Amordidas Acompañadas: Sensorial Regeneration Beyond the Wake of Deportation

Amordidas Acompañadas: Sensorial Regeneration Beyond the Wake of Deportation is an interactive exhibit by Jenni Martínez, a PhD candidate in the Department of Ethnic Studies at UC Riverside and a 2025 UC Reimagining Refuge Seed Grant recipient.

The exhibit explores how food, scent, sound, touch, and memory sustain families separated by deportation. Across six stations, visitors are invited to engage with their senses: to smell what home smelled like, to build a kitchen table from memory, to place light around the names of those lost in ICE custody, to pick up a phone and speak to someone who isn’t here, and to write a recipe and light a candle as an offering. Each station draws on Expressive Art Therapy (E.A.T.) and is rooted in Jenni’s own experience as the daughter of two parents who were deported in 2012 after living in the United States for 22 years.

The exhibit is on display Friday, May 8, 2026 through June 7, 2026, on the first floor of Tomás Rivera Library. Visitor contributions made during the exhibit will be featured at the Amordidas Acompañadas reception on May 19 at the UCR Alumni Center.

Interactive element instructions:

• Scent Station: Open a scent container, choose a garment, write a tag describing who the scent reminds you of, and hang it on the rack.
• Touch Station: Use the miniatures to build your kitchen table. Photograph your creation and share on Instagram @amordidas_acompanadas. Return the pieces for the next visitor.
• Sight Station: Choose a name. Place colored pegs around it to build a halo. These are the 18 people who died in ICE custody in 2026.
• Sound Station: Pick up the phone. Speak to someone who isn’t here. Your message becomes part of the Amordidas archive.
• Taste Station: Write a recipe or a recuerdo. Place it on the table. Light a candle. This is your offering.

Content note: This exhibit engages with themes of deportation, family separation, grief, and death in ICE custody. Please take care of yourself as you move through the space.

This exhibit is sponsored by UCR Library, Chicano Student Programs, Ethnic Studies, Gender & Sexuality Studies, and the Reimaging Refuge Network