La Franja explores the arbitrary nature of borders within the context of my Identity as a second-generation Mexican-American. Green paint was used to reference Francis Alys’s walking performance “The Green Line.” In this piece, Alys walks the entire demarcation line set out in the 1949 Armistice Agreements after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War with a leaking can of Green Paint. This line was drawn on a map with a green grease pen and when scaled up represents a strip of land 60-80 meters wide. 

La Franja translates to “The Fringe” and represents both this strip of land and the historical patterning that has existed on the margins since the colonization of the Americas. 

This work represents a personal narrative as a second-generation Chicano, and is an homage to the elaborate and diverse Latin American Craft-traditions before and after colonization.