Examining Immigration with the Many Voices, One Nation Exhibit.

by Professor Roberto Hurtado, Spanish

On Sunday November 19^th at 2pm, 3 out of my 9 students met up with me at  the National Museum of American History. It was great being able to see students outside of the classroom. It also provided me an opportunity to learn more about them while we waited for others to join. One student had told me he’d be joining around 2:45 pm, and a couple students informed they wouldn’t be able to make it for work or family reasons.

At 2:10, we entered the Many Voices, One Nation exhibit, where students first encountered information about the European powers that vied for influence in the American continent. Some students were impacted by the legacy of slavery, and its contrast with voluntary European immigration.

As we continued through the exhibit, students would periodically study a particular object. They were particularly interested by objects early immigrants would bring to their journey to their new home. After they continued through the exhibit, I made a point to focus on the sections “Creating Community: Chicago and Los Angeles 1900-1965” and “New Americans, Continuing Debates, 1965-2000”. Students were interested in the origins of Los Angeles and took pictures of the famous bakery La Esperanza. They were also shocked by the pictures of Shishima family, whose grocery store operated near La Esperanza, as ordinary citizens, and later as repudiated ones in the Manzanar incarceration camp, after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Students were equally stunned by the personal items found in the Arizona desert, left by the arduous journey of undocumented immigrants who were seeking a better life in another country. A few students also made personal connections with some of the stories and objects they found, as they too had relatives who were immigrants.

I hope that my students were able to acquire a deeper understanding on the American immigrant experience, including its highs and lows, and appreciate how immigration has both defined and made this country.