‘A Voice Unbound’ at Bihl Haus Celebrates Triumph Over Childhood Trauma
Two years after Rocío Alvarado Lockwood died of cancer in 2015 at age 54, her family found her voice. Among her possessions were impassioned journals she had scrawled years earlier, recounting her traumatic experiences as a child immigrant in El Paso, and a haunting set of drawings and prints depicting wounded, silent children, made in 1989 for a university art class.
Yet she had chosen not to share these revelations about her childhood experience during her lifetime. Only now, due to the effort of her husband, Dean Lockwood, have her words and images been given a platform.
The exhibition Una Voz Desatada: The Art, Writings, and Trauma of an Immigrant Child opening Sept. 21 at Bihl Haus Arts presents excerpts from Rocío’s 2006 journals carefully paired with a selection of drawings and prints she made as a student in 1989. The title translates as “A Voice Unbound.”