After walking for months to escape danger in their home countries, Latin American refugees seeking the “American Dream” has been met by deportment, racism, and their families severed. Many were put on planes and given an American cheese sandwich, one of the most processed, commercialized, and symbolically “American” things in this country. In the #SueñoAmericano Series, images of sunrises and sunsets from Airplane windows are printed on a Kraft American Single and encased in a plexiglass window. These prints represent portraits of Latin American people being chartered back to their place of origin. In this work, I began questioning the reality of the “American Dream” and its false promises of acceptance and opportunity for all.
Lauren Cardenas is a Texas native and Mexican American studio artist focusing on print media. She is the Assistant Professor of Printmaking at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. She holds a BA in Painting, Printmaking, and drawing from Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX. She has completed the Tamarind Institute Printer training program and has an MFA in Visual Art from Washington University in St. Louis. Her artwork has been exhibited at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Des Lee Gallery, Open House Galleries, Granite City Arts and Design District in St. Louis, Ralph Arnold Gallery in Chicago, IL, The Luminary in St. Louis, MO, IPCNY New Prints Winter 2017. She was awarded the University of Nevada, Reno Black Rock Press Redfield Fellowship (2016-2018).