Officials Would Give Poster One-Way Bus Ride : ‘Art’ No Tourism Ticket, San Diego Says

There may be some San Diego tourist industry officials who don’t know anything about art, but they know what they don’t like.

At the top of the list is a poster on the back of 100 San Diego Transit buses that some officials view as a slap at both the city and the industry.

The poster has photographs that show illegal aliens being arrested and at work and carries the message: “Welcome to America’s Finest Tourist Plantation.” The wording is a play on the city’s motto, “America’s Finest City.”

Multiplying the dismay of tourism officials is the fact that city hotel-motel taxes are helping to pay for the monthlong public-art display at the same time the city is preparing for Super Bowl XXII on Jan. 31, one of the biggest tourist draws in San Diego history.

San Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau officials said the posters give a “totally false” image of San Diego.

The artwork includes a central photograph of an armed Immigration and Naturalization Service agent with handcuffed illegal aliens. To the right is an image of an open door with a “maid service please” sign on the knob and a female’s hand with towels draped over the arm. To the left is a photo of a pair of hands cleaning a dish.

Imagery Explained

In a press release, the artists who created the work declared that “immigration laws attempt to deny a space for the undocumented worker,” even though local businesses recognize the presence of illegal aliens by hiring them. “Without the undocumented worker, San Diego could not have a tourist industry,” the release stated.

The three artists who collaborated on the artwork--Elizabeth Sisco, Louis Hock and David Avalos--denied that they were taking a shot at San Diego’s tourist industry.

“The intention was not to be critical of the tourist industry,” said Sisco, a photographer. “We wanted to show that undocumented labor has a hand in it. The labor we’re talking about isn’t isolated in the tourist industry. It’s found throughout San Diego in many other kinds of businesses.”

Tourist officials lament the timing and taste of the artwork, but contend that most people who see the poster have trouble understanding it.

Jim Durbin, chairman of the board of the San Diego County Hotel and Motel Assn., said of the allegation that the industry uses illegal alien workers: “It’s a ludicrous point they’re trying to make. It’s not valid. Since the new INS regulations, you have to have five generations of grandmothers come in and swear the person’s been in the United States prior to a certain date.”

Artists Claim Plaudits

The artists who created the piece say they have received only plaudits.

“We’ve had a positive response from people calling,” said Hock, a motion picture and video artist. “We’ve had compliments from Tijuana, people in the Chicano community and students, staf1713398126Diego).”

The bus poster project came about as the result of a proposal the three artists made to the Combined Arts and Education Council of San Diego, which regularly makes grants to local arts groups and artists.

“I’m glad that people have participated and responded and that thoughts have been provoked,” Avalos said. “If San Diego can demonstrate it’s capable of tolerance and freedom of expression, that’s a sign of class, of world class.”