Within the framework of the 3rd edition of Instituto Cervantes New York Simposium, we present “American Latinos 1935-1945”, an immersive video installation with 235 breathtaking images that might change the way you look at American history, and the role that Latinos have played in it.
While working on another project for the Museum of the American Latino, Alberto Ferreras, the curator of the exhibition, found a trove of photographs (1935-1945) of what we now consider Latinos: Mexicans, Spanish-Americans and Puerto Ricans. These images were captured by the most influential photographers in American history: Dorothea Lange, Jack Delano, Russell Lee, John Collier Jr., Marion Post Wolcott, Arthur Rothstein, Edwin and Louise Rosskam, and Ben Shahn—to name a few. They document a vibrant Hispanic presence in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Louisiana, Minnesota, Idaho, Nevada, Colorado, Nebraska, Virginia, Mississippi, South Dakota, California, and Puerto Rico. The captions were often written by the photographers themselves, adding invaluable context to these images. In the exhibition, multiple screens allow viewers to appreciate the original frame of the photographs, and also their breathtaking details.
Hispanics are commonly considered recent additions to this country, but these images seem to indicate that Latinos are ubiquitously woven into the fabric of US history since even before this period.