Mexico is too often represented by American photographers traveling south across the border. In this exhibition, five Mexican photographers reverse that dynamic, focusing their lenses on the complex duality of their experience.
Ruth Prieto Arenas opens a window into the lives of Mexican immigrant women in New York City, where they are masters of their own world, where they control their time and their choices, where they have a safe haven.
Chuy Benitez’s panoramic photographs capture Houston’s vibrant Mexican-American community at a moment of explosive growth.
Fernando Brito’s images of bodies dumped in the Sinaloa countryside by drug cartels bring home the tragedy created by the United States’ insatiable drug consumption.
Alejandro Cartagena has spent much of the last decade examining the Mexico-US relationship along the border in various documentary photo series, including Suburbia Mexicana, Between Borders and The Car Poolers.
Mauricio Palos’ photos, from spring break in Cancun to Detroit’s bleak streets, brilliantly highlight the historic contradictions between our two countries.
In the this exhibition, the gaze is not at a Mexico defined by the US, but at Mexicans exploring and defining themselves as they navigate the Mexican and Mexican-American experience today.
Chuy Benitez, Mariachi Sangre Joven, Fiesta Mart en Wayside Dr., Second Ward, Houston, TX, 2006, Courtesy of Bronx Documentary Center
Fernando Brito, Culiacán, Mexico, April 2010, Courtesy of Bronx Documentary Center
Mauricio Palos / Boreal Collective, New York, New York, June 28, 2007, Courtesy of Bronx Documentary Center 
Alejandro Cartagena, Ejido División del Norte, Reynosa Tamaulipas, 2009; Ruth Prieto Arenas, Delia Guzmán (19) painted her room blue. “It was my favorite color some time ago, now I want to paint it pink.” South Bronx, February, 2012, Courtesy of Bronx Documentary Center
Photographs from the opening by Andrew Morales
At Bronx Documentary Center From Nov 15 to Jan 12, 2014
Bronx Documentary Center, 614 Courtlandt Avenue, Bronx, NY 10451 | info@bronxdoc.org | 718 993 3512
Gallery Hours The Bronx Documentary Center is open to the public Thursday to Friday, 3 pm to 7 pm and Saturday to Sunday 1pm to 5pm. School groups are welcome by appt.