In the last 8 years, neocolonial corporations like LNG and SpaceX have moved into our home, salivating the borderlands for profit and ignoring local wildlife, vegetation, and marginalized communities. Just this month (September 2022) the SpaceX testing site on Boca Chica Beach, incited a large fire burning 68 acres of protected refuge land, destroying local wildlife and vegetation. This is not an isolated incident, it goes past the last 8 years of SpaceX operating in Boca Chica, where subsidies and tax breaks have been granted from Cameron County, and environmental state laws and policy protecting gulf waters have been bypassed. This also has a historical precedent in the region, in the form of recurrent colonization.
In response to the racial and environmental injustices happening in the Rio Grande Valley, fronterizas Nansi Guevara and Monica A. Sosa co-curated Nuestra Delta Magica: Settler Imaginaries & Community Resistance. Nuestra Delta Magica was a two-month-long exhibit that investigated untold South Texas history of land settlement and colonization as a precedent to current environmental neo-colonialism featuring the work of six border artists and cultural workers [see below]. The exhibition presents an opportunity to examine previous misconceptions, question harmful border narratives, and activate a space that will allow for community members to collectively craft, define, and redefine our own identities as fronteriza/o/xs.
Nuestra Delta Magica was hosted in downtown Brownsville, Texas from April 1 to June 1, 2023. The exhibit was free and organized into three sections: “Settler Imaginaries,” “Community Resistance’ and “La Delta Mágica.” These overarching themes examine the historical and modern impact of land exploitation and environmental challenges in South Texas.
“Settler Imaginaries” is a series of large archival images, articles, and academic writings that demonstrate the early 20th century colonizer gaze of the borderlands.
“Community Resistance” highlights the work of six border artists creating work in response to environmental colonization. Featured artists include:
“La Delta Mágica” is a collective imaginary where community members will have an opportunity to explore and respond to the exhibit, and the emotions and memories it evokes.
Nuestra Delta Mágica: Settler Imaginaries & Community Resistance is organized by Nansi Guevara and Monica Sosa, and is supported by the Anonymous Was a Woman (AWAW) Environmental Art Grants program in partnership with the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA).