativity can help support the spiritual, mental, emotional wellbeing of people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2014 Joel Garcia, artist<\/p>\n

He wanted to create work that didn\u2019t use hyper-masculine imagery, like a raised fist or muscular male figures.<\/p>\n

\u201cArtists, they do spiritual triage,” Garcia said. “They assess where the work is needed, where creativity can help support the spiritual, mental, emotional wellbeing of people.”<\/p>\n