Julio Salgado

In 2010, a group of undocumented students protested in front of the Hart Senate Building in Washington, D.C., demanding the passage of the Federal DREAM Act. Julio’s activist role emerged after coming across the photograph in the Washington Post of Diana Yael Martinez, an undocumented student who was being arrested after refusing to leave the sit-in at the senate building.^[7] His anger with such treatment ignited the illustrations that were later used in the DREAM Act movement. He states, “I channeled all that anger into my sketchpad and I began to draw.”. Although Julio's use of art began as a refuge that saved him from his hardships,^[8] DREAM Act activists soon found themselves using them as weapons for rallies and campaigns.^[6] Salgado links his undocumented and queer identity in most of his artwork in order to put a face to the issue. Salgado explains, “In the past, one could see articles or interviews with a hidden face or an anonymous name. That would dehumanize the issue and by us coming out and saying we’re undocumented and unafraid, we’re putting a face to it."^[8] As a result, he has worked on multiple projects that give young undocumented and undocumented queers a chance to come out of the shadows and share their experiences. Salgado uses his art as a form of activism. He considers himself an "artivist".^[9]

Salgado began working on the “I am Undocu-Queer!” art project in 2012. With this project Salgado, in conjunction with the Queer Undocumented Immigrant Project (QUIP), “aims to give … undocumented queers more of a presence in the discussion of migrant rights”.^[10] The illustrations consist of images of actual young undocumented queer people who have chosen to come out of the shadows to define what it means to be both undocumented and queer.

In May 2012 American Apparel faced criticism due to a magazine ad that was published in the Summer of 2011. The ad features a young white female model linking arms with a dark-skinned Latino farm worker. The ad identifies the models as “Robin a USC student, studying Public Relations, with Raul, a California farmer in Denim and Chambray.” In an interview with ColorLines Salgado expressed his reaction: “My first thought was, this is so unrealistic…. what exactly is it that American Apparel is trying to say here? Is it, ‘See? There’s unity? We like you!’ That's not how it happens, and American Apparel has always used people, especially women, as objects. Were they just doing this to get on the undocumented wagon?”^[3]

Salgado created the “Undocumented Apparel” series as a reaction to the original ad by drawing real undocumented people that are part of his life. The images of the people are also “accompanied by an acidic quote contrasting their lives to American Apparel’s upwardly mobile clientele.”^[3] Like much of Salgado's previous work, the images turned into a form of homage for the people he knows.^[4]

In 2010 Salgado along with four friends – Jesus Iñiguez, Fernando Romero, and Deisy Hernandez – launched the nationwide media project DREAMers Adrift. The project features a series of videos titled “Undocumented and Awkward” that demonstrate through the use of comedy the predicaments in which numerous of undocumented students find themselves in throughout and after college. Salgado states that many of the situations that are acted out throughout the skits are situations that he has personally found himself in.^[11]

Salgado dedicates much of his art to the undocumented activists who are in the forefront of the DREAM Act movement. The images include messages in support of the DREAM Act, opposition to anti-immigrant bills, as well as messages of encouragement for undocumented people. Salgado also uses his art in order to raise awareness of deportation cases and the ways that people can take action in order to stop them. Much of his artwork is used in rallies all throughout the United States in support of the DREAM Act.^[10]

The “I Exist” collection specifically addresses the DREAM Act movement. The images in this collection demand the anti-immigrant discourse in mainstream media to humanize the language and treatment aimed towards undocumented youth. Salgado declares: “The language that anti-immigrant folks have used [aims to]…erase our identities or erase the fact that we exist here. So I wanted with my artwork kind of to say, ‘hey listen, I exist,’ [and] it's almost like a scream."^[9]