Cholombianos

They wear white Converse sneakers and brightly colored Hawaiian shirts printed with religious images (mainly the Virgin of Guadalupe and Saint Jude Thaddeus); their accessories—bandanas, caps, and scapulars hanging around their necks—help them distinguish where they belong and who they are, which is their message to the world. Amanda Watkins’s collection of portraits of the Cholombian community in Monterrey is more than evidence of the escalating violence that has plagued the country in recent years and the many ways in which young people respond to it. It is about cultural migration in border cities: how it can be so rich and colorful in contrast to the poverty, marginalization, and disenchantment of a concrete urban environment. With brief descriptions that transport us to a hot night in downtown Monterrey with cumbia music playing softly on a distant radio station, these “photo albums” demand to be seen and acknowledged, also as Cholombianos.