McAllen exhibit showcases artwork created by children seeking asylum

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McALLEN — A few dozen people wandered throughout Kreative Grounds Café Thursday, studying the displays by local artists on the walls.

Thursday marked the opening for some featured artists, including Thelma Lugo, an artist known as “M,” and Jimi Keirn, who recently debuted a 150-foot by 25-foot mural on a wall of American Freight Furniture titled “Oranges and Iron: The Rio Grande Legacy.”

As the people socialized and snapped photos of the art pieces, some meandered to the café’s flex room where a different set of artwork covered the walls of the modest room.

For a medium, crayons. For a canvas, simple sheets of paper. But the emotional charge behind the artists’ intentions arrested the attention of spectators.

The artists were children from migrant encampments in Matamoros and Reynosa who attended the Sidewalk School, an organization that offers education and other humanitarian services to asylum seekers near the Texas-Mexico border.

“There’s actually been 11 encampments altogether since 2019 between Matamoros and Reynosa,” Felicia Rangel-Samponaro, a cofounder of the Sidewalk School, said. “These are artworks that are from these young children who stay in these encampments.”

Children compelled to take the arduous journey from their home country to the border often experience trauma physically and emotionally. The Sidewalk School’s art therapy program provides an outlet to cope and heal.

Rangel-Samponaro said that part of the art therapy is prompting each child to draw how they got to the shelter. That is followed by another prompt in which the child is asked to draw what they would like to do when they get older.

Each set of drawings tells the story of migration through the eyes of a child.

One piece by a child named Gabriela, titled “Without Fear,” depicts a yellow house set before mountain peaks, a river and flowers.

“I left my country because of threats,” she wrote on the path leading into the house lined with flowers.

In her second drawing, she imagined a busy skyscraper-filled city and a little girl standing in front of it with the word “happy” written close to her. That was the home she hoped to have in the United States.

Another drawing depicts the Darién Gap between Colombia and Panama, a dangerous 60-mile stretch of forest that many migrants cross before entering Mexico which infamously takes many lives.

The piece, titled “Personal Migration Story” by a child named Samuel, shows a body he witnessed on the edge of a river while navigating through the rough terrain.

“The Darien Gap. I felt scared. Mexican refuge. I felt good. Destination United States,” the card under the drawings read.

“Usually they feel better just to kind of get it out,” Rangel-Samponaro said. “It’s really, really sad as an adult, and I have the words to say that. But a child can’t even express it with words. The drawings help them.”

Kris Karr, who owns Kreative Grounds Café, has used the coffee shop to promote local artists and showcase their work since opening just over a year ago. She said that Rangel-Samponaro reached out to her and pitched the idea of featuring the artwork of the young asylum seekers.

“I immediately felt like this was going to be a special exhibit because of the different stories by these kids who are seeking asylum,” Karr said. “I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into, but I said yes. And then once she brought the art and I looked through it, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is just amazing.’”

She hopes that patrons of her coffee shop will be able to empathize with the young artists and get a better understanding about the different kinds of journeys that each child has had to experience.

“We just want to spread some awareness as to what’s going on in our borders. I think that’s very important,” Karr said. “These people are humans, and they are wanting to find a place. They’re fleeing their country for whatever reason and they’re trying to come here for an opportunity.

“I think that it’s important just for us to realize that these are children, these are real people, and I think you can get a sense of that when you see the exhibit.”

Valerie Carbahal, 26, became emotional as she studied each of the drawings Thursday evening. She was born in McAllen, but spent much of her childhood living in Reynosa. She said that her family moved back to McAllen when she was 10 years old to escape the growing cartel violence that she witnessed first-hand.

“It’s amazing what they’re doing,” she said. “I didn’t know about the [exhibit] event. I just thought it was a gallery to just check out local artists. I was not expecting this today. It’s nice to expose it to the community, and especially McAllen because we’re so close to the border — especially after the election — just to make people aware of what’s going on especially to children, to immigrants.”

The artwork will be on display until January.

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