Texas Border Business
ALAMO, Texas – In partnership with La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE) and the Center for Mexican American Studies at UTRGV, the City of Alamo museum is hosting a new exhibit titled, “El Movimento Continua: Cultivando Nuestras Semillas”.
The exhibit features historical photographs, newspaper clippings, and archive video depicting the history, culture, and present-day influence of the farm worker movement in South Texas. The materials on display were curated by La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE) and the Center for Mexican American Studies at UTRGV.
The new exhibit tells the story of the struggles faced by farm workers across the country during the 1960s. Workers were often forced to work in harsh conditions for very little pay, sometimes as little as $0.90/hr. Discrimination was often rampant with housing provided much of the time being segregated by race. Fed up with the treatment, workers began to organize and fight for better conditions on the job.
César E. Chávez and Dolores Huerta established LUPE in 1989. The vision behind LUPE was to create a community union rooted in the belief that members of the low-income community have the responsibility and obligation to organize themselves in order to advocate for the issues that impact their lives.
Through grassroots community organizing, LUPE builds stronger, healthier communities to enable working families to use the power of civic engagement for social change. LUPE provides leadership development programs and social services to help families address their immediate needs as they work for social change.
The power of LUPE comes from a membership base of more than 8,000 people who contribute to the campaigns and programs of the organization. While a majority of their members live in the Rio Grande Valley, LUPE has members who reside across Texas and the United States.
“El Movimiento Continúa: Cultivando Nuestras Semillas” is a bilingual exhibit that offers a digital guide to both English and Spanish speakers. The guide is available at https://lupenet.org/semillas/guide/
The public is invited to visit the exhibit, which will be on display until June 30, 2023. The museum, located at 130 South Eighth Street in Alamo, is open from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Saturday. For more information, call 956-961-4398.
