Miguel Fernández de Castro has established an original and autonomous practice engaging in long term projects and deep research into the Mexican socio-political context, particularly in his native borderland state of Sonora. Through photography, video, sculpture, and writing, Fernandez de Castro has developed a body of work that operates in the fringes of the private and the public, and examines how extractive and criminal economies materially transform landscapes and territories, while looking at the historical ties between environmental catastrophe, smuggling routes, and forced disappearance. As opposed to previous generations of Mexican artists who have addressed the borderlands as cultural constructions, Fernández de Castro examines them as productive spaces where new forms of criticism, action, and value come into being. His practice brings a new perspective to persisting problems and topics in Mexican reality. Natalia Mendoza is an anthropologist. Her work examines the convergence of legal and illegal economies, as well as the overlaps between state and criminal violence in the US-Mexico borderlands. In 2020, Mendoza won the José Revueltas-INBA National Essay Award for her collection of essays on disappearance, funerary rituals, and political imagination.