Ayate Car, 1997

Betsabeé Romero’s project, Ayate Car, was based on the fantastical journey of a 1952 Ford, a favorite in lowrider car culture, that travels from Mexico City to Tijuana through the landscapes of famous Mexican paintings. The journey, which the artist also documented through an animated video, ends with the car digging a hole under the fence to enter the US where it is immediately detected by the border patrol who unceremoniously throw it back into Mexico where it lands as an apparition on a hilllside—a reference to the apparition of the Virgen of Guadalupe to Juan Diego on the Ayate—a cloth made from fiber of the Maguey plant. The car was in fact driven from Mexico City to the border, where it was covered completely with fabric, painted by the artist, and filled with roses.

Curators: Jessica Bradley, Olivier Debroise, Ivo Mesquita, and Sally Yard
Venue: Colonia Libertad, Tijuana, and video at Children’s Museum/Museo de los Niños, San Diego