About this Exhibition
There are approximately 100,000 Latinos in the Richmond metropolitan area who represent a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. The Valentine, in collaboration with partners from the Richmond Public Library, Sacred Heart Center, and the University of Richmond, sought to understand, preserve, and honor the histories, cultures, and experiences of Latinos in Richmond. Community members of Latino heritage were invited to share their memories, objects, or photographs to help develop an archive and exhibition centering the integral role and contributions of Latinos to the city of Richmond.
Exhibition Details
Photo by Michael Lease
01
How We Got Started
We organized several screenings of NEH-produced documentaries from the larger series Latino Americans: 500 Years of History.
Together with UR professor Lazáro Lima, we secured an NEH/ALA grant to commemorate 500 years of Latino history. The funds enabled us to create a series of events for our linked classes—Patricia and Laz’s upper-level course Performing Latino U.S.A.: Democracy, Demography and Equality, and Laura’s first-year seminar, Latinos in Richmond.
We organized screenings of NEH-produced documentaries Foreigners in their Own Land (1565-1880) and Peril and Promise (1980-2000) and curated two events: Latino Lives, American Dream: Young Latino Fiction with award-winning Richmond-based Latina author Meg Medina, and a community conversation at The Valentine, Latinos in Richmond: Breaking the Black and White Binary, the first discussion of Latinos in Richmond ever hosted at the museum.
02
Class
Our students examined the history of Latinos in the United States and the South, visited Latino spaces in Richmond, and took part in the series of NEH-sponsored events. The goal of both courses was to explore how Latinos–the nation’s largest “minority” group in a representative democracy like America– is also the most underrepresented. As part of both courses, students conducted two oral history interviews with groups of 5-7 community members.
—
Photos by Michael Lease
03
Cuentos e Historias, Stories and Histories
During the course of the semester, we hosted several Cuentos e historias, Stories and Histories sessions at Sacred Heart Center and The Valentine. We invited community members to bring in objects that reminded them of their immigration experience or of their life in Richmond as Latinos. Over fifty participants shared their stories in small-group oral history interviews. Many of the objects that people brought became part of the exhibition at The Valentine. The oral histories and curated events served as the launching point for the Nuestra Historia: Latinos in Richmond exhibition at the Valentine Museum.
—
Photos by Michael Lease
Foreigners in Their Own Land
February 4
The Peril & the Promise
February 11
Latino Lives American Dreams
February 18
Breaking the Black Brown Binary
February 25
Staff Interviews at Sacred Heart
March 23
Oral Histories at Sacred Heart
March 30
Exhibition Logo by Laura Jefferson
Exhibition Installation Photos by Terry Brown
04
Exhibition
The oral histories and curated events served as the launching point for the Nuestra Historia: Latinos in Richmond exhibition at the Valentine Museum that opened in Fall 2017. This was the first time that The Valentine, which has been collecting, preserving and interpreting Richmond’s 400-year history for over a century, dedicated an exhibition to Latinos. Additionally, Nuestras Historias included the stories of dozens of immigrants—from those who arrived in RIchmond from Cuba in the 1960s, to more recent immigrants from Guatemala and El Salvador. Because The Valentine had no collection of Latinx artifacts from Richmond, the museum hired Wanda Hernández, a project curator with Latino expertise, to help build the collection. Together, we participated in conducting oral history interviews and visited such renowned Latinx-owned businesses in Richmond as Sabrosita Bakery and Kuba Kuba and hosted a day of oral histories at The Valentine as well.
As a result of the exhibition, The Valentine has committed to making the narrative of Richmond more inclusive by offering their informational material and children’s activity books in Spanish and English. The oral histories that we conducted for the Nuestras Historias are now part VCU’s research project “Latinx/Mixteco Health Project,” an interdisciplinary project aimed to understand the experiences of the Latinx community in Richmond, with a specific focus on health and health care access and utilization.
AHAR Soccer Ball by Terry Brown
2010 U.S. Census Form
Christy’s by Steven Casanova
Embroidered Servilleta by Terry Brown
Hector Barez by Steven Casanova
Humberto Macaiza Shoes by Terry Brown
Community Partners
Funders
