La Esperanza, 2024, Multimedia, beadwork on printed background.
About the Work:
La Esperanza represents the Latino migrants who came to Dekalb to work in fruit canneries and in the fields harvesting fruits and vegetables. Though some companies, such as Del Monte, offered pay rates above minimum wage, many migrants still struggled with issues of inadequate housing and long exhausting work days. The center loteria tile is titled La Esperanza because despite the struggles migrants faced while working in the canneries, they still held out hope that they could provide better lives for their families. The tile is numbered 63 to represent the creation of the Dekalb County Migrant Ministry in 1963, which helped migrants form a community and helped them gain access to healthcare and education. The use of Loteria and the bright colors were used to represent a source of recreation and happiness within Latino communities, but also to show how much of a migrant’s life was taken up by work to provide happiness and stability for their families.
About the Artist:
Alyssa Romero is an Indigenous (Prairie Band Potawatomi/Ho-Chunk) and Latina artist from Illinois. She started to learn how to bead in 2020, and though it started as a way for her to make her own jewelry and regalia, she began to sell her beadwork at powwows and Indigenous art markets, which has since brought her closer to the Indigenous community and the Mexican art community. Currently, she’s an NIU student living in DeKalb, where she majors in Computer Science and minor in Latino Studies and History. Being a history lover and given that part of her family migrated to the Chicagoland area, she found the study of Latino migration both important and fascinating, which led her to research the arrival of Latinos in DeKalb.
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