Calexico native exhibits border life art collection

Calexico native Roberto R. Pozos is holding a solo art exhibition at the Carmen Durazo Cultural Arts Center in Calexico .

Pozos’s art collection displays over sixty art pieces that capture Imperial Valley’s culture, as well as iconic views from the valley.

Pozos says this art collection represents what it was like growing up just one block away from the border.

” Calexico is a town that saw me grow up, a town that gave me my beginnings,” said Pozos .

Pozos has been living in San Diego for the past thirty years, but says Calexico shaped him into the person he is today.

“It impacted me tremendously and you don’t see that until you actually leave the town and you travel and live in many other places,” said Pozos .

” I lived a block from the border, I walked and played around the fence always . Being next to Mexicali, a bicultural lifestyle is just norm, ” said Pozos .

One of the paintings in his collection displays the alley or ” callejón ” where he grew up by.

At the end of the alley is the view of the border fence with razor wire on top.

Pozos says it’s a piece he always wanted to paint and finally did, although, he says he never imagined the border wall as militarized as it looks now.

” It’s a reality now, but we know where we come from we love Mexico. Calexico is such an inspiration to the world of how great we can get along, ” said Pozos .

Pozos says having an art show in Calexico has always been a goal for him and hopes he can inspire youth and the community through his collection.

“In a community like ours, these border cities are going through so much right now,” said Maritza Hurtado , community outreach director at Calexico Wellness Center.

“That’s what we need, the kind of inspiration from people like that, that they can say, hey if they can do it, you can do it too,” said Hurtado .

Pozos’s art exhibition is sponsored by the Calexico Wellness Center. The center is celebrating their one anniversary through a series of community activities featuring Roberto Pozos’s art collection.

Pozos’s collection can be seen at the Carmen Durazo Cultural Arts Center from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.