The Washington Post, 7/23/2013
Alejandro Santiago, a Mexican artist who filled the streets of his hometown with clay figures to represent the migrants who left for the United States, died Monday. He was 49. Santiago died of a heart attack, said Emilio de Leo, the Oaxaca state culture director. De Leo said Santiago had diabetes for years.
Santiago, a painter and sculptor who studied in the workshop of Rufino Tamayo in Oaxaca, had shows in Mexico, the United States and Europe. His best known work was “2,501 Migrants,” which opened in 2007 in his picturesque hometown of Teococuilco, in southern Oaxaca state. Financed with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, it was an ambitious work to create an army of life-size clay figures to replace departed townspeople.
Mexico Institute 