Originally installed and performed as a 30-foot-long wall in SMoCA’s 2016 exhibition When Push Comes To Shove, Labor is a modular, site-specific piece created from hand-made bricks produced in Colonia Ladrillo in Agua Prieta, Sonora MX, where the members of the DouglaPrieta Trabajan (DPT) live and work. The piece honors the women’s labor and their self-determination in producing bricks with their neighbors and family and building their own gathering center.

DouglaPrieta Trabajan began in 2003 as a grassroots self-help project in Agua Prieta, Sonora, just across the border from Douglas, Arizona. DPT’s purpose has always been to assist individuals and families in colonias populares, or poor neighborhoods, by developing local capacities for economic self-sufficiency. DPT operates under the belief that communities can cultivate solidarity and self-determination by making local neighborhoods more productive. Today, the centerpiece of the program is a permaculture demonstration site designed to teach families sustainable food production techniques, including gardening, aquaculture, and small livestock raising. The goal is to reduce the cost of living and at the same time build an ethic of mutual aid among neighbors in order to reduce dependency on weak job markets, government assistance, charity, and border crossing. This work honors their labor in nourishing their communities.