How not to tell a story
How do we tell stories that are not our own? This was a central question our video journalism class explored in preparation for making our own documentaries. Our experience at the Allentown Art Museum’s Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art exhibit provided a more insightful experience than any of us could have expected.
This exhibit showcases conceptual artwork exploring Latino Identity through the lens of people who take on that identity. Themes that were threaded throughout the exhibit were fragility, vulnerability, alienation, diaspora, and the American Dream. This exhibit holds a significant role in our community because of its large Latino Identifying population. We were therefore shocked when our tour guide used the terms ‘Hispanic’ and ‘Latino’ interchangeably during the introduction of our tour. A Latina identifying student thoroughly explained that there is a difference between the two; however, the tour guide continued to use the term ‘Hispanic’ when referring to Latino artists.
As the tour went on, the guide continued to undermine the complexity and tension of the artwork, even calling the show a “hodgepodge of pieces.” The guide had a lack of nuanced understanding of the art which caused the guide to oversimplify and misinterpret the pieces. At one point, while showing us portrait photographs of a Puerto Rican man and woman, the guide coined a casually dressed pair as “laborers” despite there being no specification made by the artist or the presentation of the people that would indicate their profession.
Our class was sensitive to these nuanced injustices because of our recent discussions about the importance of being aware of the implications of telling others’ stories. We immediately recognized a problem with the tour guide’s relationship with the artwork. The guide was not of Latino identity, and yet the guide was speaking through a third person perspective. Despite being given the job to present this art, the guide had little understanding, but more importantly little desire, to understand the rich and complex nature of the artwork. As an educational resource, the museum takes on the responsibility of presenting facts to be true, and to present artwork with the artist’s integrity in mind. There is a potential for the artwork to be misrepresented which is unjust to the artist and also to those who hold those identities.
Through this experience, the danger of generalization and oversimplification when representing or speaking for someone else’s work became more overwhelmingly apparent. A museum is a space that looks to create context for the pieces within it. If the museum does not present the pieces in the exact way the artist would, it is a representation. In this way, a museum has to ask the same ethical question when it comes to representing other people’s’ stories or artwork as we do as documentarians: If we are not speaking for those people, how do we share stories that are not our own? Further, we have to be even more intentional when representing historically misrepresented and underrepresented identities in order to not perpetuate ignorance. Instead, we need to dismantle the systems that oppress by challenging the oppressive views.
On a personal note, I (Annie) identify as a Latina, but even so, I felt viewing each art piece made me learn more about each culture, including my own.
That being said, even I could not speak on the stories of the Puerto Rican artists because those are not my stories to tell. One could see how enraged I was to see that a tour guide who in no way identifies as Latino, nor feels comfortable around those who are Latino, can speak on the stories and lives of these artists. It was extremely insulting and offensive to hear phrases such as “art is a luxury that Latinos did not have until the 1980s” especially when I had already established to the tour guide that I identify as Latina. I felt singled out being the only Latina in class and while I did speak out, the tour guide made it apparent that she had all the “right” answers. As we (Latinos) struggle to fight for equality, especially on this month celebrating Hispanic Heritage, it is disheartening that people like this tour guide do not understand, nor have a desire to learn, how problematic, hurtful, and disrespectful these experiences are.
Being at a Primarily White Institution (PWI) such as Muhlenberg, the importance of being socially conscious of situations like these becomes crucial. It was encouraging to see that the whole class had similar feelings of outrage towards this experience, because it shows an increase in social awareness within our community. However, it also provides a platform to further the conversation around representation of bodies with diverse experiences on campus. There are many opportunities in class discussions to bring up your voice or express a desire to be an ally. It should not be the complete responsibility of marginalized groups to speak out for the change and be the single voice. We must all step forward, speak up, and take part of the responsibility to make the change.