Parsons School of Design
Communication Design Thesis Exhibition
Border Nichos

"Historically, culturally, and economically, for good and bad, the histories of Mexico and the United States were wrapped together like pieces of cellophane. "
- Octavio Paz

My thesis consisted of redesigning traditional Mexican nichos by using different mediums that are associated to graphic design. The content inside the boxes is a narration of the construction of my Mexican-American culture within Mexico, Texas and New York. Each box represents a different moment from birth to present time; with the exception of three boxes that reflect on social problems arising at the Mexico and U.S. border. The author Gloria Anzaldua speaks of the the cultural and biological cross-pollination as "a new mestiza consciousness." I want to represent this Mexican American "consciousness" as a synthesis of the old world and the new, the conquerors and the conquered, the mystical and the rational. with a tolerance for ambiguity.