Girls as “important actors in history”: National exhibition goes beyond easy stereotypes
By hola | Published | No Comments
When Dr. Mireya Loza and other curators at the National Museum of American History began work on an exhibition celebrating girlhood in the United States, they instantly agreed that they wanted it to reflect the realities of girls from every background and race.
“We didn’t want young girls of color to be an add on…. We wanted them to be an integral part of the story,” Loza says. In fact, she says the stories of Latina, African-American and Indigenous girls told through this major national exhibition often “center them as important actors in history.”
“Girlhood (it’s complicated)” encompasses both triumphs and trials in the lives of girls—including girls of color—and illustrates how they have left their mark on the country and U.S. history. The exhibition marks 100 years of women’s suffrage this year. Politics, fashion, education, work, and wellness are influenced vociferously by women and girls; this current exhibition on girlhood provides a glimpse into what that looks like.
It opened in October at the museum, which is currently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will run through early January 2023, and then begin a two-year national tour through the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service.
Loza and Clara de Pablo, a Smithsonian communications assistant, visited a recent online meeting of our Storytelling Program for Experiential Learning (SPEL) and gave us a virtual 3D tour of the exhibition from the website of the museum.
As we dive into the five main areas showcased, this compelling exhibition navigates not only the elated victories but also the dismal tribulations that girls have endured throughout history. In the area devoted to the U.S. educational system, we learn that girls, especially African-Americans, endured many hardships to obtain an education. Because of their sacrifices, they opened educational pathways for future generations of girls of color, as well.
This art show also chronicles the political engagement of girls over time. It spotlights, for instance, Naomi Wadler, an African-American girl who raised awareness about the disproportionate effect of gun violence on black girls and women. By raising her voice and taking a political stand, she is in a long tradition of girls, who regardless of age, race or ethnicity, have and will always have a voice.
Latinas are prominent figures in the section on girlhood labor. Virtually touring the exhibition, we enter the world of agricultural work, domestic labor and childcare. Oftentimes Latinas and other underprivileged girls of color were fated to take on arduous jobs in order to survive in this country. The curators find many creative ways to illustrate how these girls surmounted daunting obstacles and prevailed.
“So, you have this bold statement that women of color are an integral part of American history,” says Loza, pictured left during our online interview. “Young girls of color are part of the engine that really propel the ideas for this exhibition.”
Under the direction of chief curator, Kathleen Franz, Loza and other curators, historians and artists from a variety of disciplines strived to include girls of every race and background. The objects in the girlhood exhibition contain a diversity of life stories that seek to ensure that all girls can see themselves and their own histories represented.
Items on Display
Among the highlights is a hoodie that Monica Camacho Ramirez wore in Santa María, California, in 2007. At the time, she was both a 17-year-old high school student and a farmworker, who picked fruit in the fields.
While it may seem like a regular everyday item of clothing, it is much more. Her hoodie, paired with a bandana, served as protection from dangerous chemicals out in the fields. It also protected her from sexual harassment because it made it hard to tell she was female.
Ramirez worked as a farmworker to help her mother pay her medical bills. In her community, fieldwork is one of the only accessible jobs for undocumented immigrants. Later, she put some of her earnings toward filing for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). She was accepted into the program, which allowed her to obtain work authorization, an important milestone for the undocumented youth protected by DACA since the national program was enacted in 2012.
“It’s a hoodie from middle school with all of the names of her classmates right on the back,” Loza told us in an interview after the virtual tour. “[I]t shows that she is part of a larger community, that she is an individual; but she is connected to a larger community of young folks that live in an area where farm work is essential.”
When asked if she would donate some of the bandanas she used to wear on the job, Camacho, who is originally from Michoacán, Mexico, and proud of her background, picked out several, including a bandana bearing the Mexican flag. She also donated a baseball cap with the logo of América, her favorite Mexican soccer team.
“Girlhood” also gives voice to the experiences of undocumented girls and the ongoing demands of immigrants seeking inclusion. The exhibition displays a pair of Monarch butterfly wings worn by young activists from Nebraska during a protest march in Washington, D.C., on March 5, 2018, when the DREAM Act was put to a vote in Congress but failed.
