Now on view in the library's 1st floor gallery space (past the library café and adjacent to the study rooms) is the poster exhibit, Bittersweet Harvest: The Bracero Program, 1942-1964. This bilingual exhibit (Spanish-English) examines the experiences of Mexican guest workers and their families during World War II and in the post-war era. Then some 2 million Mexican men came to the U.S. on short-term labor contracts in what became the largest guest worker program in American history, the Emergency Farm Labor Program, also known as the Bracero Program. ("Bracero" is a Spanish word indicating "manual laborer" or "one who works using his arms.")
The posters feature images and interviews by documentary photographer Leonard Nadel (1916-1990), who chronicled the experiences of Braceros. Because of World War II labor shortages, the U.S. initiated a series of agreements with the government of Mexico to recruit guest workers for American farms and railroads. Although the work was grueling and the Braceros experienced exploitation, discrimination, segregation, family separation, and other ills, the laborers made a significant impact on the political, economic, and social climate of both the United States and Mexico.
The exhibit is bookended by two posters from the Mr. Johnson Paints portrait series, one of César Estrada Chávez (1927-1993) and the second of Dolores Fernández Huerta (1930- ). Chávez was an Arizona-born Mexican American farm laborer, who later became a labor leader and civil rights activist. Huerta is a New Mexico-born, California-based Mexican American labor leader and civil rights activist. Huerta and Chávez founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which evolved into the United Farm Workers (UFW) labor union. Through the activism of Chávez, Huerta, and others, the Bracero Program ended in 1964.
The exhibit was organized by the National Museum of American History in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) and received support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center. The photographs featured in the exhibit are by Leonard Nadel.
At USC Upstate, the exhibit is presented by the library in collaboration with the South Carolina Centro Latino.
***
Image credit: "The first Braceros arriving in Los Angeles by train in 1942" by Dorothea Lange, working for the US Government, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Now on view in the library's gallery café (1st floor) is the exhibit, Good Trouble, which highlights some of the historical and contemporary defenders of civil, human, animal, and environmental rights, in the United States and around the world.
The exhibit is centered around the phrase, "Good trouble, necessary trouble,' coined by late U.S. Representative and beloved American civil rights leader, John Lewis, who once stated that engaging in "good trouble, necessary trouble" was important to achieve change.
Featured in the exhibit are a range of colorful poster portraits of these leaders, including the following:
These poster portraits were created by Mr. Johnson Paints, an artist, educator, and online retailer from Minneapolis, Minnesota. They will be on view in the library through Fall 2024.
In the mad dash at the end of academic year 2023-2024, we forgot to share some important news about new e-resources the library has added to its collections. So here goes:
These new resources support student learning and faculty teaching and research across the disciplines. They are available on campus and off campus to members of the USC Upstate community. Please let us know how useful you find them and how you use them for your assignments and research!
Image credit: Tomomarusan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The USC Upstate Display Committee is excited to announce our latest display “Back To School.” With the new school year starting on campus, our committee wanted to highlight library materials related to this subject. The material on display is a mix of movies and children’s books from our very impressive and bountiful juvenile collection. All the material currently on the display is available for checkout. We are hoping that all students will see these materials and decorations and feel both intrigued and slight comfort as they are starting their new classes. This display will be here throughout August and then will morph into a display focusing on material about different class majors available at USC Upstate. Be on the lookout for that display in September.