Adam Hernandez aims to uplift immigrant workers with his latest mural

Earlier this year, as Columbus artist Adam Hernandez worked on a mural at the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority, he and a collaborator watched as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid unfolded at an adjacent apartment complex.

“And at first, my friend and I, we were up on the lift, and we thought they were gunshots, so we were ducking down like we might catch a stray or something,” Hernandez said. “We literally saw them breaking the windows and shooting in canisters of tear gas. … And after SWAT stormed the building, the ICE agents showed up, and it was just really heavy and visceral. … And then there was this fear, because I was like, what if they decide to sweep the area and check people? And maybe that’s extreme, but you get those thoughts. What if they come to me [and ask], ‘What’s your last name? Hernandez? Hmm, let me see your papers.’”

The experience intensified the low-level anxiety Hernandez said he had been feeling in the aftermath of last year’s Ohio ICE surge, dubbed Operation Buckeye, which has led him to navigate his surroundings with his head on a swivel in the months since. “You’re definitely more aware when law enforcement is around,” said the artist. “It puts you on edge, and it’s definitely surreal. And we’ve learned about these things, which is what makes it so crazy to me. For folks who are American and have been educated in the same education system as me, how do you not see the signs? How do you not see when else this has happened in history? … Are you really this cold-hearted that you don’t care that this is tearing people’s lives apart?”

Hernandez said the issue of immigration enforcement began to feel more pronounced in the months leading to Operation Buckeye, born of his converstions with others in the local art community whose immigration statuses left them more vulnerable. “And I saw how they began to make certain choices based on that, not pursuing certain art opportunities or even going into hiding to an extent,” he said. “And it was like, what the fuck, man? These are good people who are part of our community.”

As a result, Hernandez began to look for opportunities to more explicitly address these realities in his own work, leading to his latest mural, located at 1014 Parsons Ave. and dubbed “We the People/Nosotros la Gente,” which will have its public unveiling from 4-5 p.m. on Thursday, June 11. Created in partnership with Central Ohio Worker Center and the Nook/JPS Print Shop, the mural features nine Black and Brown figures representative of the types of workers Hernandez described as common to the surrounding blue-collar South Side neighborhood, including auto mechanics, restaurant employees, and one cell phone-wielding person who serves as a stand-in for the area’s nonprofits.

Each figure is also depicted wearing a mask – long a hallmark in Hernandez’s work – though the artist presents these in a more subdued, humanistic form than he has in the past. “I haven’t always been the most confident person, and you can lose yourself a little bit when you put on one of the masks, almost as if you can channel the power of this creature,” Hernandez said in 2020 of the animalistic face coverings he deployed as a means to represent strength and fearlessness

“And with these, I wanted them to look like masks, with the idea being that what we do for work doesn’t define us as people, but I also wanted them to look human,” said the artist, who drew upon decades spent researching the culture around masks and the different purposes for which face coverings have been adopted throughout human history. “I wanted to remind people of our ancestry and where we come from, and that there’s power in that. Just because you’re out here grinding, working, maybe feeling like you’re just trying to figure it out, you have your ancestors inside you, and they did a lot to get you here. And now we have to carry the torch for those who come after us.”

Hernandez conceptualized early drafts of the mural on his iPad, initially playing around with incorporating the text “We the People” in a variety of languages before stripping things back to focus on the characters, which he said were designed as a means to “show Black and Brown people in a beautiful and powerful way.” 

“Even though I feel this way, I didn’t want [the mural] to be like, ‘Fuck ICE,’” said Hernandez, who also didn’t want to shy from making a more pointed political statement. “I feel like my work always has a hidden symbolism, but obviously with everything going on in America right now, I wanted to be a lot more direct. … I don’t know. Sometimes I have these moments where I get discouraged, where I’m like, ‘What’s the point of all this? I’m just painting stupid pictures on a wall. Is it even making a difference?’ But I think it is. And I think showing working people, and specifically minorities and Latin people, I think it’s challenging the normalization of ICE coming in and removing people. It’s letting people know we’re still holding these people in a place of honor in our community.”