Immigrants are Essential foregrounds their particularity because it is important to recognize them as individuals deserving of better treatment. Like Americans, they were optimistic, resilient, and resourceful. They, too, had dreams, valued hard work, and believed in equality. Yet their civic contributions to the wellbeing of the United States – at the cost of their lives – were unacknowledged and unrewarded because they do not hold citizenship. They deserve the same dignity, rights, and aid as anyone – from unemployment benefits to the freedom to travel – which in America are only attainable through legalization. Mendoza’s installation counters the hateful rhetoric that associates immigrants with contagion, infection, and pathogens invading the U.S. body and diminishing it from within. Instead, it reframes them – aesthetically and narratively – as vital to America’s interest, as aspiring citizens who help the country even as the country fails to help them. Immigrants Are Essential, with its careful allusion to the iconography of indigeneity, religiosity, and labor, honors their full human dignity, hoping to awaken the U.S.’s heart to their stories and to send a signal to its brain that a vital organ is in distress. WORKS CITED Adler- Bell, Sam. “Why White Supremacists Are Hooked on Green Living.” The New Republic, 24 Sept. 2019, newrepublic.com/article/154971/ rise-ecofascism-history-white-nationalism-environmental-preservation-immigration. Amand olare, Sarah, et al. “Under Threat & Left Out: NYC’s Immigrants and the Coronavirus Crisis.” Center for an Urban Future, 2020, www.jstor.org/stable/resrep25433. Arter, Melanie. “Trump: Politicians Should Protect U.S. Citizens, ‘Not Criminal Aliens.’” CNSNews, 7 Dec. 2018, cnsnews.com/news/ article/melanie-arter/trump-politicians-should-protect-us-citizens-not-criminal-aliens. Barajas , Joshua. “WATCH: Trump Addresses the 2018 Project Safe Neighborhoods National Conference.” PBS NewsHour, 7 Dec. 2018, www. pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-live-trump-addresses-the-2018project-safe-neighborhoods-national-conference. Bari, Kisha. “ImmigrantsAreEssential at 477 Broadway.” Harper’s BAZAAR, 29 Apr. 2021, www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-books-music/ a36266483/paola-mendoza-immigrants-are-essential-portraits-in terview/. Byman , Daniel L. “How Hateful Rhetoric Connects to Real-World Violence.” Brookings, The Brookings Institution, 9 Apr. 2021, www. brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2021/04/09/how-hateful-rhetoric-connects-to-real-world-violence/. 24
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