Artwork by Mark Vallen

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Ningun ser Humano es Ilegal
(No Human Being is Illegal)
Mark Vallen 1988. Pencil on paper
19.5" x 22" inches

My drawing was published as a bilingual street poster in conjunction with a 1988 drive conducted by the Los Angeles based Central American Resource Center (CARECEN), to secure the rights of undocumented Central American war refugees in the U.S. The 5,000 posters distributed popularized the slogan of "No Human Being is Illegal," a catchphrase that has since entered the lexicon of today's defenders of immigrant's rights.

To oppose the rising tide of discrimination aimed at the undocumented in the U.S., from Arizona's racist SB1070 anti-immigrant law, to efforts by members of the U.S. Congress to overturn the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (which guarantees citizenship to children born on U.S. soil), I republished my poster in August of 2010

By special permission, my drawing appears as the book cover of Lives in Limbo: Undocumented and Coming of Age in America. Written by Roberto G. Gonzales, an Assistant Professor at Harvard University Graduate School of Education, the book specifically focuses on the stories of immigrant Latino children and young adults who are caught in the Kafkaesque U.S. immigration system.

 
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