Children in Exile

(colored pencil on paper)

This is a group portait of Guatemalan-Maya children living in refugee camps in Southern Mexico where I did my fieldwork in 1994. Many of them were infants or were born in the refugee camps and never have seen the Guatemalan highland communities of their families. When the collective return of exile communities began in 1994, many of them did not know what to expect. They had heard terrible things about the places their families had left. It took great courage from them and their families to return.

(scratchboard sketches)
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