Ask Yourself, What am I doing here?

Fuera de las sombras

Friday night my son and I attended a reception for a new exhibit, Out of the Shadows- Fuera de las Sombras, at Neville Public Museum. We were invited to the reception because it includes a photo of my son. The small exhibit poses three questions to both the people in the photo panels and the people viewing the exhibit:

1. Why am I here?
2. What am I doing here?
3. What are my hopes and dreams?

By asking these questions and showing photos of area Hispanic community members with their answers, the exhibit starts to bring the Hispanic community in the area “out of the shadows”. Hopefully, seeing these faces and  reading about their experiences will help people make connections and break down stereotypes associated with Hispanics in Northeastern Wisconsin.

Why were we there?

You might be asking yourself why P was in the exhibit. Part of the goals of the exhibit is to show how diverse the Hispanic community is…beyond what we see in the media, beyond our stereotypes and generalizations. With blond hair, blue eyes and fair skin most people have no idea P is half Mexican (Once you meet him you’ll know. He’s pretty proud of both sides of his family and he’s not shy about it!). It’s also not typical to be Skyping with your cousin who is Miss Earth Mexico and came in 9th in the world at the international competition.

For me, it was a beautiful evening. The exhibit was tasteful, subtle and effective. P and I ran into an old friend of mine from high school, met new people, tried new foods and put faces to names we’d heard a lot about. The most impressive thing for me though, was the emotion and energy. I can’t explain how good it felt to see Green Bay moving forward in such a positive way. The Neville recently ended an extensive exhibit featuring the Hmong in Northeastern Wisconsin. It was said at Friday’s event that the Neville will be expanding Out of the Shadows in much the same way. In the future I hope to see exhibits like these for the area Polish, German, Russian, you name it, communities. As the Green Bay moves forward re-establishing its downtown area, it’s good to see we’re also focusing on the people in the area.

 Ask Yourself, What am I doing here?

I’m not going to show you the entire exhibit. I’m not going to tell you everything you’ll see. I want you, if you live locally, to go there to see the faces yourselves. Read their stories yourselves. See that “Hispanic” is just a word. These are people. 

Whether you make it to the exhibit or not, I encourage you (as the exhibit does) to ask yourselves those three questions:

1. Why am I here? (in whatever town, city, state or country you find yourself in)
2. What am I doing here? (biding time, making change, supporting family?)
3. What are my hopes and dreams?

For hours and information about the exhibit (housed in a larger exhibit, MuseumPLACE) visit the Neville Public Museum’s website here.