Why does P****ism need Mending?

I have never felt like a "patriot". Growing up, this was basically a dirty word.

My project grew out of wanting to share my experiences talking to people living on the US-Mexico border, to raise questions about what it means to be an active participant in your country's international relationships, and out of wanting to respond to the tribalism and exclusion that define our notion of patriotism. Especially after 9/11, American flags started popping up everywhere-- in one sense I thought they were supportive, and in another sense they baffled me. I have never felt very comfortable with flag-flying, because of the kind of patriotism I feel it suggests in certain contexts.

So after traveling to Agua Prieta I was just lying awake every night thinking about this, and realized I wanted to make my own flag that would send a message of alliance, and begin to express a patriotism that I am comfortable with.

I wanted a flag of my own. And I wanted a pride of my own, in a country of individuals that I understand to be doing their best to tackle difficult realities through engaging directly with them (-- and maybe even in ways that they enjoy!).

To me, a mended patriotism would ultimately be about involvement. It would be about reclaiming a participatory democracy, one where citizens (and residents) are engaged, feel powerful, and have the tools they need to stand up for the issues important to them.

"Mending" is a pretty, old-fashioned word, and my hope is that its use here hearkens back to a time when most Americans were more actively involved in the material stuffs of their lives and making use of the resources available to them.

Beyond this, there is a notion that historically, quilts have been used to mark safe houses, most notably on the Underground Railroad (some scholars debate this, but nevertheless it is part of our collective story). Along the border, these safe houses do exist, both literally and metaphorically.

How do allies identify themselves today?

Flag quilt on display at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, Oregon, 2013.

How Mending Patriotism Started

This is a site to document the celebrations, difficulties, and wonder of working on an ongoing art project dedicated to sharing the stories of border-crossing.

Mending Patriotism is primarily a quilting project. It began when I traveled to Mexico as a trip leader with the Woolman Semester School in Fall 2011 and Spring 2012.

These trips were intended to give high school students and the adults accompanying them the opportunity to meet people who live on the US-Mexico border, hear their stories, ask them questions, and walk the paths that many migrants crossing illegally walk. We also had the opportunity to visit border patrol stations, a migrant resource center, a permaculture-based community center, two maquiladoras (foreign-owned factories operating on the border), a drug rehabilitation center whose residents refill water tanks in the desert, and a fair-trade coffee shop working on economic justice for growers in Chiapas (yum).

All this was made possible by the excellent organization Frontera de Cristo, a Presbyterian border ministry with strong community support and incredible leadership. I continue to work with the remarkable team at Frontera.

On my second visit to Agua Prieta, Mexico -- which sits on the border next to the much smaller Douglas, Arizona -- I began to feel strongly that I wanted to share what I had seen and heard on the border with people who could not visit themselves.

I had also just really gotten into quilting. So when I saw all the clothing left behind in the desert, a natural idea was born.

I returned in the summer of 2012 to collect clothing from the desert and reconnect with some of the folks I had met. I then spent the following year making the first three quilts and beginning to share the stories in two workshops, which are participatory in nature.

Now, we are entering the next stage of the project. I am returning to Agua Prieta this summer to jump in and collaborate with new friends from there and to see what stories we will tell together, and what quilts!


Thank you for being a part of this project by witnessing and holding us accountable to these stories,

Juna

High school students hike the well-traveled paths to the border fence on a border education trip facilitated by Frontera de Cristo.