This Kansas City Artist Traveled 2,000 Miles To Report From The U.S.-Mexico Border

Over the last few weeks, as Kansas City artist Israel Garcia made his way through Texans' backyards to the barrier that divides the United States from Mexico, he imagined everyone in the neighborhood would be well-versed on immigration policy.

"My assumption was if this border fence is your backyard fence that you’d be completely informed. Like you knew the ins and outs, you knew the politics, you knew how it all works," the Mexico native says.

Instead, what he found on his recent 2,000-mile trek along the border, was that even people — from all demographics and political leanings — who stared at the fence every day were only repeating talking points from the news the way many people do in Kansas City.

Garcia, proprietor of Garcia Squared Contemporary in the Crossroads, hiked and drove along the border from late October through the second week of December with the help of a Rocket Grant from the Charlotte Street Foundation and the Spencer Museum of Art.

The artist wanted to have eyes on the situation so he could increase understanding of the migration, among Kansas Citians in general as well as in the particular immigrant community of which he’s a part.