BORDER MURAL preservation efforts hit snag
CALEXICO — The total number of fence panels adorned with the “Border Metamorphosis” mural that the Border Patrol will be able to donate to the city remains uncertain, complicating plans to have the artwork widely displayed throughout the city.
Although a decades-old — and now lost — memorandum of understanding between the agency and the nonprofit Calexico Arts Commission agreed to grant the commission as many panels as desired were the fence and accompanying mural ever replaced, that no longer seems to be the case.
Instead, the contractor hired to replace about three miles of outdated fencing west of the downtown port of entry will retain ownership of the fence panels as part of its contract with the federal government.
Currently, the Border Patrol can only donate two of the soon-to-be replaced fence panels to the arts commission. Still, parties involved expressed hope that further discussions may arrive at a more agreeable solution.
“I am working through official channels to try to obtain more than just the two panels,” said Border Patrol El Centro Sector Assistant Chief David Kim.
An effort by both Calexico and federal officials to attempt to locate a copy of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) has proven unsuccessful to date. Yet, in the absence of the MOU, the Border Patrol is still committed to trying its best to honor the spirit of the agreement, Kim said.
“We’re certainly working to make sure that the community feels like it has gotten its fair share,” he said. “But, I can’t guarantee (more than two panels). A lot of that stuff is out of my hands.”
As part of ongoing discussions between the agency and Calexico officials, the city submitted a formal letter last week to the Border Patrol explicitly requesting enough fence panels to have six complete representations of the mural’s dominant motif.
One complete motif, which consists of a circle that has triangles radiating from its horizontal axis, occupies two fence panels.
The Arts Commission’s plans to place the refurbished and restored fence panels with the accompanying “Border Metamorphosis” motif at several locations throughout the city would not be possible were it to receive solely two fence panels, equivalent to one motif, said commission member Carmen Durazo.
“We were never told that the contractor was going to keep all of the fence,” she said.
The mural adorns about 2.2 miles of the three miles of outdated “landing mat” type fencing that is scheduled to be replaced in January with see-through fencing aimed at increasing agents’ safety.
The mural was painted with the help of more than 1,500 volunteers on both sides of the border in 1998 in response to the construction of the border fence a year earlier, and was meant to symbolize the friendly ties Calexico and Mexicali enjoyed, Durazo said.
Durazo said she has requested that the Border Patrol help set up a conference call as soon as possible between it, city and Arts Commission officials and the contractor that is scheduled to soon start construction.
“We’re hoping that by talking with the contractor, they will agree to give us those panels,” Durazo said. Previous talks between the El Centro Sector Border Patrol and city officials resulted in the designation of a Border Patrol historian tasked with archiving material related to the installation of the binational mural and the agency’s collaborative role.
Last week, the sector historian was provided with a series of decades-old documents related to the public art project, which at the time was the only one of its kind sanctioned by the federal government.
Durazo said that she is also holding out hope that someone, somewhere, has documentation of the MOU established between the Border Patrol and the Arts Commission that spelled out the terms of the mural’s preservation efforts.