Last week, social media was abuzz after French artist who goes by "JR" erected the cutout of a boy that stands nearly 65 feet tall peering over the USA border. A very powerful imagery.
Over the weekend droves of people were driving to the remote section of the wall near the Tecate border crossing, I was one of them.
When I first saw this image, the first thing I thought about is how much this baby resembled my 21 month old baby. I imagined the innocence and curiosity in this child, just the way I see it in my own.
JR met 1 year old Kikito and his mother in Tecate, Mexico when he was looking at doing this project. JR says that soon as he saw Kikito he knew this was the baby!
I knew I had to bring my 2 children to experience this beautiful art piece. Sunday night we woke up at 6:30 in the morning and after breakfast, by 8 am we were in the car on our way to the baby.
To me this installation symbolizes a child peeking over the American Dream in wonder of what he is capable of becoming if only given the opportunity. Driving through the deserted roads to get to this location made me think of my parents' personal journey to their American Dream.
I cannot explain the emotions I felt standing here, it is breathtaking; you don't know whether to feel pain or hope.
I am glad I took my children to see this in person. The installation will be here for 30 days, if you can drive down here, please do. Take your children, they also need to see this.
You can get the exact coordinates over at JR's instagram page.
Once there, we decided to cross the border to and have some tacos in Tecate. It was a beautiful Sunday.