Chicano/Latino heritage celebrated in Moses Lake
Richard Byrd/Columbia Basin Herald Library patrons old and young gazed at the Chicano/Latino heritage photographs on display at the Moses Lake Public Library.
Richard Byrd/Columbia Basin Herald Some of the pictures on display at the Moses Lake Public Library on Saturday were taken decades ago in the Columbia Basin.
Richard Byrd/Columbia Basin Herald Although people didn’t necessarily come to the Moses Lake Public Library on Saturday to look at museum artifacts, the series of photos on display were eye catchers for many.
MOSES LAKE — Saturday may have been set aside to honor Irish heritage and St. Patrick, but at the Moses Lake Public Library Chicano/Latino heritage took center stage for a few hours and stoked conversation amongst library patrons.
Sea Mar Community Health Centers, a non-profit organization that specializes in health and social services in Latino communities in Washington, brought a series of photographs to the library from a new Seattle-based museum that is being created by Sea Mar. The Sea Mar Museum of Chicano/Latino Culture is set to open to the public in Seattle in fall 2018. Thirteen pictures from the museum were brought to Moses Lake to promote the museum and highlight the heritage of a people group that has deep and long ties to the Columbia Basin.
“Being Latino-American I can tell you that we have had a lot more history in this area than most people think. So things like this are really kind of neat to just gently remind people of the melting pot that we live in,” library patron Donna Rosales remarked.
The Sea Mar Museum will be focusing primarily on migrant farmworkers and the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s to the 1970s. Although Sea Mar says they have an overall goal to “create a history legacy” that documents the life stories of Chicanos and Latinos in the Pacific Northwest, the museum will also recognize the instrumental impact that Chicanos and Latinos had and still have in central and eastern Washington.
“It’s kind of nostalgic to me. Because I looked at one of these pictures with a bunch of guys working in a field and it reminded me of my grandpa working down in south county for decades in the fields down there. He worked so hard every day along with a bunch of other good, honest people just trying to provide for their families,” Moses Lake resident Oscar Romero asserted on Saturday.
The Sea Mar Museum is also seeking out additional photographs, diaries, household items, work tools, clothing from the past and other items to add to the museum. If you have an item you are willing to donate or let the museum borrow email museum@seamarchc.org or visit www.seamar.org/museum for more information.
“I’m kind of kicking myself that just a couple of months ago I tossed out a shoebox of pictures that my grandma gave me probably over 20 years ago. I am hoping that I have similar ones that I can find and make copies of for this museum exhibit. It really would be something to see my family’s legacy cemented somewhere permanent,” Romero remarked.
Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.