BERKELEY, CA.- MONTARlaBestia (“Riding the Beast”), art exhibition is on display at the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. The exhibition is open to the public from July 11 through September 29, Tuesdays through Fridays from 1 p.m.- 5 p.m., MONTARlaBestia/Riding the Beast will be part of a larger CLAS program in Fall 2017 focusing on important themes involving the U.S. and Mexico.

Presented by the Colectivo de Artistas Contra la Discriminación (Artist Collective Against Discrimination), MONTARlaBestia/Riding the Beast is a moving, visually stunning exhibition that uses art and poetry to describe “La Bestia” – a train that carries up to 500,000 Central American migrants each year on a dangerous journey across Mexico towards the hope of a new life in the U.S. Walls and deportations, often presented in a context of xenophobic rhetoric, have focused national and international attention on the southern border of the U.S. CLAS feels this is a critical moment to engage in dialogue with people from both sides of the border.

MONTARlaBestia/Riding the Beast is underwritten by Andrew M. Kluger, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Mexican Museum, in collaboration with the museum, Richard A. Levy, M.D., the Mexican Consulate General of San Francisco, and the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation.

“MONTARlaBestia/Riding the Beast reflects the unique collaboration forged between The Mexican Museum and the Center for Latin American Studies in 2015,” said Kluger. “Our goal is to create an exchange of ideas, artists, and scholarship that will bring innovative and socially relevant cultural programming to a wider audience throughout the Bay Area and the State of California.”