Immigration in the Visual Art of Nicario Jimnez Quispe

(Hardback)

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Art meets todays political debate over immigration in this beautifully illustrated exploration of Nicario Jimnez Quispes retablos.



This beautifully illustrated full-color book offers a unique depiction of the current immigration debate through the creative gaze of renowned Peruvian artist Nicario Jimnez Quispe, a recent immigrant to the United States. An internationally recognized maker of retablos, Jimnez is creating work that powerfully encapsulates the struggles, possibilities, and tragedies of immigration from the Global South to North America.

A decorative box with figures in the interior, the retablo in the Andes became a sort of magical-religious box designed to increase fertility among the herds owned by the local peasant population. These boxes served as a means of exchange in a cash-free, rural environment. Now reimagined by Jimnez, the retablo offers compelling insights into the bitter immigration disputes dividing our nation.

Reviews

The authors of this insightful book offer an original entry into the current immigration debate through the eyes and work of the renowned Peruvian artist/sculptor Nicario Jimnez Quispe. The images of Jimnezs retablos offer an innovative way of capturing the suffering of the displaced. This book is an inimitable contribution to the debate. -- Frank O. Mora, Florida International University
The Peruvian-born artist Nicario Jimnez is internationally recognized for his extraordinary, highly detailed retablos that address personal, traditional, religious, social, historical, and political events. This volume celebrates the art form by focusing on Jimnezs immigration retablos; from the harrowing scenes along the Mexico-US border to an emphasis on the accomplishments of immigrants once settled in the United States. Jimnezs art reminds viewers of the humanity of the demonized individuals escaping violence back home in hopes of securing a better future for themselves and their families. -- Marina Pacini, chief curator of the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art
The authors of this compelling work use Nicario Jimnezs art as visual testimonies of migration policies in the Trump era. Jimnez himself has been in continuous movement, locating himself in Ayacucho, Lima, and the rest of the world. Through his retablos, he vividly portrays what migration, uprooting, and displacement mean to the person who leaves and arrives in a new place of residencyhe shows the violence conveyed, the lived experiences, the hope. -- Mara Eugenia Ulfe, Pontificia Universidad Catlica del Per
Beautifully illustrated with Jimnez Quispes own work, and enhanced with insightful text by Damian, LaRosa, and Stein, Immigration in the Visual Art of Nicario JimenezQuispe should be read, admired, and imitated in terms of its rescue of and research into folk art and its evolution across the Americas. * Journal of American Folklore *

Author Bio

Carol Damian is professor of art history (retired) at Florida International University in Miami. Damian is the founding director (20082014) of the Frost Art Museum on the campus of FIU. Her specialty is Latin American and Caribbean art with a focus on colonial Andean art.



Michael J. LaRosa is associate professor of history at Rhodes College, Memphis. LaRosa, a specialist in modern Colombian history, has coauthored books with the Colombian historian Germn R. Meja, among others.

Steve Stein is professor emeritus of history at the University of Miami, Coral Gables. He has published widely on the contemporary history of Peru. His most recent work focuses on the history of wine and wine making in Latin America.