Based on ten years of work with immigrant children in two different border states — Arizona and California — Drawing Deportation gives readers a glimpse into the lives of immigrant children throughout 300 children’s drawings, theatre performances, and family interviews.
Silvia Rodriguez Vega is a community engaged writer, artist, and educational practitioner. She is an Assistant Professor at University of California, Santa Barbara in the Department of Chicana/o Studies. Her research explores the ways anti-immigration policy impacts the lives of immigrant children through methodological tools centering participatory art and creative expression. Before joining UCSB, Rodriguez Vega was a UC Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow and a Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow at New York University in the Department of Applied Psychology. She received her PhD from UCLA’s Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies. Her first book, Drawing Deportation: Art and Resistance among Immigrant Children (NYU Press, 2023) argues that immigrant children are not passive in the face of the challenges presented by U.S. anti-immigrant policies.