Cherished was presented in the exhibition GAMEX at the Hiroshima Art Center gallery. For the show Omar Rosales invited a group of Mexican artists to create an artwork utilizing a “gacha-gacha” capsule. These capsules are used in Japan in vending machines to sell randomly chosen small toys.

The intention of Cherished was to send a seed with the purpose of having it sprout in another territory as a cultural gesture between two nations. The seed sent was a Vigna angulares (produced in Mexico), commonly known as Adzuki bean. It was sent to Hiroshima with a capsule, and a set of instructions on how to plant it, nourish it and exhibit it.
The capsule has an electronic device, and headphones that when picked up trigger variants of the following monologue:

In 1960 a man in Lake Michigan admired his recently caught bluegill fish,
while holding it up in his hands.
The man, mesmerized and proud,
unconsciously relaxed his grasp.
The relaxation of the hands allowed the fish to loosen itself out
and dive through the man’s mouth into his throat.

It was bluegill that a mayor of Chicago gave as a present
to his guest Akihito, then Japan’s crown prince.
The keepsake invaded Lake Biwa in Shiga prefecture, the world’s third-oldest lake,
and ate to extinction several native species.

The monologue’s voice belongs to a Japanese woman who has lived for decades in Chicago.

GAMEX, Hiroshima Art Center, Hiroshima, 2013