Hilos and the Unraveling of Borders in the Work of Consuelo Jimenez Underwood

"Consuelo Jimenez Underwood is a maestra de hilo (thread master) who uses her work to map a way back home for Xicanx peoples, who are descendants of Indigenous communities across Mesoamerica and the U.S. Southwest. Her work reckons with the complexity of borders while revitalizing, reconnecting, and bringing forward Xicanx Indigenous knowledge, practices, and relationships to the earth. Like many U.S. Latinx people, Jimenez Underwood has experienced a lifetime of fragmentation caused by the creation of the U.S.–Mexico border. Although she was born in California, she grew up experiencing family separation because her father was born in Mexico.2 At an early age, she was aware that the US–Mexico border was not natural and that it only served as a marker of the colonial project, which sought to erase Indigenous memory and bodies across time and space. Whether it is on a wall or a textile, the artist uses hilos to abolish borders." - Gila Posada