About the project

Following recent U.S. executive orders restricting legal migration and asylum pathways, hundreds of thousands of people along the Latin American corridor face growing uncertainty and risk. In 2025, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) documented an increase in migrants living on the streets or in informal camps in Mexico City, exposed to the elements and lacking drinking water, sanitation, and basic services.

Many now face a difficult choice: return unsafely to their countries of origin or remain in Mexico despite the limits of its asylum system and precarious living conditions. Martínez visited MSF intervention sites to document people stranded by these policies and MSF’s Comprehensive Care Center, which supports survivors of kidnapping, torture, trafficking, and gendered violence through medical, psychological, and social care.

In his prints, Martínez intervenes with acids, inks, and acrylics, turning the image into a site of conflict between forgetting trauma and remembering it as strength.