From The Eyes Of Babes: Asylum Kids Create Art Of Horrors

TUCSON, AZ — Thousands of migrant children are using art and the written word to tell their unvarnished truths about what they experienced living in cages in government-run detention centers along the U.S. southern border.

Children as young as 5 and as old as 15 in an art therapy program in Tucson were told to depict what they loved, and many drew brightly colored rainbows, flowers and butterflies in crayon.

Other pictures, though, came from a darker place.

Among the most haunting: A 15-year-old boy from Guatemala expressing that while God didn’t abandon his family, others never made it to the United States.

“The dream of many fallen, tortured, kidnapped, may they rest in peace,” he wrote.

The stark canvases and smudged notebook paper provide a body of work that transforms the blissful naïveté of children into the intriguing complexity of art, all displayed in a brutally honest gallery of horrors both seen and felt.

The kids’ art as seen: Drawings that depict a life lived among open-air toilets, steel bars from the east horizon to the west, from Earth into heaven, the murder of relatives, stench.

And the kids’ art as felt: A drawing as simple as it is honest shows a winged heart, broken in half. The two pieces are separated by teardrops.

Another child wrote a poem recalling the sound made by the thermal blankets given to children at government detention centers. It is titled "The Sound I Remember."

“In the jail — the sound of the aluminum sheets — every time someone moved
it sounded
like a storm.”

Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik said hundreds of people have viewed the “Hope & Healing: The Art of Asylum at the Monastery” exhibit at his Ward 6 office since it opened in early July.

"They're reacting exactly how people should react," Kozachik told Patch. "When they look at these pictures, they recognize every one has been drawn by a child who within days has been in a detention center, and who within weeks has been crossing Mexico either by foot, or under the umbrella of a trafficker or a coyote.

"They can see the grief and the trauma," he continued. "People are seeing the stark reality of what these kids have been through."

Big, wide-open eyes in many of the drawings signify all the children have seen, said Valarie Lee James, the activity and arts coordinator for Casa Alitas, a program of Catholic Community Services that assists migrants living at the former Benedictine Monastery in Tucson.

“You are able to see through the child’s eyes what they have seen,” James told Patch. “You see the whole range of the human experience, the beauty and the hope — and you see the broken parts.”

Art therapy helps both the children and adults at Casa Alitas heal from the experiences of the past months.

“Even though they are oftentimes drawing what they left behind, they are remembering what they love,” James said. “These images give them great peace and a real sense of calm — some respite from all the chaos of family displacement.”

When the children are at canvases and sketch pads, their postures loosen. Their lips part in smiles. Their breathing patterns change.

“You can really see it in their faces and bodies,” James said. “The sense of relief when the kids and parents come into the arts and activities room is palpable. … They’re so happy to draw and paint to their heart’s content.”

The families living at the monastery come mainly from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Others have come to Casa Alitas from Brazil, Russia and, James said, from all over the world.

“All kids have trouble expressing their feelings verbally, and many don’t have a lot of language skills yet,” James said. “Many don’t speak Spanish, but an indigenous dialect.”

Art is the universal language that connects them.

Kids Felt Like Criminals In Jail

Humanitarian agencies like Catholic Community Services are increasingly using art therapy to help migrant children work through all the trauma they’ve experienced during their short lives.

Some migrant children’s artwork could eventually be included in an exhibit at the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History, which documents the “complex and complicated history of the United States as it unfolds.”

The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general earlier this month detailed unhealthy and filthy conditions, inadequate food, and inadequate access to showers at several U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities in the Rio Grande Valley. The report showed adults were crammed so tightly into cells that they had to stand for days, and women and children slept on the ground under Mylar blankets.

Some of those conditions were made all the more stark by the artwork of children who experienced them.

In one drawing, “there are no people, just these toilets,” said Cathy Malchiodi, the author of “Understanding Children’s Drawings,” describing one picture to The Associated Press. “My guess is maybe the smell was the dominant thing.”

Dr. Sara Goza, incoming president of the Academy of Pediatrics, told The AP the organization released photos of the drawings, made by children now sheltered at a Catholic Charities Humanitarian Center in McAllen, Texas, to drive home the point that children shouldn’t be in Border Protection custody. The group’s Immigrant Health Special Interest Group maintains the facilities are unhealthy and unsafe for children.

Many of the children feel as if they are in jail, like criminals, the pediatricians' group said.

One child’s drawing showed five stick figures sleeping on the floor under blankets. Guards watched two exit doors. Another child drew frowns on stick figures, standing before what appeared to be a chain-link fence.

“It was a visual of what the children felt happened to them. It affected us," Goza told The AP. "They are living in those cells, cages. That's what was on their mind when they were drawing."

The inspector general’s report, which describes the situation at detention facilities as “a ticking time bomb,” was cited by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, a pediatrician who formerly served as the president of Chile.

Bachelet said many migrants and refugees set off on "perilous journeys with their children in search of protection and dignity and away from violence and hunger.”

"When they finally believe they have arrived in safety, they may find themselves separated from their loved ones and locked in undignified conditions," she continued in a statement. "This should never happen anywhere."

The American Academy of Pediatrics has been involved in ongoing discussions with Border Protection authorities on how to best screen and care for migrant children in U.S. custody. Kevin McAleenan, a CBP commissioner and now the acting Homeland Security director, had requested meetings late last year after two children died in detention centers.

Now, seven children have died in U.S. custody since last year.

Raw Emotion In Drawings

Kozachik, the Tucson councilman, said that while the drawings show raw emotion and the vulnerability of children who drew them, he's not convinced the "Art of Asylum" exhibit is changing many minds.

"I think the lines are drawn in this really poisoned political environment, and the people who are inclined to simply say 'send them home' aren’t even going to come in and look," he said. "But for the people who have been drawn to the monastery and have a heart for refugees, these drawings affirm their conviction and commitment to taking care of them."

The exhibit continues at Kozachik's office at 3202 E. First St. Free to the public, it runs through Aug. 31 and is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The exhibit is sponsored by Casa Alitas and the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona.

Of these resilient children, James, the curator of the exhibit, said:

“These kids are just amazing. They’re well-behaved, really studious and incredibly creative. They’re kids you would want to have for your own kid. It seriously is an honor to do this.”

More On The Tucson 'Art Of Asylum' Project

See more of the children’s artwork on Instagram.
Read more about the art therapy program on James’ blog.
Read more about Casa Alitas.

All copyright photos from Valarie Lee James/Casa Alitas used with one-time permission.