The Seven | Las Siete

SEVEN

Nothing is free...

For the children of immigrants, childhood can be at times overwhelming and emotionally painful. It’s not just the person that comes across that border that runs a risk, the whole family is jeopardized. Hopefully my work, entitled SEVEN, can help to establish that not all negative connotations you read about immigrants is true and more importantly, the reality that nothing is free…

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My grandparents on my mother’s side had seven daughters. To support such a large family, my grandfather went to California to work the produce fields. After a few months, it just wasn’t enough. He and my grandmother came up with a solution where it meant that they both had to leave the girls behind to go and work a few months. They had to earn enough money so that they both become established in the US and also save enough to provide a better future for their girls, chasing the "American Dream." Although heart broken, my grandmother agreed. It was extremely difficult to find family or friends that would take in such a large group and breaking up the girls was out of the question. The only solution that my grandparents came up with was to take the girls to an orphanage located in Mexico City that was run by Catholic nuns. This would be the place where the girls would receive an education, meals, a roof over their heads and spiritual enlightenment for a small fee. What could be better?

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While at the orphanage, the seven sisters did receive an education and meals but they were tormented by both the nuns and the five hundred other orphan girls that they lived with. This went on for a span of two and a half to three years. Upon arrival the girls were ages ranging from eleven to three years old and were sorted in to groups by height instead of by age. The sisters ended up being placed in the general population where they were treated as if they were orphans as well. Can you imagine this torment as a young little girl? Knowing good and well that you have a Mom and Dad and not fully understanding why you and your sisters were there to begin with. So there they were, Sisters that ended up divided anyway with their group. Each group slept together, showered together, ate together and worked together, meaning that the sisters seldom got to be in close proximity to each other unless placed in the same group. Each group had “chores” that they had to accomplish; otherwise it meant that you were sent to bed without a bite to eat.

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The chores ranged from washing loads of laundry by hand and ironing all of it on a daily basis to scrubbing the expansive floors by hand. Other chores included making the beds, cleaning the dining rooms, restrooms, chapel and classrooms. If the chores were not done properly, the nuns punished the girls severely. These punishments ranged from sitting on their knees with their hands extended, sometimes with books added for extra weight. Then getting hit with a rod if they drop their hands. Of course there was the physical violence and assault, the daily harassment and the punishment of eating food off of the floor or eating the nun’s leftovers with insects in the food. The horrors even extended to sexual abuse. If you could only imagine the horror to my grandparents being aware of what was going on and the realization that they could not afford otherwise. There was NOTHING that they could do. All they could afford were a few phone calls and three visits within those two and a half to three long years.

Finally! The day came when my grandparents went to pick up their seven daughters, when they realized that they could only afford to bring back five! How does a parent choose who stays and who goes? What would you do? They had no other choice but to leave the oldest two sisters for another six months equaling three miserable years for them. Those six additional months were the worst from what I have heard as some stories I dare not tell.

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These are my interpretations based on each individual sister’s memories. I decided to show imagery of suffering children because these are the recollections of the seven sisters. There were no happy moments other than the day they left that horrendous place. I want the viewer to look at these images and question why these little girls are going through these unbearable events. I want them to care enough to dig deeper and become involved with the story. Close enough to be involved in the family, in this horror and realize that this was a true story of just one family’s struggle for the American Dream. Can you imagine all of the other stories that there are to tell? Imagine all of the other families? All of the struggles and sacrifices that have been made?

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My intention with Seven is to capture the viewer’s attention through a narrative of seven sisters. These seven oil paintings symbolize vulnerability, in that when an immigrant comes to the US there is always someone that is left behind to fend for themselves. There is never the surety that the person that has set off on that journey survives it. Or that the family that is left behind is just lavishly living life off of US un-taxed dollars. My family was lucky, even with enduring these horrors, other families...not so much. There are no guarantees and nothing is free…

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Dedicated to Familia Fernandez-Herrera and all of our predecessors & descendants to come...