Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
Juan R. Fuentes included Araiza in a portfolio wherein each artist chose a poem to accompany their print. Araiza chose a poem by Elba Rosario Sánchez in which she uses a Nahuatl word for broken pottery as a metaphor for the history of colonialism.
A Mayan artist, Araiza uses grim imagery reminiscent of the Mayan Codices, particularly in the central panel. Created during the early part of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, print depicts George W. Bush with bat wings and Mickey Mouse ears, military torture, and a sado-sexual church. Araiza’s dark humor and cartoonish folk imagery gives a lightness of spirit to an otherwise gruesome scene.