UNCAGE/REUNIFY/HEAL QUILTS for

The Caravan for the Children Campaign

The quilt is considered a “quintessential American craft product”, they’re considered ordinary and familiar, but making a quilt is a tender act. It is a symbol of both comfort and remembrance. Too often we are presented with images of children at the border being ripped from their mothers arms, running from tear gas, or laying on concrete floors wrapped in mylar blankets to keep warm. These quilts, which take inspiration from the AIDS Memorial Quilt displayed at the National Mall in Washington DC in 1987, stitch together voices from across the United States with a relationship to the border to call attention to the missing migrant children. Instead of offering more images of state-sanctioned violence and trauma, the quilt  offers different voices and perspectives on healing, joy, and resistance and acts as a call to action for the Biden-Harris administration to uncage the children, reunify families, and collectively heal. 

Special thanks to the poets and writers who contributed their words to the quilts: Flavia Elisa Mora, Ceiba Ili, Dulce Preciado, Oswaldo Vargas, Ruben Reyes Jr. , Kevin Madrigal, Freddy Jesse, Mica Miragliotta, and Edyka Chilome.