The Derli Romero Cerna Papers are arranged chronologically by date of publication.
Accession No. RARE.2026.0026: Purchased, 2024 November; Accession No. RARE.2026.0032: Purchased, 2024 February
[identification of item], Derli Romero Cerna Papers, SPEC.RARE.0382, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Ohio State University
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Processed by: David Mezick, 2026 March; Finding aid written by: David Mezick, 2026 March
As of 2026, Derli Romero Cerna is an artist from Morelia, Michoacán, México, known for printmaking, artists' books, painting, and drawing. In 1985, he graduated from the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado “La Esmeralda” in Mexico City and from the Facultad de Artes y Diseño, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City in 2011. Derli Romero Cerna’s work has been exhibited in México, the United States, and several other countries since the early 1980s. He prints and publishes his own work and the work of others through the press Nihil Obstat, which started in the early 1990s.
The Derli Romero Cerna Papers, dated 2019 and 2025, contain artists' books created by Derli Romero Cerna that document the stories and likenesses of migrants traveling through México to the United States. The artists' books consist of boxes that each contain a series of silhouettes or profiles created by cutting or tearing paper. The paper profiles are printed with portrait images and/or text. In order to create the books, Derli Romero Cerna interviewed and photographed migrants traveling through México to the United States. He conducted interviews in the Méxican cities of Veracruz, Celaya, Mexicali, Tijuana, Irapuato, Guanajuato and Morelia. The countries of origin of the migrants he interviewed were in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean, including Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Venezuelan, and Haiti. Derli Romero Cerna used the photographs as references to create the migrants’ profiles with paper. He then printed the interviews or parts of the interviews on the paper. The migrants talk about their experiences, including the conditions, adversities, and violence they have faced, as well as their reasons for leaving their homes and their hopes for the future.