Images from Joiri Minaya, Gabriela Ruiz and Tarrah Krajnak.
Images, clockwise from left: Joiri Minaya, Gabriela Ruiz and Tarrah Krajnak show the breadth of work included.
“You Belong Here: Place, People, and Purpose in Latinx Photography,” which opens at the Chazen Museum of Art on Dec. 9, was conceived long before Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign promise of mass deportations of undocumented people gave special immediacy to the issue. The election’s result and its distinct message of “you don’t belong here” makes the exhibit especially pertinent. “You Belong Here” will be on display at the Chazen through March 7.
The exhibit looks through the lenses of 15 Latinx photographers “to begin to answer the question ‘What does it mean to be Latinx in America?’ And it shows a variety of experiences,” says James Wehn, curator of works on paper at the Chazen and liaison for the exhibit. The works cover politics, family life, fashion and culture, addressing the idea of identity within the U.S. but also within the Latinx community.
Largely these photographers have been excluded from the canon of U.S. photography, Wehn explains, going unnoticed in the mainstream despite a U.S. Latino/a population of more than 60 million, some 19% of the population.
“‘You Belong Here,’ that idea, contrasts with what this community of Latinx people has been told for a long time, that you’re outside, that this isn’t really for you, the wealth, the good things of America,” Wehn says. “And even if you are an American citizen and Latinx, you’re not really from here, you do not really belong here.” This exhibit turns that message on its head “to say yes, we do belong.”
Latinx culture is often generalized and stereotyped, says Wehn, but there is a lot of diversity within it, something the exhibit aims to make clear. It was curated by Pilar Rivas of Los Angeles’ Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and originally part of the winter 2021 issue of Aperture magazine. The Chazen was especially interested in hosting the traveling exhibit of “You Belong Here” to show images curated from within the Latinx community — “not just including the community, but giving agency to that community,” Wehn says.
Not all of the photos are straight documentary work. Watch for the compositions of Tarrah Krajnak, who was adopted from Peru by American parents. She projects images of herself onto found images from her research into her heritage to depict her journey integrating two cultures.
Joiri Minaya (born in New York but raised in the Dominican Republic) superimposes her body onto vintage ephemera like postcards to build a new image, “breaking apart stereotypical identity,” says Wehn.
Programming around “You Belong Here” includes curator conversations with Wehn at 5 p.m. on Jan. 29 and 10 a.m. on Feb. 21; a talk by UW-Madison professor of English Theresa Delgadillo, who specializes in Latinx lit, on “Working to Create Home in Latinx Photography” at 5 p.m. on Feb. 11; and photographers Star Montana and Darcy Padilla will appear at the exhibition reception from 5-7:30 p.m. on Feb 28. More information and free tickets to the programs are at chazen.wisc.edu.
