Walk Down the Streets of Oaxaca at the Herzstein Latin American Gallery
March 12, 2013
In November, 2012, Molly Nelson, a Master's student in the Latin American & Iberian Institute's (LAII) Latin American Studies program, curated an exhibition "Street Art of Oaxaca: Photos + Narratives from the Streets," in conjunction with University Libraries' Inter-American Studies Program. The exhibit has been on view since then in the Zimmerman Library Herzstein Latin American Gallery.
Now, as the exhibit closes this month, UNMToday met with Nelson to discuss her inspiration in staging the exhibition and the impact that the visual work has had on visitors to the gallery. In part, she explains that the photography has provided the opportunity to figuratively walk through the streets of Oaxaca and explore political protest at a personal level. Nelson also notes that the project began with her experience as a field researcher in Oaxaca, a research initiative that was funded in part through the LAII's field research grants for graduate students. Suzanne Schadl, Assistant Professor and Curator of the Inter-American Studies Program for UNM University Libraries, also joins the discussion to explain how the exhibit connects to the other collections in the library and how visitors can access them.
Nelson's experience highlights two of the primary resources available to Latin Americanist faculty and graduate students at UNM: first, the LAII's field research grants, which are available to support graduate students and faculty in any UNM department who conduct field work in Latin America; and, second, the Latin American collections at UNM, which represent one of the strongest holdings of Latin American library materials in the country. For more information about the former, visit the LAII's funding page. For more information about the latter, visit the website for the Inter-American Studies Program, which oversees the university's Hispanic/Latino/Chicano studies, Latin American and Iberian studies, and American studies library collections.
