Browse Exhibits (5 total)
Mixed Identities in Texas: Interactions with Majority Culture Groups
As a borderland state, Texas is a hotspot for cultural melding and mixed identities. However, the cultural landscape of the state extends far beyond our present-day conception of United States and Mexican contact. For instance, French immigrants arrived in Texas as early as 1964. Around the same time, Filipino immigrants founded influential associations to establish their identity. Some communities' roots travel back even further — such as the Tigua of Ysleta del Sur, who settled in present-day El Paso before Texas established its statehood. Each of these minority communities are often overlooked when considering Texas culture, but their experiences and interaction with the majority population are just as important as the more well-known cultural identities throughout Texas.
In this exhibit, we explore how French, Filipino, and Tigua communities conceptualize their identities in the context of cultural interactions with majority populations. Each community has also dealt with the pressures of assimilation in varying ways, and each response to assimilation can give us insight to understanding cultures and identities other than our own.
Mexican American Experiences in the 20th Century: Amplifying a History of Activism and Advocacy
This exhibit will draw on materials from the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History and the LLILAS Benson Latin American Collection to highlight stories of the Mexican American experience in Texas during the 20th century. The exhibit begins in the 1910s with the upheaval of the Mexican Revolution and ends in the 1990s with important educational and artistic movements occurring within Tejano communities. While these materials can be viewed in isolation from one another, we hope to impress that what links these selected materials is the impact that these hidden histories have had on the discourse and participation in activism and advocacy for Tejano communities. The materials presented demonstrate how different facets of Tejano activism and advocacy came into existence and operated at different points in the 20th century, and acted as a foundation for successive generations to either build upon or proliferate in new directions.
Bridging Gaps, Creating Change, and Defining Heritage at the University of Texas
This exhibit highlights key figures that have exemplified this change throughout the University’s history. By analyzing long-forgotten publications, individual correspondences, and personal narratives found in the campus archives, these key figures bridged gaps, created change, and helped to define the heritage in which students still participate today.
Snapshots: Community Networks and Media Ephemerality
This exhibit includes an array ephemeral pieces, all of which give insight into how non-majority communities communicate both with themselves and with others via creative outlets.
Mexican-American Identity in the Southwest
In the American Southwest, particularly in Texas, there is a strong sense of regional identity connected to Mexico and the border that divides the two. This is due to the large population that identifies with Mexican heritage, from individuals who emigrated in the 2000's to those whose ancestors emigrated in the 1800s. Today, that identity is condensed into the concept of being a "Mexican-American", in part defined by the journeys taken by their ancestors from Mexico to the US and often back again. The traversing of a "border", whether legal or conceptual, is often integral to identity formation and something we hope to explore through this exhibit.
In order to trace the identity of Mexican-Americans in the Southwestern United States, or "Borderlands", the exhibit will look at artifacts from a 19th century Spanish-language theatre troupe to photos of migrant farmers of the 1930s, to contemporary scripts continuing the legacy of the 20th century Chicano movement.
By Kira Azulay, Ashton Sauseda, Brennan Upchurch