Power to the Patients | Demand Hospital Prices Poster

Winner of Jury Award for the
Power to the Patients’ Open Art Call.

“Hospitals are now legally obligated to show us their prices upfront.
Unfortunately, most US hospitals are still not complying with this rule,
and patients are getting destroyed financially as a result.
Last year we held an open art call to raise awareness that prices are now
a patient’s right and we must demand them!” - Power to the Patients

The Disappeared /
Los desaparecidos

Concept and Direction by Pauline Mateos, in collaboration with Refuse Fascism

The Disappeared is a multidisciplinary activist project by visual artist and filmmaker Pauline Mateos, created in collaboration with Refuse Fascism. Combining visual art, performance, and film, the project confronts state violence, forced disappearance, and the expanding machinery of authoritarianism in the United States.

The mural installation, unveiled on Olvera Street in Los Angeles on July 3, 2025, features the names and faces of people detained or deported during the Trump administration’s ICE raids. The installation functions as both a public memorial and an act of resistance. In a powerful moment, Mateos is seen holding a photo of Moises Sotelo in front of the mural, underscoring the personal and collective cost of these state actions.

The accompanying performance featured dozens of participants dressed in white, kneeling silently in formation to evoke the haunting imagery of detainees in El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison. By transplanting this regime of visual control onto U.S. soil, the piece draws urgent parallels between Bukele’s carceral authoritarianism and secretive U.S. detention centers such as Camp East Montana in Texas and “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida. Activists have described these sites as black site concentration camps that represent an emerging form of domestic fascism.

A 7-minute film captures the aesthetic and emotional intensity of the installation, followed by a 15-minute talk in which Mateos traces the project's evolution from concept to street action to cinematic adaptation. The discussion reflects on the role of visual language and embodied protest as forms of political intervention and historical witness.

Presented at the 2025 Regimes Museum conference at UC Irvine, The Disappeared / Los desaparecidos was described as “powerful and enlightening.” The project asserts that fascism is not a distant or foreign threat but a present and lived danger that demands public confrontation through cultural resistance and collective action.


Graphic artist Pauline Mateos holds a photo of Moises Sotelo against a backdrop of an installation with the names and faces of people who have been detained or deported during the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations at Olvera Street in Los Angeles on July 3, 2025. The installation, designed by Pauline Mateos, is part of a protest by Refuse Fascism against the people who have been abducted in ICE raids.”
Los Angeles Times photo by: Genaro Molina

Pro bono publico work for RefuseFascism.org
©Pauline Mateos / Refuse Fascism