Virgen de los Caminos

Consuelo Jimenez Underwood created Virgen de los Caminos (Virgin of the Roads) to reflect the struggles of Mexicans looking for opportunity in the United States. In the center of the quilt, she embroidered the Virgin of Guadalupe, to whom the travelers pray as they make the dangerous crossing. The barbed wire symbolizes the literal border between the two countries that separates insiders from outsiders, while the flowers at the corners refer to Mexican festivals and holidays. The word caution and the image of a running family appear throughout the background, but are stitched in nearly invisible white thread. Underwood added these details to suggest that undocumented immigrants are invisible in the eyes of United States citizens. (Yorba, Arte Latino, Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2001)