Mural in Fresno, CA (Image provided by US Childhood Arrivals mural project)

Dr. Lizbeth De La Cruz Santana is an interdisciplinary scholar whose work centers on digital storytelling, testimonial literature, diaspora studies, and 20^th– and 21^st-century Mexican, Mexican-American, and Chicano/a literature and culture. She is currently leading the US Childhood Arrivals Mural project, which features the stories of young adults who grew up undocumented in the United States. This includes their experiences navigating the educational system, becoming organizers and professionals, thoughts on the DREAMer narrative and American dream, finding support, and much more. Each portrait in the mural includes a QR code that allows passersby to learn about the story it features. The mural is now installed in two cities: Fresno, California and New York City. There is also a mini-documentary documenting the process of installing the mural. Over the years, Dr. De La Cruz has worked to merge art, scholarship, and activism through her projects, including the Playas de Tijuana mural, which features the portraits of 15 young adults on the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico border fence.

At My Undocumented Life, we had an opportunity to interview Dr. De La Cruz Santana about her work. We thank her for responding to our questions via e-mail.

1. What inspired you to create the US Childhood Arrivals Mural project?

The US Childhood Arrivals Mural project was born out of both personal conviction and years of immersive engagement with migrant communities through the Humanizing Deportation project. As a scholar and public artist, I have spent nearly a decade documenting the deeply layered stories of individuals who arrived in the United States as children—what we often refer to as “childhood arrivals.” These are stories shaped by migration, adaptation, exclusion, resistance, and above all, the effects of illegalization and deportation. Yet too often, these narratives remained buried in academic archives or fragmented across policy debates, inaccessible to the very public that needed to witness them.

The mural emerged as a way to give these stories new life—off the page, beyond the screen, and into the public sphere. By combining large-scale portraiture with embedded QR codes that link to full digital testimonies, the mural invites viewers into an interactive and reflective encounter. It turns sections of the Mexican side of the U.S.-Mexico border and walls in the interior of the U.S. into portals of migration memory, where art meets research, and testimony becomes public pedagogy. This methodology bridges scholarship and activism, allowing the stories of undocumented youth not only to be told but also to be seen, heard, and felt.

Rooted in a long-standing commitment to community-engaged art, this project follows in the footsteps of previous work such as the Playas de Tijuana Mural—a powerful installation that brought the faces and voices of deported U.S. childhood arrivals to the steel border fence itself. That experience deepened my belief in the power of public art to interrupt dominant narratives and carve space for migrant knowledge in the visual landscape.

With the US Childhood Arrivals Mural, I sought to create more than just a visual tribute—I wanted to cultivate a multi-sensory, collaborative environment where reflection, recognition, and resistance could coexist. The decision to install the mural in both Fresno, California, and New York City was intentional: it signaled a bi-coastal dialogue about undocumented life, about the generational experiences of those raised American but denied legal belonging, and about the politics of visibility and deservingness.

An essential part of this vision was the integration of student collaborators. My decision to involve students in the creation of this new mural was deeply influenced by their meaningful engagement with the El Paso del Norte Mural, a previous mural we painted in the spring of 2024. In that experience, I witnessed their commitment, their sensitivity to the subject matter, and their openness to understanding the complex realities of migration. Their ability to approach the work with care, creativity, and critical insight gave me confidence that I would not be working alone—I would be joined by engaged allies who truly cared for this work. Their participation transformed the mural-making process into a shared act of witness and co-authorship.

In essence, this mural is not only an archive brought to life—it is a public conversation in motion, an open invitation to see current and former undocumented youth not as political abstractions, but as individuals with voices and full lives worthy of dignity.

2. What do you hope community members will walk away with after seeing the mural and reading the stories featured in it?

Located in Bushwick, New York, and Fresno, California, the US Childhood Arrivals Murals transform urban walls into vibrant storytelling canvases—inviting passersby not just to look, but to feel, reflect, and amplify. These are not simply murals to be admired from a distance; they are immersive, meaning that visitors are welcome to touch the portraits as a symbolic way to feel the textures of the portraits and stories. The interactive spaces are designed to pull viewers into the emotional and political landscapes of undocumented youth who grew up in the United States.

Painting session (Image provided by US Childhood Arrivals mural project)

At the heart of the project is a commitment to disrupting the oversimplified, sanitized DREAMer narrative that has dominated public discourse. Rather than flattening these experiences into a singular story of exceptionalism or innocence, the murals offer layered, complex portraits of real people—their struggles with legality, their triumphs in education, their heartbreaks, hopes, and ongoing resistance. Each face painted on the mural is accompanied by a QR code, inviting viewers to scan and hear these individuals speak in their own words, through testimonies drawn from the Humanizing Deportation archive.

This integration of digital storytelling with public art turns the mural into a living, breathing archive—one that evolves with each person who engages with it. The goal is not just passive observation, but active empathy: to move beyond statistics and headlines and into intimate narratives that illuminate what it means to grow up undocumented in a country that both raised and has yet to recognize you legally.

