Mexican Artist Alejandro Santiago Renowned for Making Clay Migrants Dead at 49 Associated Press
go to original July 23, 2013

2501 Migrantes - Alejandro Santiago: No two sculptures were alike and many of the faces were sculpted to reflect the hardship of migrants’ lives in both Mexico and the United States. (Luis M)

OAXACA, Mexico — Alejandro Santiago, a Mexican artist who filled the streets of his hometown with clay figures to represent the migrants who left for the United States, died Monday. He was 49.

Santiago died of a heart attack, said Emilio de Leo, the Oaxaca state culture director. De Leo said Santiago had diabetes for years.

“Our condolences go to the family of the great teacher and cultural promoter Alejandro Santiago, a loss to Oaxaca,” Oaxaca Gov. Gabino Cue wrote on his Twitter account.

Santiago, a painter and sculptor who studied in the workshop of Rufino Tamayo in Oaxaca, had shows in Mexico, the United States and Europe.

His best known work was “2,501 Migrants,” which opened in 2007 in his picturesque hometown of Teococuilco, in southern Oaxaca state. Financed with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, it was an ambitious work to create an army of life-size clay figures to replace departed townspeople.

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