What does an illegal immigrant look like?

The artist, the band, the photographer and the history behind an iconic photograph

What does an illegal immigrant look like? It’s a loaded question - a possible powder keg these days. Your response to this question reveals much about your worldview and politics and it says much about where you gained that knowledge.

You have likely seen the above image before but I’m betting you don’t know much about it. It’s been used countless times online and repurposed so much that its original meaning (and author) has been distorted and lost to obscurity.

Recently, I saw this image posted on a popular Latino Instagram account, along with a bunch of other similar-era photographs and with absolutely NO attribution or credit.

As you would expect, the post was popular with thousands of likes and hundreds of comments. Not a single person in the comments knew who the person in the photo was or who took the photo.

For them, it largely represents defiance in the face of racist immigration policy. But why does it represent that to them…?

Who is this man in the center and what is the meaning behind this photo?

This kind of theft of people’s work is all too typical on social media these days and it’s infuriating. It is particularly irritating however, when we do it to ourselves and rob ourselves of our own culture and history.

So, I took it upon myself to try and research the origin of this photo and discover not only who took it but who the subject matter is.

*Note: I spent a great deal of time researching this story, I hope you take the time to enjoy it.