So I did my Short of the South Phoenix "Mexican Ghetto" today, and y will say I was shocked. It was a complete reality check. While I never felt threatened or scared in the area, I felt uneasy knowing that the City of Phoenix actually had something like this and to let a section of their city be like this...and build it up to be like this, and that there is really a true separation in this country, not of just the "haves and have nots" but also that stereotypes and racism is REALLY something that happens on a everyday basis, and that what I considered "bad" from what I had been exposed to really makes me feel like I have been VERY lucky and privileged in my up bringing and the way that I live. Yes, I am half Hispanic, but this is...this I hope, will touch everyone, not those who have ties to the Mexican Community.
This church, with a image of Guadalupe painted on a wooden panel on the door, is like the rest of the area that this is located in, with bars on the doors and windows, but it is still in constant use every Sunday at two times a day, at 7am and 10:30am. The church is in need of repair, but because of the area of the city it is in, this church, which is one of the nicer buildings in the Ghetto, the building too will eventually fall apart and be a shame like the rest of the neighborhood, unless the community acts as one and comes together for their religion.
An unnamed liquor store in the Mexican Ghetto, with advertisements on the outside which is the only way to know that this building is actually open and active, is otherwise unmarked. The store clerk sits inside a plexiglass cage with only a small slit between the glass and the counter to feed money through. The boy coming out of the store was exactly that, a boy, no more than 15 years old by looks, seemed familiar with the store as he was able to walk freely in, stay for several minutes before he walked out and disappeared a few blocks away as he turned a street corner.
Blankets, broken bottles, clothing and other trash lay on the ground along side a double fence which separated the "Mexican Ghetto" from the nice area of South Phoenix, with a half block of space between the two fences which resembles a "no man's land". The fences were several blocks long in length. The fences' only apparent purpose was strictly to have a a physical boarder between the ghetto and the rich area, so the rich area can "ignore and forget" the reality of just a half of a block away at the least.
The "road ends here" barrier lay fallen and broken in a manner which looked like it has been in this shape for some time. This warning is a city responsibility to maintain and replace. However, as any viewer can see, this simply is not the case. The City of Phoenix has seemed to forgotten about this area, an area that pays taxes, votes, works, and is trying to live out the "American Dream" in one fashion or another. This with the two Walls and the No Man's land were only a few blocks from each other. It begs the question addressed to the city in "why?"
All of these photos will be in my MFA Thesis for SCAD, and it enforces my points and thoughts in the reasons why I am doing this project in the first place.