Artists design sheep wagon for the 21st century

Artists in the state of Colorado want to makeover the rustic sheep wagons used by immigrant workers across the West, suggesting the portable homes be spruced up to look like futuristic space vehicles with gardens and solar panels. Immigrants from Peru, Chile, Mexico and Nepal who come to the U.S. on temporary work permits sometimes live in worn-out one-room trailers in desolate landscapes, including in Wyoming, California, and Utah. The working conditions caught the attention of Colorado lawmakers this year, but no legislation materialized. Artists with the Yuma-based non-profit M12 say the debate doesn't have to be contentious. They created three proposals to revamp the sheep wagon — known to the workers as "campitos" — and will show the designs on the walls of a trailer turned into a gallery, along with an old sheep wagon for comparison. "We decided to take on the campito as a design problem. These things look like covered wagons because they were designed in the 19th century at a time when that made sense," Saxton said. "Our question was, what would a campito look like for the 21st century?" What M12 came up with were tricked-out wagons that look like they came out of "The Jetsons." One design looks like a roly poly, folding into a ball to be towed by a truck and unfolding into a tent-shaped wagon when it's parked. In another design, the wagon looks like a space capsule with wheels similar to those of a Mars rover. The third design is made up of three modules for a garden, bed, and kitchen — features that all the designs have, along with a global communications system to make phone calls...more