Ep. 13: Tanya Aguiñiga [encore]

**Tanya Aguiñiga** (0:00)
I just hope I gave enough and there was still enough, like, like, like, entertainment.

**Amy Devers** (0:06)
Yes, there was plenty of entertainment.
Plenty of entertainment. So much that we're gonna have trouble editing out the good stuff.

**Jaime** (0:20)
Hi, everyone, I'm Jamie.

**Amy Devers** (0:22)
And I'm Amy, and this is Clever. Today, we're talking to Tanya Aguiñiga. Tanya is an artist, crafts person, designer and activist. She grew up in Tijuana, Mexico, and spent her childhood crossing the US-Mexico border every single day to attend school in the US. So this Mexican-American dual identity informs both her work and her personality.
Her work is primarily textile based and handcrafted, and her design work includes furniture, wearable accessories, and home decor pieces.

**Jaime** (0:52)
You may have seen some of her dip-dyed rope bracelets on chic celebrities or maybe you just saw them on me and Amy because we have some. Some of her felted folding chairs and other furniture in design magazines, and some of her more elaborate weavings and wall hangings in uber trendy hotels like the Ace in LA or the American Trade Hotel in Panama.
As a craft-based fine artist and activist, she creates compelling installations and activations using craft as a performative medium to foster community as well as generate dialogues around identity, culture and gender.

**Amy Devers** (1:24)
She studied furniture design at San Diego State University and then got her master's in furniture design from the Rhode Island School of Design.
She's a United States artist target fellow, a Creative Capital 2016 grant awardee, and has been featured in PBS's Craft in America series. More importantly, she's a very, very dear friend of mine and I love her like a sister. She's super smart, super colorful, and super badass. Just wait till you hear her story.

**Tanya Aguiñiga** (1:59)
My name is Tanya Aguiñiga, and I live in Los Angeles, and I am originally from Tijuana, Mexico, otherwise known as Tijuana in English by many folks. I guess I am a designer, maker, artist, activist? Yeah, and on the design end, it would be textiles, furniture, and jewelry, and accessories for the home and self.
And I am also an art teacher and also an educator.

**Amy Devers** (2:35)
Wow, that's a lot. And a mama.
And a mama. Let's not forget that. Ayo is super cute.

**Jaime** (2:42)
Super cute.

**Amy Devers** (2:42)
Okay, so you're a dear friend of mine, so I know a lot of these answers already, but you have to tell our listeners all about you. So let's start from the very, very beginning.

**Jaime** (2:51)
Where did you grow up?

**Amy Devers** (2:52)
And what was your childhood like?

**Tanya Aguiñiga** (2:54)
So I grew up in Tijuana, and I guess now I would be like third generation from Tijuana. And I grew up living in Mexico, but going to school in the US.
So I would cross the border every day for 14 years to go to school in the US.

**Amy Devers** (3:10)
Every single day.

**Tanya Aguiñiga** (3:11)
Every single day. And my parents did it for close to 40 years.
And so that made me kind of an odd little babe.

**Amy Devers** (3:20)
Yeah. Now were you out in the open about living in Tijuana, or did you have to have a fake address in the US so you could go to school there?

**Tanya Aguiñiga** (3:28)
You have to be pretty like on the down low about it. And so then I had to use my grandma's address. And then when my grandma passed away, I had to use my aunt's address, my best friend's address, my best friend's grandmother's address and different aunts and stuff.

**Amy Devers** (3:42)
Did you feel a little bit like, because you had to keep your kind of life on the down low, did you feel like a fugitive? Or what did you feel like?

**Tanya Aguiñiga** (3:50)
Not like a fugitive, but definitely there was a massive stigma to living in Mexico. It's kind of gone through different iterations of stigmatization. But when I was a little kid, everybody thought Mexico was a dirty place that was just full of poverty and little caves where people lived in cardboard shacks.
And then when I got a little bit older, then everybody was like, oh, that's where all the like bad drug stuff is going on. So like you can't go into Mexico or like, oh, you're going to get kidnapped. So there's been like a bunch of different like ways that people have like hated where I come from. And so then for the most part, I didn't tell anybody that I lived in Mexico.
My parents also kept it super hidden. One of the reasons was because we could like get kicked out. I could get kicked out from school if anybody knew. But then also, it's just like I didn't have all the normal stuff that that like American kids had. So like I didn't have a phone until I was 11, like in our house, like hardwired.