SDSU engages in grassroots cross-border peacebuilding with the region's skateboarding community
Artists on both sides of the border comment on border policies and peace through their artwork on skateboard blanks at binational exhibitions.
More than 25 invited skateboarder-artist ambassadors from San Diego and Tijuana have designed visual acts of peaceful protest using skateboards as canvases for a transnational project sponsored primarily by San Diego State University’s Fred J. Hansen Peace Chair, held by David P. Cline, professor of history.
“Boarder Crossings: Patinetas, Communidad y Paz” is a binational exhibition featuring original artworks. The forthcoming San Diego exhibition opening and skate session takes place on Friday, July 17 from 3 to 8 p.m. at the Centro Cultural de la Raza, and runs through August 10. The concurrent exhibition is also open in Mexico through September 26 at the Centro Cultural Tijuana (CECUT).
In both exhibits, artists were asked to reflect on topics relevant to the border – including family, financial disparities, community, architecture, and the environment – and the skateboarding scene as an example of a grassroots community built peacefully and binationally.
The project, based on border politics research associated with skateboarding and social justice movements, is led by College of Arts and Letters Professor Cline, in his role as the SDSU Fred J. Hansen Peace Chair, along with his colleague Professor Andrea Buchetti, from the University of Padua in Italy who is an SDSU honorary visiting professor of history through October 2026.
While doing research in 2022, Buchetti noticed the underground economy and arts movement in the skateboarding factories of Tijuana where skateboarders/workers were designing blank boards to trade. Cline was captivated by both skateboarding as a form of grassroots community building and by the possibilities of visually representing these ideas through commentary on the border and peaceful responses to border violence. “Skateboarders are nothing if not creators,” he said, “and they responded to our call with incredible enthusiasm, some really innovative ideas, and a deep embrace of the concept. The border is a piece of their everyday lives, simultaneously fixed and fluid, and their work represents a vast range of intellectual and emotional responses.”
This exhibition demonstrates and fosters a microcosm of peace to illustrate how peace is built from the bottom up — that the skatepark can be a place of peaceful international diplomacy. It also aligns with the Fred J. Hansen Peace Chair’s mission to strengthen relationships in the broader San Diego/Tijuana social justice communities.
Coinciding with the exhibition, a zine is being produced and published by “Boarder Crossings” logo designer and CAL alumnus John Mollet (‘20 B.A. history, ‘22 M.A. history), currently a doctoral student in the American Studies program and a 2023-2024 fellow at the Yale Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity and Transnational Migration. He is a first-generation Urban Indigenous (Assiniboine-Nakota Sioux) and former student of Cline. “My biggest hope is how subculture and the tools of subculture and movement can go across borders to create community, collaboration, and solidarity with people from different countries of similar interests,” Mollet said.
Bringing the works of Tijuana’s and San Diego’s skater-artists together at the Centro Cultural de la Raza allows them to showcase their material culture as a voice — as ambassadors for the cultural and creative potential that exists south of the border.
Artists and scholars hope to see shift in perspectives
Spenser Little, a full-time artist based in San Diego, skateboarder since the age of 9, and the son of Sherry Burgus Little, former CAL English professor and administrator, designed two kinetic sculptures: “Giving Life” and “Taking Life.” Both illustrate concepts of skateboarding and life on the border.
In “Giving Life” Little contemplates how skateboarding has inspired him to always think creatively in his life practice — about what skateboarding has given him. “I got into art to express myself and speak my mind — it's my onus to speak up when I see things that are unjust and immoral,” he said. Little uses birth as a metaphor in the creation of his artwork.
In “Take Life”, he spent nearly 350 hours meticulously crafting the piece — each intricate detail showcases his craftsmanship. Every non-metal element is painstakingly carved from one skateboard deck. In the corn cob, Little said each of the 90 kernels is a carved face “as a representation of the reaper — harvesting the masa, the people, the South.” This artwork represents his critique on immigration enforcement. “I've adamantly been a supporter of civil rights, this being a border town — us living on the precipice of Mexico and the issues that come with that,” Little said.
“I'm delighted to be a part of something that is meaningful, especially something that is diplomatic between Mexico and America,” he said. “It just shows us that the arts are supposed to be the most humane part of our enlightened society. I love that I get to be in this cross-culture art show.”
Abel Macias, a lecturer in CAL’s Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies submitted artwork entitled, “They Tried to Bury Us, but They Didn’t Know We Were Skaters.” It references the popular saying: “They tried to bury us, but they didn’t know we were seeds.”
“Coming from a long history of activism in the Chicana/o community, I wanted to title it something that connected with my activist background and skateboarding passion,” Macias said. “The piece represents the way that the border ripped apart the communities that live along the border. It is also a reference to the land that was taken by the United States following the war of aggression against Mexico from 1846 to 1848.”
Other artists featured in the exhibits include Michelle Guerrero aka ’Mr. Bbaby’ who created “Crecimiento” and “Florecer,” Chikle who made “No Human is Illegal” and “Resitencia Y Pasión,” and Francisco Contreras Yee aka ‘Cisco,’ who created “Roots That Elevate.”
Buchetti hopes that “Boarder Crossings” will shift perspective on this subculture, which has long been limited to retelling the well-known story of California without delving into the material and relational foundations (often based in Mexico) that make it the popular culture that fascinates society today.
“It’s really gratifying to see something like this that really does speak to our shared humanity in the face of some really oppressive circumstances,” Cline said.
Sponsors: San Diego State University Fred J. Hansen Peace Fund, SDSU Department of History, SDSU Chicano/a Studies, SDSU College of Arts and Letters, SDSU Press, SDSU Surf/Skate Studies Collaborative, SDSU Center for Skateboarding, Action Sports, and Social Change, CECUT, Centro Cultural de la Raza, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (COLEF) Tijuana.