Silk screened images, including migrating salmon, a map of the Americas, a road sign of a family running, and spiritual figures, form a grid across Sacred Jump. The image of the family fleeing, taken from Caution signs found along the highway in San Diego, is one which has appeared in a number of Jimenez Underwood’s works focusing on the U.S.- Mexico border and its crossing. The presence of La Virgen de Guadalupe and the Nahua god of the underworld, Mictlantecuhtli, add a sense of divine protection for these migrants, both human and animal.

The artist created this work in protest of the passing of California Proposition 187 a 1994 ballot initiative to establish a state-run citizenship screening system and prohibit illegal immigrants from using non-emergency health care, public education, and other services in the State of California. Voters passed the proposed law at a referendum on November 8, 1994