No, There Are No Longer Seesaws At The U.S.-Mexico Border

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On Saturday, California professors Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello placed bright pink seesaws on the border wall at Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas. The seesaws were fabricated in Juarez by a group of artists and the project was realized with help from Colectivo Chopeke, which focuses on bringing communities together through design.

“The seesaw demonstrates how those immediate relationships between people can create an environment where happiness and play are also important aspects of life on the border and that our relationships with our neighbors can extend past political relationships but also humanistic relationships,” the creators told me. “This is incredibly important at a time when relationships between people on both sides are being severed by the wall and the politics of the wall. The wall, and the unfortunate politics of the wall, not only separate countries, but regions, cities, neighborhoods, families, and more recently, the separation of children from their parents.”

On Monday, Rael shared the project on Instagram with the caption, “The wall became a literal fulcrum for U.S.-Mexico relations and children and adults were connected in meaningful ways on both sides with the recognition that the actions that take place on one side have a direct consequence on the other side.”

In another post showing video of the installation, Rael said, “The joy that was shared this day on both sides is something that will stay with me forever.”

The installation’s message has quickly spread across Instagram and social media, but just as quickly as the installation went up, it came down the same day.

According to a Customs and Border Patrol official, “There is no playground along the U.S.-Mexico border wall in New Mexico. On the evening of July 28, U.S. Border Patrol agents encountered a small group who identified themselves as local university faculty/staff at the border wall. They had placed boards through the wall and appeared to be playing with residents of Mexico while recording the engagement.  The group removed the boards and left the area without incident after it was established that there was no advance coordination. Agents ensured that no people/goods were crossed during the encounter.”

The original concept of the seesaw was thought up by Rael and Fratello in 2009 when alternative concepts for the border wall were being developed to tell the stories of the humanistic, cultural, and environmental challenges the construction of the wall presented. 

“The idea for the seesaw (originally called the Teeter-Totter Wall) suggested that the border is a literal fulcrum for the U.S.-Mexico relations and that building a wall severs those relationships,” the creators told me. The original 2009 drawings and models are now in the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The drawings and models tell a story of trade and labor balances, and how the actions on one side of the border have direct consequences on the other, according to Rael and Fratello.

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