Mano de Miel

Abstract

My whole life I heard parents tell stories about what they thought the United States would be like and how they were so happy to come here. "This is the place dreams become reality," they would say. When they came, however, they had no idea how hard it would be. The culture is completely different. The language is different. The communities are different, and often filled with discrimination. The sculpture is of a hand dripping with honey. The honey represents the sweet life that Hispanics are in search of when they come to United States. The hole through the hand represents what it is like to look from afar at the sweet goodness that is at a distance. Honey, however, is also messy. Once you get to the other side, you realize that there is a lot more to it than just the taste; you also have to deal with the mess that comes with it. Mano de Miel represents the vision of a sweet, new life and the mess that it causes represents the crash of cultures, the pain, the discrimination, and everything negative that comes with leaving what you know and starting a new life somewhere else.