Students' push for change results in new Latino history exhibit in Chicago

Curators and museum leadership typically form and select exhibits.  It was high school students though that helped change an exhibit about Latino culture in Chicago.  Aqui en Chicago is now open.

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The Trump administration's efforts to change what's displayed at the Smithsonian and other places makes clear something curators have known all along - designing exhibitions means choosing a point of view. But you don't have to be a government official to want a say in how a story is told. Reporter Jessica Pupovac takes us to Chicago, where Latino high school students asked for more collaboration and change.

JESSICA PUPOVAC: It was 2019 when students from the Instituto Justice and Leadership Academy traveled to the Chicago History Museum. This is a recording shared by their teacher.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Well, welcome.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Hi. Nice to meet you.

PUPOVAC: They didn't come for a tour. They came with a list of demands, and they were a little nervous.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MONCE GUTIERREZ: My name is Monce, and I'm here to stand with and for my people.

PUPOVAC: This was the second visit for Monce Gutierrez (ph) and the other students. The first time around, they found very little representation of their communities. They demanded a meeting with museum leadership, and it worked. They met with a senior vice president, several curators and other staff members to tell them how the museum looked from their perspective.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ROGELIO VILLEGAS: We did see an exhibit on Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. But we would like to see more people in Chicago 'cause basically, this is a Chicago history museum.

PUPOVAC: Rogelio Villegas said a massive '78 Chevy lowrider in the lobby was stereotypical and more of an LA thing.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

VILLEGAS: It doesn't represent us as people, and we would like to see a change in that.

ANTON MIGLIETTA: I felt like this was going to be an exciting journey...

PUPOVAC: Anton Miglietta was their teacher.

MIGLIETTA: That also may teach them that change is hard.

PUPOVAC: Miglietta says at the end of the meeting, museum leadership promised to continue the conversation and do better. And now, after six years of relationship building, fundraising, development, the Chicago History Museum has opened "Aqui" - or here - "En Chicago."

ELENA GONZALES: My name is Elena. I'm the curator of "Aqui En Chicago."

PUPOVAC: Elena Gonzales was the lead curator.

GONZALES: This is an exhibition that is a response to students from Instituto Justice and Leadership Academy. We, in this exhibition, are saying this is your history as you stand on these generations of people who've come before you doing that type of work.

PUPOVAC: It tells the story of how Latino people made Chicago what it is today. It celebrates foods that became city staples like the tamale, first introduced at the 1893 Colombian Exposition in Chicago, tells the story of protests in the '70s and '80s that led to the creation of new schools in Latino neighborhoods, and acknowledges the 2019 campaign with its many artifacts, including poster board signs the students made and shared on social media with messages like Latinx history matters.

GONZALES: The students who started this were some of our first interns on the project, but we actually expanded our internship program to include students from across the area.

PUPOVAC: That's just one of many ways they built this exhibit with community input, and that continues. People can still contribute photos to a digital scrapbook or record Indigenous languages for the collection.

GONZALES: If you've heard that saying nothing about us without us - right? - we want to be telling Chicago's history in collaboration with local communities of all different kinds.

PUPOVAC: "Aqui En Chicago" will be on display at the Chicago History Museum through November of this year.

For NPR News, I'm Jessica Pupovac in Chicago.

(SOUNDBITE OF ANTONIO SANCHEZ'S "DOORS AND DISTANCE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.