For a few days last month, a bus stop at the corner of Atlantic and Whittier boulevards in East L.A. looked a little different. Instead of just a bench and a schedule, the stop was decorated with hand-cut papel picado that read “NO ICE.”
The art installation, called “A Healing Stop,” was the work of East L.A. resident Samantha Nieves, a social praxis artist and student at Whittier College (Nieves is a former Boyle Heights Beat contributor). It was created to provide a space for community members to engage in conversation about how they’re feeling in response to recent immigration activity.
“We recognize that Whittier Boulevard has been under attack. La migra has been attacking our community members, kidnapping them at bus stops,” Nieves said. “This is a response.”
Fellow East L.A. artist Teresa Flores joined in to create the art space, setting up a table with cutouts of leaves and butterflies where people could write notes.
“For everything that our culture is going through, we’re still enduring and we’re still thriving. So we find ways to make art. We find ways to be together, to make things beautiful, to find joy, and that’s what keeps us hopeful,” Flores said.
For three days in August, community members stopped to take a look or sat down to smell the flowers that were wrapped along the bus stop. Some notes were taken home by visitors, while others were left behind.
Messages included:
“I wish everyone a beautiful and safe day every day”
“La lucha sigue.. Si se puede!”
“No mas migra! Fuera con Trump!”
Although the installation is now gone, the conversations it sparked still matter.
“We need to be talking to each other about what’s going on right now and finding ways we can support each other,” Flores said. “If that means setting up at a bus stop and talking with people one on one, that’s going to make a lot of difference.”
Nieves said community members have told her they’ve seen emptier streets. Bus drivers mentioned seeing fewer regulars on their routes.
“I definitely heard a lot of folks say that they feel fear… but they continue to be out here because they really have no other choice, because they need to make a living. They need to sustain their health,” Nieves said.
For Nieves, reclaiming public spaces like this bus stop is important.
“We’re on a sidewalk that we taxpayers pay for, and this is unincorporated East L.A. as well. So I really want to challenge the ways in which we use public spaces to take our agency back and have these conversations,” she said.
