Arquitectura del vaivén: Diasporic Building(s) in Central America’s Northern Triangle

Curated by Gabriela Poma, Doctoral student in Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard University

Arquitectura del vaivén: Diasporic Building(s) in Central America’s Northern Triangle highlights nine photographs from the series Faraway Brother Style (2009-2010) by Salvadoran contemporary artist Walterio Iraheta.  The series interrogates the phenomenon of remittance architecture materializing in the rural landscapes of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras and plays with the notion of an ambiguous aesthetic that emerges from the experience of migration. These photographs reveal the complexities inherent in the region’s ever-changing social reality and the potential for transformation.

Poma’s research explores the cultural production of writers and visual artists following the Central American wars with particular focus on the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras) and Nicaragua.  She aims to create links between their creative responses and the most salient issues that continue to affect the region. More broadly, her project foregrounds the role of Central American migrant subjectivities as historical actors. 

Special thanks to Professors Sergio Delgado Moya, Lorgia Garcia Peña, and Françoise Lionnet