SAN DIEGO – It happened more than 100 years ago. But the 300-mile Long Walk of the Navajos and the events that led up to that tragedy stayed in the heart of Navajo John Hood when he created what has become one of the iconic symbols for illegal immigration in this country.
The road signs Hood created as a graphic artist for the California Department of Transportation depicted the silhouette of a family on the run – a father, mother and their young daughter in pigtails in tow. The signs were erected at key spots on several freeways near the California-Mexico border during the late 1980s, when death rates among illegal immigrants crossing the region’s freeways on foot were alarming.
The yellow signs have since become popular with people on both sides of the contentious issue. It made the cover of The Economist. Replicas adorn T-shirts and political statements. There is even a copy of the sign displayed at the Smithsonian. It has become the symbol for illegal immigration.
But Hood’s sketch was partly inspired by another migration – a forced one. Hood, made a connection between the plight of illegal immigrants and his ancestors that were caught between Kit Carson’s soldiers and the Navajos’ determination to remain in their homes in the 1860s.
“[In the] stories from my tribe there is a history of my tribe being rounded up like cattle, and I have heard stories of people running away from soldiers and things like that.
“So, a lot of them died along the away. Some of that came to mind, imagining some of those things. It’s something deep within the mind, soul and the heart that comes to life and you have this awareness,” said Hood, who still calls the Navajo reservation in northeastern New Mexico home despite living in San Diego for nearly 30 years.
During the 1980s, dozens of illegal immigrants – including children, and mostly from Mexico – died running across the freeway in collisions with motorists. Many darted into the multilane highways after being dropped off by smugglers. California’s transportation agency turned to its San Diego district and Hood to develop a visual aide that alerts drivers. Hood’s concept was straightforward: impact and simplicity.
In the image, a man, who Hood now fondly likens to the profile of the late farm labor leader Cesar Chavez, is leading a woman in a dress holding the hand of a young girl being lifted from the ground.
Hood said the agency considered many concepts but he wanted to portray a “family running.”
“I picked a little girl because … little girls are dear to the heart, especially for fathers.
“It was troublesome that there was a mass exodus, especially families. And when you talk about families, you talk about children. They were getting slaughtered in the freeways,” he said.
In the image, Hood wanted to convey the urgency of the parents but, more poignantly, a sense of confusion in the little girl, leading to her being seemingly “dragged” by her mother.
“The children don’t know what’s happening and why they are there. [And] why their parents are doing it. They just know this is not their home. The sign conveys that they are away from home. And the children are asking, ‘What are we running for?”
A student of observation, Hood once used his upbringing at the Navajo Nation studying nature to lead his platoon in the jungles of Vietnam as a Marine. When creating the sign, observation became crucial again.
“Today, even when I watch parents walking in malls with their kids, it’s like they are dragging them. That was the idea: clutching something that is dear to our heart.”
There is just one sign left; the rest have either been stolen and some vandalized. But with collisions today nonexistent, the transportation department has not replaced them, Hood said. He takes comfort in knowing that he and all involved in the awareness campaign at the agency, which also included a fence in the freeway median and other public alerts, brought the accident rate down.
He remains humble, deflecting credit to his coworkers, supervisors and committees that helped with the campaign.
“My heart feels lighter knowing that we did something. … Respect is what I was taught. You don’t embellish things like that. It will be shameful for me to perceive myself as such. It took a lot of people to solve the situation. There was a dire need.”