Art show visits San Benito library
A traveling art show has made its way to the San Benito County
Free Library. The show,
”
Living Under the Trees: Indigenous Mexican Farmworkers in
California,
”
went up Feb. 2 and will be available for viewing through March
14. There will be a reception and community forum tonight, Feb. 20,
from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the library.
Art show visits San Benito library
A traveling art show has made its way to the San Benito County Free Library. The show, “Living Under the Trees: Indigenous Mexican Farmworkers in California,” went up Feb. 2 and will be available for viewing through March 14. There will be a reception and community forum tonight, Feb. 20, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the library.
The photographs are the work of David Bacon, and the images depict all aspects of farmworkers’ lives from working in the fields to their living conditions. The photographs are accompanied by written narratives.
“I came out of the labor movement,” Bacon said. “I used to be a union organizer. I grew up in Oakland and I didn’t know much about the lives of workers or indigenous people.”
Bacon worked for an electronic plant in Silicon Valley before he got involved in the United Farm Workers’ Union.
“There were a lot of Mexican members and I began to learn more about the situation,” he said. “When I started taking photographs and writing for a living, I tried to document the things I’d been a part of and the things I’d seen.”
Bacon chose to focus on indigenous communities because they were the most recent wave of immigrants. “Living Under the Trees” is supported by the California Council for the Humanities, the California Endowment, the Diane Middleton Foundation and the Ford Foundation.
Bacon produced the show in partnership with the California Rural Legal Assistance and the Binational Front of Indigenous Organizations, two agencies that work with indigenous immigrant populations.
“It’s a cooperative project,” he said. “Workers for the CRLA and the leaders of the Frente Binacionales (Binational Front) all helped me to get to know people. They would go with me to help translate. We would go to see some people who only know Oaxaca or Triqui. But mostly it was to show that they could trust me.”
Bacon was able to gain access to people’s homes and view many of their customs.
“Many of the things I was trying to show – some are very beautiful, the culture in the dances – but some things are more difficult to talk about like people’s housing conditions,” he said. “There is a lot of anti-immigration hysteria in this country and one of the reasons to do it is to show the reality. We need to look at the real conditions of people’s lives so we can have policies that help them, not hurt them.”
Reception and community forum
Friday, Feb. 20, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the San Benito County Free Library, 470 Fifth St., in Hollister.
