Despite living in Mexico for a large portion of his childhood, James Rodriguez had never heard of Guatemala, a neighboring country of almost 17 million people.
Rodriguez later learned of the Central American nation in college while living in Southern California, where he moved to at the age of 14 — a change he believed helped define his life.
“I was like, ‘I can’t believe that I’m 20 years old and I’ve never heard of Guatemala,’” he said. “When I started hearing the facts … I found it fascinating, and that just sort of stayed in the back of my mind.”
Olivia Heersink | Argonaut
A woman views “Push Factors,” a photo exhibit depicting Guatemalan migration Tuesday at the Prichard Art Gallery.
In 2004, Rodriguez actually moved to Guatemala, working with Peace Brigades International as a human rights observer. He focused on post-war processes and social conflicts caused by extractive industries in the region — all of which he would later document with his camera.
Rodriguez returned to Guatemala two years later and started a blog where he published various photo essays. Soon, the project took on a life of its own, and organizations — such as Amnesty International, UNICEF and Oxfam International — offered funding.
“It’s not that my photography was so good, but it’s mostly that I realized there was a need for somewhat in-depth documentation of these issues,” he said. “There’s just too many pressures, and eventually, you have to survive. … There’s a lot more to truly understanding these migration problems — it’s really an accumulation of things.”
With help of Curators Without Borders, Rodriguez was able to create “Push Factors: Perspectives on Guatemalan Migration,” which features 20 images collected by himself, as well as photojournalists Rodrigo Abd and William B. Plowman.
The photographs were all taken in Guatemala during a 15-year period and installed in the University of Idaho Prichard Art Gallery last week.
Rodriguez said the collection focuses primarily on institutional violence and sociopolitical problems — poverty, genocide, gang violence and resource exploitation — stemming from the Guatemalan Civil War, which began in 1960 and lasted until 1996.
“To have to leave everything and go, it’s huge, and a lot of them disappear along the way,” he said. “So, I wanted to talk more than the usual narrative — you know, it’s violent, it’s poor. But why is it violent, why is it poor, why don’t we analyze the roots? … When you talk about deaths in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Argentina and Chile during the dirty wars, nothing compares to what happened in Guatemala. … There was actually a genocide.”
Roger Rowley, director of the Prichard, said he was first approached by UI professor Bill Smith about Rodriguez’s collection in August.
“I often have faculty come to me with things on relatively short notice, and usually it’s like, ‘Oh, God, here comes another one,’” Rowley said. “I told him to send me a link to his (Rodriguez’s) website. I went, and then it was like, ‘Yeah, we can do this.’”
Smith, who is also the director of the UI Martin Institute — which sponsors the exhibit — said he met Rodriguez in 1985 when he coached high school soccer in Southern California.
The two kept in touch long after Rodriguez graduated, allowing Smith to become familiar and keep up with his work.
“Photography is an interesting medium, in that it has to give you a connection to a topic without being invasive, and a lot of the photos James (Rodriguez) takes are pretty personal of the people involved, but there’s no sense to me of the voyeur,” Smith said. “I like what he’s done to bring what’s happening in Guatemala to light without being intrusive. … His photographs convey the complexity of migration, and what you have or what you might give up.”
It is the third time Rodriguez has shown the collection, which will remain in Moscow until Feb. 24. Videos and additional images by Rodriguez and Abd are also projected in the balcony galleries.
“You can write an academic paper, and there are books and articles on the issue, but photos are a way to really connect,” Rodriguez said. “These photographs are more than just a record, they stir emotions.”
Olivia Heersink | Argonaut
Community members discuss “Push Factors,” a photo exhibit depicting Guatemalan migration, with creator James Rodriguez Tuesday at the Prichard Art Gallery.
Since “Push Factors” was already curated, its journey to the Prichard was more feasible than Rowley had initially thought.
Rowley said he hopes the collection shows people “the notion that’s put forward popularly about the caravan of desperadoes out to come to America to rape and pillage has no basis in anyone’s reality.”
“They are not leaving their country, their birthplace just on a whim … they’re forced to look for a better life elsewhere,” he said. “The U.S. has been involved in the countries in the western hemisphere for more than a century. We’re as responsible for creating the conditions that exist in those countries as their own internal, body politic. We’re complicit environmentally, politically and militarily there.”
Rodriguez will give a gallery talk noon Thursday, which is free and open to the public. After seeing the exhibit, he wants viewers start asking more questions about why migrants are here, learning their stories along the way.
“I hope that this helps people have a clearer and more general and informed idea of the reasons why (individuals migrate) and how we can come up with solutions. … People want to start, but it’s just no longer sustainable,” Rodriguez said. “I find it very important to talk about. … Migration has always been at the core of my life.”
Olivia Heersink can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @heersinkolivia
To view more of Rodriguez’s work visit: http://www.mimundo.org.