The Architecture of Inequality Part II

The photo above is famously known as Gulliver's Travels. During my Catalyst trip to Chicago, we visited the famous murals in the Latino neighborhood and came across this one. Our guide, Jose, explained to us with pride why the artist decided to do what he did. For example, in the mural you can see that the man is being held down by wires like they were being treated as prisoners and not having the freedom to do what they want. The wires not only symbolizes their freedom but also the laws that they had to abide by. Jose added on and said that when they first came into the U.S., they felt like how the Jews did back in the Holocaust due to the Star of David that they had to wear. He said their situation was similar in ways that when the Latino's wanted to go somewhere they had to carry an ID with them just to prove that they were a citizen in the U.S. Although you can't see the feet, at the end of the feet were footprints that the artist painted to show that wherever they went they had to prove their identity by stamping their finger prints onto paper as their signature, why he emphasized the prints at the feet? A question I wouldn't be able to answer myself. Moreover, the mask represented how the Latino's were as a human being, hidden. In my opinion, they felt closed out and hidden to their society, like no one heard them or cared to listen about how they felt as a citizen. Also, the pants that the man is wearing is not neat and clean but dirty and torn because of their hard work and effort to support their loved ones. Adding on, the picture was very interesting because no matter where you are or where you walked the eyes of the man would follow you. I'm not sure if the Latino's felt like they were always being watched but the eyes had a look of not pity but sadness and worries.

In addition, he explained to our group in great detail how the Latino's felt coming into the U.S. and their perspective as being the "outsiders." It was really interesting because their neighborhood was small enough that mostly everyone knew one another. When we walked the streets, Jose told us to also greet those who walked pass us so they wouldn't feel scared that we were Realtor's who were trying to buy their homes. Since our group was so big and we looked so different from them, people from all over that walked passed us would turn and look our way. There was a time when Jose was explaining to us about a mural of the neighbors and he stopped to see that some people in the neighborhood was eyeing us, I personally felt uncomfortable and thought to myself hoping that they didn't think we were Realtor's. Jose said to them in Spanish that we were students there because we wanted to learn about their culture and murals, after that they gave us reassuring smiles and welcomed us with their hello's and hand waves which made me felt more at ease and I smiled back exchanging hello's. Below are more pictures of some murals we saw.