Breaking and unveiling the immigration glossary of severalty

Breaking and unveiling the immigration glossary of severalty

Workshop with Se habla español
(Noelia Lecue Francia, María Alejandra Sáenz García,
Andrea Valencia Aranda, and Natalia Viera Salgado)
Saturday, March 24, 2018
3 to 6pm

[Image Description: The logo for curatorial collective se habla espanñol. In a circle outlined in black are the letters “S,'“ “H,” and “E” and an upside down equilateral triangle also in black. They are positioned in a clockwise order.]

Severalty was a participatory workshop organized by Se habla español, a collective of graduate students currently enrolled at the School of Visual Arts’ Masters in Curatorial Practice Program. Se habla español was conceived to investigate the nature of immigrant identity and the language surrounding it in the context of U.S. contemporary culture and media, exploring terms including: alien, border, brain drain, Dreamer, immigrant, Latino-Hispanic, national, refugee, and sanctuary city, among others. Developed to launch an ongoing collective project, Severalty functioned as presentation, participatory workshop, and discussion. The event brought together practitioners and experts from different disciplines and backgrounds - art, education, activism, and law - to reconsider the use and effects of immigration terminology in this political moment. Presenters and workshop leaders – Guadalupe Ruiz Fajardo, Gonzalo Guerrero, Patricia Rodriguez, Carla Stellweg, Denise Vivar, Coral N. Negron, Cinthya Santos Briones – took part in a non-hierarchical conversation.

Se habla español is comprised of Noelia Lecue Francia, María Alejandra Sáenz García, Andrea Valencia Aranda, and Natalia Viera Salgado, hailing from Spain, Colombia, Mexico, and Puerto Rico respectively, whose collective nationality and immigration status includes U.S. citizen, temporary worker, student visa holder, foreign born, and American, among others.