"La Caravana del Diablo" by Ada Trillo
On loan from The West Collection
On display in Shipley's Speer Gallery from December 1, 2024, to January 17, 2025.

About the Exhibit
Every day, thousands of people leave in processions from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador via Mexico for America because of flaring violence, murder (of women), and poor economic conditions in their own country. A journey covering hundreds of kilometers, often on foot, full of fear of being arrested and sent back. Some people even "disappear." Under the Trump administration, despite fierce opposition, "The Wall" was built to keep these immigrants out of "The Northern Triangle," making their passage into America even more perilous.

Photographer Ada Trillo considers it her mission to portray this distressing situation. In "La Caravana del Diablo" she doesn’t look away but confronts us. Ada shows that each of these thousands of migrants is a human being. A human being with a family, with fear, hope, and dreams.

Artist Statement
In 2018, I flew to Chiapas to join La Caravana as it took its first steps into Mexican territory. The members of the Caravan sought safety in numbers as they traveled 2,475 miles to reach Tijuana. To cover such a distance, migrants and asylum seekers traveled light, relying on donations and shelters for the food, water, clothing, and medicine they desperately needed. In November 2018, approximately 7,000 migrants reached the end of their journey as they arrived in Tijuana. Most stayed at the Benito Juarez shelter, a converted outdoor sports arena that was later closed for unsanitary conditions.

Their hope was that strength in numbers would protect them and possibly even persuade the US to open its doors. The opposite happened. Donald Trump declared a "National Emergency" and sent troops to the US/Mexico Border. Trump also threatened to cut humanitarian aid to Central America.

The people I met were parents, students, and children with hopes and aspirations of living free of fear. Many were fleeing extortion and death threats from gangs. Maria Fernanda, a clever young woman, disguised herself as a man to stay safe. Others were disabled and especially vulnerable to the dangerous journey north. Throughout Mexico, many everyday people showed empathy and solidarity with the Caravan by giving food, shelter, and fresh clothes to those making the journey.

My goal with these photographs is to document the plight and resilience of the refugees and migrants I traveled with from Chiapas to Tijuana. I am focusing on them as individuals with dignity and dreams, not as a mass of people. I want to expose the truth about who they are, the injustices they suffer, and all they have to offer both The United States and the world at large.

 

Ada Trillo is a New York-based photographer. Born and raised in the U.S/ Mexican border region of Juarez and El Paso, her work focuses on sex trafficking, climate, and violence-related international migration, and longstanding barriers of race and class. Her projects have been featured in international publications including The Guardian, Vogue, Smithsonian Magazine, and Mother Jones. Trillo's work is held in the Library of Congress, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and other institutional and private collections.

 

Her many awards include The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Fellowship, The Tokyo International Foto Awards (2019), a British Journal of Photography Female In Focus Best Series Award and The Me & Eve Grant from the Center of Photographic Arts in Santa Fe (2020). Trillo's images have been exhibited in the US, Japan, Luxembourg, Italy, England, France, and Germany. She holds degrees from the Istituto Marangoni in Milan, and Drexel University in Philadelphia.