Melissa Chimera

For this portrait, the artist draws from her interviews of an undocumented Filipina who left nursing school in the Philippines to care for her mother undergoing treatment for an illness in the U.S. Although the caregiver’s mother legally resided in the U.S., at the time there was no legal path to employment or residence for her daughter. As the sole medical provider, the caregiver made the fateful choice to overstay her visa, thereby jeopardizing her own safety and security under threat of deportation. As a result, she was banned from re-entry to the U.S. for ten years but then returned legally at great cost financially and personally. The painting considers the familial separations and hardships endured by immigrants in their quest for the “American Dream.”