Getting Here: L.A. Stories of Childhood Immigration

As a part of his upcoming exhibition at the Center, artist Jaime Guerrero is looking for more handwritten letters from child migrants to Los Angeles. These letters will cover the walls at the Craft in America Center–surrounding Guerrero’s glass sculptures of children detained at the border. The letters will also be digitized to craftinamerica.org where they will continue to be shared. This participatory public history collection project is intended to deepen community understanding of child immigrant experiences and how they impact our city.

If this applies to you or anyone you know of, please feel free to share–the more stories, the better.

Letters should ideally be handwritten and between 1 paragraph and 1 page. The letters can also be the stories of others (parents, relatives, friends, etc.).

Questions to think about:
-Describe your journey to the US and any specific, vivid memory of what it entailed.
-Please tell us about what it felt like emotionally or what kinds of thoughts you remember thinking.
-Please describe any fears you had and any particular challenges you faced.  The more detailed and specific, the better.
-Additional questions to consider: Who joined you on the trip or were you alone?  What were your thoughts when you arrived?  When did you begin to feel “at home”?

To submit letters, you can:
-drop them off at or mail them to
Craft in America Center
8415 West Third Street
Los Angeles, CA 90048
-email a picture to rsvp@

This project is being made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit www.calhum.org.