Words by Marisol Cortez / Photos and video by Greg Harman
Last weekend, Deceleration traveled to the Rio Grande Valley for the Latino Comics Expo, held in Brownsville, the southernmost city in Texas, located on the north bank of the Rio Grande River that joins Texas and Mexico before flowing into the Gulf.
We camped, more or less, in a cinder-block shack run by Cameron County at the lower end of South Padre Island, where Xochitl, finally freed from the car, ran and ran like a dog along the beach at dusk. through an otherworldly winter fog that tinted the sky with the gray surge of waves and made the whole scene look like the end of the world, or the beginning.
As she vanished into the mist, I worried that somehow the water would carry her away, that we would all fall from the land into the vastness of the sea.
The next day we visited the exhibition, held at the Brownsville Museum of Fine Arts. And there, among cosplayers cosplaying and tablers presenting their fanzines and small press offerings (not to mention the very funny and affable Lalo Alcaraz!), we discovered two brilliant gems of eco-art and were lucky enough to interview their creators.
Meet Alejandro de la Cruz, writer of Superpatrullín, a superhero stray dog and guardian of the ecology. With the help of illustrator Rocio Denarmen, De la Cruz created the comic as a messenger for Patrulla Salvadora Rescate a la Ecologia, an environmental education initiative based in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico.
What he says about the ecological symbolism of the stray dog (at once revered as a pet and dismissed as a pest, but more fundamentally and simply as a living being that will be a helper and savior of self-destructive humans) is particularly profound:
I was also captivated by the work of visual artist José Cabrera, especially because I love birds:
Although our camera battery died, we were able to capture an audio interview with Cabrera about the importance of animal imagery in his work:
Peace and love to the RGV in its generosity, creativity and beauty, from San Anto to Brownsville-Matamoros and back, and to all the birds, dogs and children in all the border areas of the world.
And a farewell #resistance salute to Lalo “Return to Africa” Alcaraz, who shared the remarkable body of his work since the rise of the pinche 45. As low quality as the video on our little phone is, it is still a pleasure and an inspiration to listen to this man ( Part One, Part Two ).
(And let us know if we’ve made any mistakes in our translation in the video above! Spanish is not my first language).
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Marisol Cortez is co-editor of Deceleration. Greg Harman is founder and co-editor.
Contact Alejandro de la Cruz for copies (highly recommended) of Superpatrullín.
Visit Cabrera’s Facebook page to explore and/or purchase any of his prints, posters or children’s books.
