Photo exhibit to highlight National Hispanic Heritage Month
The Victoria Regional History Center will be showcasing Celebrar las Raíces de Victoria, a photo exhibit highlighting the impact of Hispanic history in Victoria’s roots.
“We did a larger display for Hispanic Heritage Month last year, but we wanted to focus it on different aspects within our community,” said Brittany Rodriguez, special collections librarian at University of Houston-Victoria. “Last year was our first year putting together a Hispanic Heritage Month exhibit.”
The photo exhibit is viewable all throughout National Hispanic Heritage Month between Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 and is located on the third-floor landing of the UHV library. The hours are Monday to Thursday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. The Victoria Regional History Center is a joint collaboration between UHV and Victoria College.
“We welcome the public, as well as the UHV and Victoria College communities to stop by,” Rodriguez said. “UHV students will be able to earn Paw Points by visiting the exhibit.”
The exhibit will focus on six themes: religion, history, community, military/politics, business and music. In preparation for the gallery, the team combed through the center’s photo collection, as well as the Victoria Advocate photo archives to select the six themes, Rodriguez said.
As part of the exhibit, a display case contains recreated banners of the “Diez Amigos” from the 1999 Victoria County Heritage Festival that was originally created by the Hispanic Genealogical Society. Some of the photographs include members from the 1984 Victoria Ballet Folklorico as well as Hispanic members of the military during the Battle of Puebla in 1862 and World War II.
“We hope to share photos within our collection to the students and the community,” Rodriguez said. “This is just a small glimpse, but you never know what treasures you may find in archives.”
The University of Houston-Victoria, located in the heart of the Coastal Bend region since 1973 in Victoria, Texas, offers courses leading to more than 50 academic programs in the schools of Arts & Sciences; Business Administration; and Education, Health Professions & Human Development. UHV provides face-to-face classes at its Victoria campus, as well as an instructional site in Katy, Texas, and online classes that students can take from anywhere. UHV supports the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Opportunities for All initiative to increase awareness about state colleges and universities and the important role they have in providing a high-quality and accessible education to an increasingly diverse student population, as well as contributing to regional and state economic development.