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Border doors created by Sandia Prep advanced Spanish-language students over the years are featured in a new exhibit.

The Border Doors exhibit opened on August 14 at the Mexican Consulate of Albuquerque with a tour and roundtable discussion. Pérez --along with Prep alumni Eleanor Clark-Slakey '25, Olivia Chavez '25, and a former Prep teacher -- presented in both Spanish and English. The same doors featured for nearly a year at the Albuquerque Museum are on display, along with 12 new doors created by students who graduated last spring.

You can watch a Telemundo story about the opening here.

Since 2014, Pérez has taken his advanced Spanish-language students to El Paso, Texas, where they use their Spanish skills to interact first-hand with immigrants and advocates at the Cristo Rey Border Immersion Program.

Upon their return to Albuquerque, students illustrate a series of doors containing colorful and powerful imagery that tells the stories of the people they met and reflect on major themes of immigration at the border.

The consulate is at 1610 Fourth St. NW.

Last fall, the Albuquerque Museum hosted an exhibition of students’ border doors created between 2019 and 2024. The exhibit contemplated the symbolic door -- unlike a physical border wall or fence -- as it related to the immigrant experience. The exhibition wrapped up in May.

Pérez has taught at Prep since 2002.