By Ryan Leshko
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
The deaths of migrants trying to come to America will be the focal point of an exhibit coming to Towson University’s Cook Library this fall and next spring.
The Undocumented Migration Project, which is sponsoring “Hostile Terrain 94,” is scheduled to feature virtual events this week, as well as in October and a traditional exhibit in the spring.
The program kicks off with a 24-hour movie screening of “Border South” that premieres at 4 p.m. Thursday and runs until 4 p.m. Friday. Additionally, there will be virtual toe-tagging events planned for late October.
According to the website of the Undocumented Migrant Project, the exhibition is composed of 3,200 handwritten toe tags that represent migrants who have died trying to cross the Sonoran Desert of Arizona between the mid-1990s and 2019.
Towson University sophomore Sydney Avelino, who is the migration exhibit engagement researcher, said she is using the exhibit to not only showcase the lives lost of those who attempted to cross the Sonoran Desert, but to spread awareness before the upcoming presidential election in November.
“One of the biggest purposes is so that we can kind of raise awareness to the situation and so that people will be able to vote accordingly to the information they are being exposed to,” Avelino said.
Matthew Durington, a professor of anthropology at Towson University who was most responsible for bringing the exhibit to Towson, said he believes the exhibit is a trigger for both positive and negative emotions.
“Folks are going to bring their political perspectives from either side of the aisle and their thoughts on migration and immigration to the exhibit, but what is so powerful about it is that the collective community experience creates space for dialogue,” Durington said.
Durington added that the idea was, through the exhibit, to create a place to talk about the real effects of U.S. policy and immigration.
The Undocumented Migration Project (UMP) is a long-term anthropological study of clandestine movement between Latin America and the United States that uses ethnography, archaeology, visual anthropology, and forensic science to understand this violent social process and raise awareness through research, education, and public outreach, the group’s website says.
The exhibit has traveled all over the world. It has been in countries like the United States, Greece, Canada, Great Britain and Honduras, just to name a few. It has also been seen at several universities, like Stanford University, University of Notre Dame, and Johns Hopkins University.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be no in-person activities this year.
The movie screening scheduled for this week will explain the purpose of the exhibit and why it is important to spread awareness about the 3,200 migrant lives lost.
There will also be a panel discussion featuring the movie’s director, Raúl O. Paz Pastrana, and anthropologist Jason de León at 2 p.m. on Friday.
The toe tag event has no specific date set, but it’s likely to be held in late October. It will consist of students and other community members filling out virtual toe tags with information about one of the people who died trying to cross the desert into America, Avelino said.
“Each death is represented by a toe tag that has been placed on a map and the location of that person’s death is marked with that toe tag,” said Joyce Garczynski, the assistant university librarian for development and communication. “We’re going to have events where participants learn about the migrant deaths and fill out a toe tag, as well as their reflections on the process on the back of the tag.”
Garczynski added that the plan is for the exhibit to be physically displayed in the library in the spring. In addition, she added that the exhibit will be up for at least six weeks.
Avelino said that she attended a toe-tag filling event over the summer. Her experience was a humbling one that made her reflect on those migrants who crossed the border hoping for a better life.
“It makes you realize that there are thousands of voiceless people out there who are simply just trying to obtain a better life,” Avelino said. “Because we are the people who have a voice, we should be able to speak for them. We are starting to understand and feel what people are experiencing as they are trying to cross the border.”
Durington and Avelino both believe that the exhibit has a powerful message behind it.
“What I like about the exhibit is that it just has that powerful impact when you know that each one of those toe tags represent a human, or someone’s brother or mother or father or daughter,” Durington said.
Avelino added that the impact that she hopes this exhibit will have is to give factual information to people about what is happening. She also said she wants the Towson community to take the information and make their own educated decisions.
“One of the biggest things I feel like I want to push within the ‘Hostile Terrain 94’ exhibit is to look at them as humans,” Avelino said. “When people see things that they don’t want to see, they tend to look away, but this is something where I want them to think to themselves, ‘I can’t look away at this.’”