Letter from Thomas J. Benitez, Director Mexican American Self Help Center in Los Angeles recommending Giles to LA City Supervisor Gloria Molina and Dr. Johnathan Yorba, Director of the Mexican American Cultural Center.   Benitez interviewed Giles as to his attitude and the significance of the sculpture.   Read Letter

In 2004, Prof. Yorba, the Mexican Culture Center director, helps to document the value of this cultural artifact with his introduction to the Smithsonian.

2004 - Smithsonian Inquiry

Simultaneously, the Smithsonian lost interest due to the LA Times article saying the gates were given to Giles by a foreman in error. At the same time Giles lost interest because Smithsonian said the Sculpture would go to storage.

El Paso Chamber of Commerce donation effort for border memmorial dedicated to murdered women of Juarez due to the U.S. appetite that feeds the Mexican cartels - Information Package

2005 - This L.A. Weekly  article  prompted two trips to Tijuana, offering to donate the gates to the courageous Zeta newspaper as a border memorial to the murdered journalists, regarding the U.S. appetite that spawns the cartels.

2005 - Goa India Film Festival Award about Gates project, essential short edits here: Link

Mumbai, India, Newspaper Interview - Link

2006 - The Gates were offered to Amnesty International for Women of Juarez Memorial, but declined. Link | Link

2007 - El Paso, Texas Attempts to Place Gates
Attempted placement of gates with Chamber of Commerce,  El Paso, TX - for Border Memorial, as a way to bring attention to the " women of Juarez" who have been murdered at the Mexican-US border - 4 month effort.

Women of Juarez

El Paso Times Classifieds - One    Two    Three
There was no response.

July 2008 - Letter to the City of Los Angeles about Gates Moving
LA City Beat letter published respectfully announcing the removal of the gates from Los Angeles.

July 2008 - Gates Move to Portland,Oregon

• Gates moved to Portland, Or.
• .Leased store front
• Gates on Display in Portland seeking Placement
• Open House weekend in Portland - Dec 12 Guadalupe Festival Day.  Snowed out by the blizzard of the decade.

2009 - Documentation Proving Gift of Gates to Giles after 10 year wait.
Bill Baeder, former business manager of Cathedral St. Vibiana, documenting intentional gift of Gates to Giles.  Letter clarifies media misinformation of 2001.  Read Letter

2009 - Atlanta trip to meet group that turned out to be using Ghandi, Dr. MLK and Coretta King's names without an effort for issues or registration.   Link | Link

2009/2010 - United Nations gate donation efforts plus $100k   Link | Link | Link

2010 - April New Orleans

From first impressions, it seemed wonderful that Ms. Graves introduction to the Corpus Christi Texas Art Group had led to an invitation to place the artifact sculpture on the campus of the University of New Orleans.

The invitation was not simply to facilitate the placement for the side money mentioned, but they also wanted ongoing legal authority. Having told me that usually everything they handle is for sale, and that their possession is nine tenths of the law, and dozens of artists want their favor.

I'm not the artist of this historic artifact. We have wanted a placement in perpetuity.

This "non-profit" group from Texas gave me a 30 day deadline (May 15th) to deliver this 3000 pound work of art 3000 miles without written agreements as to specific location, for how long, maintenance, ownership, plaque wording, and would the cross on the sculpture be okay with the University. It seemed to me that my enthusiasm was misinterpreted, but the experience created a situation that gave further credibility to the mission statement Global Peace Poem #1 "Engagement". It was encouraging to know that a number of people involved with the New Orleans effort were athiests, yet still approved of the project poem that would be included at the placement, along with their names. The combination of these things has created a rethinking where I will try to sell the sculpture on eBay. At the same time, I am still offering it as a donation to www.vibiana.com if they will change the name to Guadalupe.

To sell the gates, we placed a Craigslist ad for tech and sales support for the eBay sale and walked us into the Beijing China Peace Concert that posted the poem on their website.

2010 - July, Portland Oregon

In response to Craigslist ad for eBay support (link)

We postponed the eBay sale to be involved with the China Concert and Gate Project Poem "Engagement".

Beijing Concert, Global Peace Poem #1 "Engagement" a.k.a. Semi Fiction Tapestry, for six weeks July 7th - August 21st, opened these Google and Yahoo links indicated by check marks :   

Google Ranking | Google listing | Yahoo listing

2010, October - Senora Garduño, author and scholar, Guadalupe phenomenon, state of California court system translator comments on my thoughts to sell the sculpture: Link | Link

Mr. Atkins, Head Attorney, non-profit support law firm regarding:
1) Beneficiary procedure.
2) Virtually priceless nature of this artifact.
Link