La Marea Verde (The Green Wave)
For decades, Latin Americans have faced draconian bans and restrictions on abortion. But activists refused to accept the illegality of abortion. Realizing their fight was intertwined and they were more powerful united, the Green Wave – or Marea Verde – swept across Latin America achieving remarkable victories in Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico.
Today, the Green Wave has officially arrived in the United States. Though Roe v. Wade was never enough to ensure abortion access for all, the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn it has created a painful and difficult reality for anyone seeking abortions.
Artist and activist, Paola Mendoza, has visually united North and South America under the banner of the Green Wave, serving as a reminder that the fight for abortion is borderless.
This installation is done in honor of the Green Wave Gathering of Las Américas.
#TheGreenWave
Immigrants Are Essential
Immigrants are Essential bears witness to the lives of Fedelina, Mario, Moisés, Yimel, Juan, Ofelia and Guadalupe. Just seven out of tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants who were taken too soon by COVID pandemic. They gave up so much leaving their home countries and coming to a place that didn’t always welcome them. They fought so bravely to make a better future for their families.
Rosa's Miracle
In 2018, Rosa began a seemingly impossible journey with her four children. She joined over 7,000 people and walked from Honduras to the United States’ southern border. While she walked through sand storms, deserts, over freezing mountains and through raging rivers the world watched in rapt attention with their mouths agape.
Rosa’s Miracle is a retelling of her journey to the United States told through spectacularly beautiful images steeped in dignity and celebration.
Mourner's Walk
Last October New Yorkers came together to mourn those we had lost. The creative action consisted of artists and activists walking through Jackson Heights, Queens — the epicenter of the pandemic in New York City.
In the Fall of 2020 New Yorkers came together to mourn those we had lost to COVID. The creative action consisted of artists and activists walking through Jackson Heights, Queens — the epicenter of the pandemic in New York City. We recited thousands of people’s names. Holding space for those who left us too soon.
I Am A Child
The world was outraged and the photos quickly went viral on social media with the quote:
“A child is a child no matter what country they were born in.
A child is a child even when they cross the border.
A child's desire to stay with their parents is a human right.
In homage to the iconic I AM A MAN photo.
I am proud to present I AM A CHILD.”
In June 2018, Paola Mendoza conceived and was the creative director for the I AM A CHILD campaign. She created the campaign to protest the Trump Administration’s ‘Zero Tolerance Policy’ of separating children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico Border.
Inspired by Ernest Withers’ photograph from 1968 of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, the initial I AM A CHILD photo shoot with photographer, Kisha Bari and producer Becky Morrison occurred in New York City on the steps of Immigration and Customs Enforcement building featuring 40 children, ages three to ten.
Family Separation Art Installation
On the year anniversary of Trump’s Zero Tolerance Policy Paola placed a life size art installation in front of the Capitol Building, in Washington DC.
The art installation was a searing reminder to our nation’s leaders that hundreds of children still remained forcibly separated from their parents.
The Caravan
As a storyteller and immigration rights activist, Paola’s work tried to shine a light on each person’s unique and individual story of love, resilience and hope. These are their truths.
Paola traveled to Oaxaca, Mexico to join the caravan of Central American refugees to document their stories as they traveled to the U.S. border in hopes of being granted asylum.
It was during this time that Trump overhauled the asylum application process and made it more difficult for refugees to even request the asylum they are so desperately in need of.
Resistance Revival Chorus
Paola is a co-founder of The Resistance Revival Chorus. The RRC is a collective of more than 60 womxn who join together to breathe joy and song into the resistance and to uplift and center women’s voices.
The great artist and activist Harry Belafonte once said, “when the movement is strong, the music is strong” and the RRC attempts to live up to that call.
Dream Killers
DREAM Killers was a performance art protest demanding that Congress pass a clean DREAM Act in 2017. Hundreds of people came together in an act of creative resistance to protect the 800,000 people who were at risk of losing DACA.