In doing so, the project seeks to humanize and localize a national debate, reminding viewers that these are not distant political subjects—they are our neighbors, students, coworkers, friends. They are part of the social and cultural fabric of our communities, even as policy continues to deny them permanent protections or a clear path toward legal status.

Crucially, the murals are created with the hope that people who share similar experiences—those who arrived in the U.S. as children, who have navigated life without legal status, who have faced separation, deportation, or the constant threat of it—can see themselves reflected in these walls. Their stories, too often erased or politicized beyond recognition, deserve not only visibility but validation. The mural is a mirror as much as it is a monument: a space where those impacted can recognize the power in their voice.

Ultimately, the murals aim to spark dialogue, cultivate belonging, and inspire civic engagement. By making these stories visible in public space, the project challenges us to consider: What kind of country are we, if we continue to celebrate immigrant stories only through symbolic gestures, without the structural change that their dignity demands? It is a call to action—to listen more deeply, to question more critically, and to advocate more urgently for the lives behind the labels.

3. Given the current political climate, and thinking more broadly about your work (including the Playas de Tijuana project), what do you hope people understand about immigrants and immigration more generally?

The murals created through the Painting the Archive initiative, including the U.S. Childhood Arrivals Mural, are more than just public art—they are monuments of memory, resistance, and truth-telling. In a time when immigration policy is volatile and deeply politicized—when programs like DACA remain precariously suspended and anti-immigrant rhetoric continues to inflame public discourse—these murals stand as visual declarations that immigrant lives are not up for debate. The murals invite the public to see immigration not as a distant issue reserved for legislative chambers, but as a lived reality affecting the people around us.

At the heart of this work is a commitment to shifting the public narrative—to decenter institutional voices and amplify those who have long been excluded or silenced. The murals call on us to recognize migrants not as problems to be solved, threats to be contained, or passive subjects of research, but as storytellers, memory-keepers, and knowledge producers. They hold histories, they craft visions, they shape the cultural fabric of this country.

This approach builds on my broader artistic and scholarly practice, which is rooted in the belief that public scholarship must be accountable to the communities it serves. Through projects like the Playas de Tijuana Mural—where the faces of deported youth were painted directly onto the U.S.-Mexico border fence—I have sought to create interruptions in dominant visual landscapes, moments that make people pause, confront, and reflect. These murals resist erasure by inscribing marginalized voices directly onto the walls that often symbolize their exclusion.

Ultimately, Painting the Archive is not just about preserving stories—it’s about activating them. It is about making sure these stories are not buried in bureaucratic files or academic journals, but are brought into the public square, where they can shape our understanding of who U.S. childhood arrivals are. In a nation still wrestling with who deserves to legally belong, these murals invite audiences to understand that their stories are not peripheral to the American experience—they are the American experience.

4. Lastly, thinking about your own educational trajectory, what advice would you give to readers who may be interested in pursuing a career in art and digital storytelling?

Mural in New York City (Image provided by US Childhood Arrivals mural project)

My advice to aspiring artists, storytellers, and cultural workers is to lean into the personal and the political. Your lived experiences—your memories, your questions, your contradictions—are not distractions from your creative or scholarly work; they are its richest foundation. Embrace reflexivity not as an academic exercise, but as a daily practice of grounding, questioning, and growing. Whether it’s through maintaining an audio-visual diary, journaling, or capturing moments through photography and sound, find ways to chronicle your journey. These tools don’t just document your process—they illuminate your path, helping you navigate the emotional and ethical terrain that comes with deeply engaged work.

Stay rooted in your values. Let them be your compass, especially when navigating institutions or disciplines that may not always affirm your perspective or approach. Seek out interdisciplinary spaces—where activism meets art, these are the spaces where transformative work flourishes.

And above all, prioritize relationships. No project, no matter how well-funded or technically brilliant, will be meaningful if it isn’t grounded in trust and mutual care. Listen deeply to the communities you collaborate with. Don’t just gather their stories—walk alongside them. Let their insights and visions shape the work from the inside out. Ask yourself often: Who is this for? Who gets to tell the story? Who benefits from the telling?

Projects like the US Childhood Arrivals Mural don’t grow in isolation. They are woven through collaboration, built on respect, and sustained through accountability. Responsible storytelling is not simply about “giving voice” to the silenced—it’s about creating platforms, stepping back, and ensuring that what is created reflects the hopes, truths, and complexities of the people whose stories are being told.

Let your work be a bridge between disciplines and between communities. And remember, art can do more than represent reality—it can reshape it. Storytelling, when done ethically and with heart, is not just a method of documentation. It is a powerful tool for justice, connection, and change.

Lizbeth is an interdisciplinary scholar and artist whose work blends digital storytelling, migration studies, and public humanities. Her projects center the voices of migrant communities and aim to make scholarship accessible and impactful beyond academic spaces. She leads collaborative initiatives like the U.S. Childhood Arrivals Mural and contributes to the Humanizing Deportation archive. Lizbeth is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Black and Latino Studies at Baruch College, City University of New York.

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Categories: Get involved

Tags: art, Immigration, mural, undocumented