One day inspired the newest exhibition at the Chazen Museum: ‘You Belong Here: Place People, and Purpose in Latinx Photography’ — May 10, 1974.

On that day, a woman named Dolores in Dallas, Texas, visited her grandfather, bringing a tray with her. Her grandfather was bedridden by his age and illness, and the woman was bringing his lunch. Dolores would happily tell him the good news — she was pregnant. Her grandfather cried with happiness before eating his meal. Little did the young girl know, on returning to take the tray, she discovered it was her grandfather’s last meal.

Dolores went on to give birth to a girl, Pilar Tompkins Rivas, who became chief curator at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles. She would also go on to serve as the guest editor for Aperture Magazine’s winter 2021 edition, ‘Latinx,’ celebrating Latin American photographers across the country.

In 2024, Aperture Magazine decided to organize an exhibition inspired by its 2021 ‘Latinx’ issue. Rivas stepped in as its curator, curating its various political and social messages and the warmth of family.

Similar to her touch found in the 2021 ‘Latinx’ issue, the exhibit not only shows the social and economic problems faced by the Latin American community but also the community itself with the happiness and sadness they experience through their struggle.

For example, one photograph shows a young teenage girl and her mother exchanging clothes with others, an act which brings a beautiful smile to the girl’s face. In another, people are playing a water. These two photographs show the economic and social struggles of Latin Americans but the struggle is hidden beneath the warmth of the girl’s smile or the pleasure in the people as they play with cold water in a hot sunny day.

Another photograph is of a little girl standing amidst a landfill. She stands alone looking on with a sense of desolate sadness.

According to the Van Vleck Curator of Works on Paper at the Chazen Museum James R. Wehn, the exhibit is aimed at bringing Latin American photographers who were previously marginalized in the annals of American history together with Latin American communities.

“If you were to get a course book on photography you wouldn’t see many Latin American photographers represented,” Wehn said. “It [the exhibit] gives visibility to both Latin American photographers in the history of photography, and also to Latin American communities.”

Beyond showing the human and the familial, the exhibit also addresses specific problems faced by many Latin American communities in urban settings, primarily the issue of gentrification. It is addressed most prominently through the work of William Camargo, a photo-based artist from Anaheim, Calif.

Amongst Camargo’s other works present in the exhibit, the issue of gentrification is brought out by his 8-photograph art piece in which he is seen removing a real estate expansion poster from a lamp post. With his face hidden behind the poster, he brings the helpless and voiceless emotions he feels as he watches events that will eventually force him and his community away from their homes into view.

Another theme pursued by the exhibition is the in-between, the place between the old home and the new one, a subject immortalized by ancient classics such as Virgil’s “Aeneid” and Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy.”

The pieces of Star Montana and Genesis Báez are good examples, of this amongst others. Montana, a Los Angeles-based photographer, has works that amplify old and time-worn photographers of family members.  

“Presenting vernacular Latin American photography, she [Montana] is referring to the Latin American diaspora; her family’s experiences of loss and intergenerational trauma” James said.  

Montana’s work captures the day-to-day lives of her family members, and by doing so, represents the lives of Latin Americans. Her pieces also emulate water damage done to original photographs archived by her. According to James, the disintegration of photographs shows how cultural ties can loosen as people gain new ones.  

“We have so many people in the United States who’ve immigrated, who’ve come from one place to another. They have ties to where they came from, but they’ve also set down new roots in this place.” James said. 

Similar stories of diaspora are also seen in the works of photographer Genesis Báez, who was born in New England to Puerto Rican immigrants.  

Báez grew up in the U.S., but her family maintained strong ties with Puerto Rico. She truly experienced her culture when she was taken back to Puerto Rico by her mother and grandmother.  

Though she did not live in Puerto Rico, the culture was always present through the women in her life. Her pieces embody her implicit cultural experience through photographs of women braiding another’s hair or embracing each other.  

Touching and nurturing is present amongst the women in her photograph. When one of the women braids the hair of another, the manner and subtlety of the act arising from thought and remembrance of past lives shows the implicit cultural experience Báez had growing up.

“Her contact with her homeland, or her family’s place of origin, has really been through the women in her life — been through the care and touch and nurturing that happens within that,” James said.  

The exhibition holds various other pieces depicting Latin American artists and wishes to promote their culture and photography as a part of mainstream American art by providing museum space for their work.

The exhibit began Dec. 9, 2024 and will remain open until Mar. 7, 2025.