The wings, donated by activist Yarida Montoya, represent the symbolic Monarch butterfly’s journey across borders for survival, a journey all too familiar to many people who migrated to the United States.
Born in Mexico, Montoyta grew up in Chicago and is among more than 700,000 undocumented youth with DACA status. The exhibition includes a report card and awards that she used to demonstrate program requirements such as her longstanding U.S. residency, good moral character, and achievements.
During our interview with Loza, we asked about the most pressing challenges facing undocumented girls and immigrants. She referred to Monica Camacho’s DACA experience.
“What we wanted to show is that these young folks are not just using DACA to go to school; they’re also working, trying to build lives, and trying to confront the challenges of the immigration system that sometimes is…not just confusing but quite difficult to maneuver,” Loza says.
She was surprised that the young woman had not kept a copy of her DACA paperwork, but the explanation deepened her understanding of the obstacles she faced. “I asked her why,” Loza says, “she then pointed to the reality that she was living in a garage apartment with her mother. So limited space, limited resources; we really were just lucky that she had saved some of her clothing from when she worked as a farmworker in high school.”
These carefully chosen items are representative of the immigrant experience. They also highlight the individual and recognize the stories of the girls and women who donated them to weave the complicated history of girlhood in America.
The Story Behind the Exhibition
Loza, one of the curators, historians and artists working at the direction of chief curator Kathleen Franz, explained the thought process and decision making behind the scenes that led to this intriguing exhibition where minority girls are often at the forefront, showcasing the many ways in which, as one section of the exhibition says, “Girls built America.”
“We invited many women historians of color. We invited African-American women historians, Latinas, Asian-Americans. Then we also invited historians of suffrage and more traditional historians,” Loza says.
Where historic documents or objects weren’t available, artist Krystal Quiles created life-sized murals to bring historic chapters to life. She is a freelance illustrator based in Brooklyn who creates colorful portraits and animations of womanhood through her art.
The curators sought out a real-life view on what girls were saying by reading back issues of publications such as Teen Vogue magazine, which gives the exhibition a feeling of authenticity. The curators noticed girls were vocal about everything—from politics to fashion. They concluded that this diversity of ideas are not separate but in fact linked together, representing the facets of girlhood identity. Loza says the mission of the exhibition came to center around a series of questions. “How do women gain a political voice? How is that sowed as early as girlhood? And what do girls learn about gender limitations?”
Rather than another homogenizing exhibition celebrating only part of the story, the exhibition demonstrates how much girls have done for society. It is a defying outcry and celebration of acts of bravery that are often overshadowed by the accomplishments of men. Loza told Hola Cultura she was hesitant to say girls built America due to the potential backlash. In the end, the decision was made to be vocal about girls’ accomplishments.
“These women were pushing back when they were young girls saying, ‘I want to dream bigger. I want to do something. I want to challenge myself. I want to participate in this world as a whole person,’” says Loza, which inspired the curators to examine the different ways girls stand up to the status quo. They also used the exhibition’s title to signal how change for women starts at a young age.
“[I]t is not in adulthood that people come into this politicization,” Loza says. “The seeds are there early on. Especially… for young women of color, this happened early on because they were confronted with inequality early on, and not just gender inequality, racial inequality.”
She says adding “it’s complicated” to the title was an effort to show the history of girlhood in this country is not “clear cut. It is not always girls gaining, because sometimes they are losing,” Loza says. “Sometimes,” she adds, “their backs are against the wall with some of these challenges.”
Stories that were once unrecognized are celebrated and exhibited right now at the country’s preeminent museum of American history and deemed as a vital part of American history. That’s what “Girlhood (it’s complicated)” seeks to communicate: history is complicated for girls, especially girls of color. These complications and girls’ resilience are why girls have made a mark on the country.
Read more about the exhibition or check out the digitized 3D objects, such as Monica Camacho’s hoodie.
—Dulce Mata, Jasmin Avila & Delia Beristain Noriega
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