The graphic novel, "we used to move through the city like doves in the wind" is about a couple separated by the COVID border closure. The Tijuana-based artist will open a solo exhibition at The Hill Street Country Club in early 2022.
The first two pages of writer, poet and artist Celesté Hernández's recent graphic novel, "we used to move through the city like doves in the wind," feature the familiar loops of barbed wire along a fence with the words "March 2020. Tijuana, B.C."
We know where this is going: the pandemic. On March 20, 2020, the U.S.-Mexico border closed due to COVID-19 and would remain closed until earlier this month.
The book is about Hernández's own experience with her partner, both stuck on opposite sides of the border: Hernández in Tijuana, and her partner Neville in San Diego. More than a pandemic story, it's a love story, about devotion as much as it is loneliness and separation, as well as the inequality of the border closure.
"During the first three months, we had no idea U.S. citizens were allowed to cross," Hernández said from her house in Tijuana last week.
"How do you explain to someone, well the border is closed but also some people are affected by it — a lot of people are affected by it — but a lot of other people in Tijuana are not," Hernández said. "But for people like me who have Mexican citizenship and have friends or family over there or even like myself, a partner over there, it was really devastating."
This artist was credited under a different name at the original date of publishing, our posts reflect her current wishes.