In Joyful Act of Resistance, Pink Seesaws Installed at US-Mexico Border Fence

IN FOCUS, ANGLO AMERICA, LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN, COOPS-COOPERATION-SHARING, CURRENT AFFAIRS, 5 Aug 2019

Jenna McGuire – Common Dreams

“We are all connected.”

“The symbolism of the seesaw is just magical.” (Photo: Twitter/Channel 2 KWGN)

30 Jul 2019 – Two California professors built three pink seesaws on the U.S.-Mexico border to allow families to play together and to bring “joy, excitement, and togetherness” to both sides of the divide.

As The Guardian reported:

Installed along the steel border fence on the outskirts of El Paso in Texas and Ciudad Juárez in Mexico, the seesaws are the invention of Ronald Rael, a professor of architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, and Virginia San Fratello, an associate professor of design at San José State University, who first came up with the concept 10 years ago.

The wall installation quickly garnered praise on Twitter:

Art is such a powerful vehicle for change.

A beautiful installation at our southern border that reminds us that: “Actions that take place on one side have direct consequences on the other.”
We are all connected.
We are all one. 💚pic.twitter.com/NaREd5Vd7z

— RAICES (@RAICESTEXAS) July 30, 2019

Rael unveiled the seesaw installation in an Instagram post Monday.

“The wall became a literal fulcrum for U.S.-Mexico relations,” said Rael, “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.”

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Jenna McGuire is an editorial assistant in the Common Dreams newsroom.

Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.

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