Listening to Yehimi Cambron

It was incredible to hear Yehimi’s story in person, as she presented to the LDR class I tutored for this semester. She is a forceful public speaker and a fearless storyteller. It was moving when she spoke of her dad being gone in her childhood because he was illegally crossing the border to the US to scrape up enough funds to move them from an aluminum (?) house, to a wood house, to a concrete house. Her family is important to her, and she represents them consistently in her art.

Yehimi spoke about moving to the US so that her family could reunite with her father when she was in elementary school. She knew no English and felt ignorant except for art. She said how art became her solstice, and something she was passionate about. She won the Holocaust remembrance art contest when she was in middle school. Because she didn’t have a social security number she couldn’t accept the prize money, and this seemed like an important turning point for her as she saw how severely her immigration status impacted her life. Money was an important thread throughout her story. Money is what made people move from country to country to accept jobs in terrible working conditions, but money is also what validated her as an artist and person. When she was able to get a full ride scholarship to Agnes Scott, she mentioned how astounded she was with the amount they were offering her.

Along with money, education has been important for Yehimi. She said Agnes Scott’s education was liberating for her because of the way it made her think about intersectionality. She has returned to teach at the high school she went to and has been an important figure for the students. The representation she provides them with because she succeeds even though she is undocumented is incredibly important, especially in the wake of Trump’s election. She said about his election “I knew it was the truth of our country but I didn’t think it would be legitimized.” She guided her students as they prepared art pieces and rallies about immigration rights.

“I knew it was the truth of our country but I didn’t think it would be legitimized.”

She said that she didn’t make art for 3 years when she started teaching, and in that time she stopped calling herself an artist. I found it inspiring how she was in the right place at the right time to get the chance to make her first Butterfly mural. It’s good to know that even if you stop making art for a bit, it will just happen if its meant to. Yehimi had never made a mural before, but her Butterfly mural was a huge success and now she is a rising muralist. She is getting to paint what she really wants, which is portraits of people that are important to her. Her art is inherently social justice related as she fights battles for representation. The Butterfly mural has been painted over because she refused to silence herself, and the political and humanitarian nature of the work made the owners of the wall uncomfortable. I was able to help her with a tree mural in November 2017 and she is one of the kindest, funniest and most deeply inspiring people I have ever met. I am excited to continue watching her success.