09/02/2026
This fall, Q***r American Memorials (queeramericanmemorials) makes its California debut at the Institute of Contemporary Art San José (ICA San José). From October 2 through February 21, the museum’s reading room will hold the beginning of the first California memorial, honoring Alina Marie Barragan, a Latinx trans youth and San José native killed in 2000.
The gallery features Sean Fader’s (Sean Fader) photograph of the site where Alina lost her life from his project 𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘔𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘺; an interactive Google Earth artwork that travels site by site through a decade of anti-queer violence and the lives behind it; and the memorial taking shape now: the ceramic brick that will be permanently placed in San José for Alina, alongside a video interview with co-creators Sean Fader and Maureen Towey introducing the work.
Alina’s memorial is being built with her community, and that means you. Join us Friday, October 2nd for First Friday at the ICA, and Sunday, October 4th at The Billy DeFrank LGBTQ+ Community Center (Gabrielle Antolovich) for Alina’s birthday celebration, where your stories, photos, and memories can become part of her permanent memorial.
What a country refuses to remember, it repeats. We make these lives impossible to forget.
