This past week, a new art installation has made its way to the second story of the Kirner-Johnson Building, overlooking the atrium. This exhibit, titled “Mirame a los Ojos,” which translates to “Look into my Eyes,” is a series of photos taken by Professor of Economics Erol Balkan last Dec. in Oaxaca, Mexico. Prof. Balkan dedicated his time to continue a passion of service for migrants, refugees and their families through working at a migrant center during his stay in Mexico. There, he took a series of portraits of the people passing through the center with a focus on children.
The choice of the form of portraits forces the onlooker to stare into the faces of migrants who had to leave their homes due to the unfolding migrant crisis. When asked why he chose to photograph his subjects straight on, Balkan stated that this is because “You can probably see the unfolding human drama in those eyes.” All the photos in the exhibition are in black and white, despite being originally shot in color. Prof. Balkan explained that this was an artistic choice that he felt better captured the images of the migrants, especially children.
Prof. Balkan began his work researching humanitarian efforts before visiting refugee camps in the southeastern regions of Turkey that primarily housed Syrian refugees. He visited with a focus both on providing hands-on efforts as well as publicizing the impact of these tragedies through writing and photography. He did this with the goal to raise funds primarily to support the children in the region impacted by the violence forcing them to flee and has carried on this line of work through helping refugees who have made their way into Utica.
The goal of this project was to create an exhibition to raise awareness and funds for “The Collin A.C. Migrants Support Center” in Oaxaca, Mexico. Although the original center in which the photographs were taken has shut down in recent months due to a lack of funding, as it was run on private donations, this new center has the goal to feed, clothe and provide medical services for 250 to 300 migrants a day. These centers face a variety of challenges due to lack of resources. In Oaxaca, the main issue is that all water is privately owned and must be paid for, as there is no water infrastructure provided by the local government.
According to Prof. Balkan, “Climate change is one of the main factors of creating new migrants, new refugees and new human movements simply because it tremendously affects agricultural processes forcing people to leave their land or farms because they can’t grow anything. This is pretty much the factor of all the migration that we are seeing in Central America and South America (the so-called dry corridor) into our borders; it is primarily climate change.”
Last Dec., Balkan traveled to Oaxaca, Mexico and worked at a shelter offering a safe place to stay overnight along with food and water to migrants passing through on their way to the U.S. Migrants traveling from Central and South America often follow a common route that winds through Mexico and is dotted with shelters and some trains such as The Beast, or they will go on foot. In these shelters, migrants can only stay one to two nights before they must continue their journey. The shelter Balkan worked at is part of a series of stops and centers that migrants can stay at along the way to the U.S. border. However, at times they can be few and far between. Many of the people passing through this stop on their journey are fleeing a variety of challenges such as violence, political and economic instability along with climate issues impacting their region. Many of the migrants have left because there are no other viable options to continue to survive in their homeland forcing a wide variety of people, including many families with small children, to make the trek.
When asked what one of the most impactful moments from his years of work was, Balkan explained that “There’s this human tragedy that’s unfolding in front of our eyes so every moment is one of those moments.” Balkan hopes that this exhibition will make students more aware of the gravity of the issue at hand as “This is a global problem, not a local problem, and it needs global solutions.”
Students that are interested in getting involved in helping in the refugee and migrant crisis do not need to look very far. Just minutes away from Hamilton’s campus, Utica contains several refugee communities for which students can volunteer, alongside seeking out individual institutions and nonprofit organizations to support. Some Alternative Spring Break trips have even gone to help the efforts.
Everyone is encouraged to look at the website for the migrant center linked below. There, you can find more information and the ability to donate if you are interested. Prof. Balkan emphasized that students need to understand that to help fight this humanitarian crisis “What needs to be done is to develop awareness that this is something unfolding in front of our very eyes and is there anything we can do about it as individuals, as communities, as societies.”
