Driving on back roads from the area around Rocky Mount, N.C., we stopped at a small store in the midst of a lot of farms. It was the early 1990’s. In cotton fields, tobacco farms, and acres of sweet potatoes, the hard work of picking in the hot sun, previously the purview of slaves and sharecroppers, was being done by migrant workers from Mexico. But you did not see these folks around town. “Not seen” and “Not noticed”.
So it was a surprise to see two vans full of workers pull up to the store. Men climbed out, went inside to cash their paychecks, and shop, then piled back into the van. Leaving the store, we started to notice more and more of the long buildings that housed these men.
Invisible in plain sight, that was how the emergence of the Hispanic population lived in North Carolina. In fact, many of these “migrating” workers had “settled out”, working in poultry plants, gardening, and construction. They had brought wives and children to the U.S.
Shortly after, in 1994, the first Fiesta Del Pueblo celebration was held on the grounds of the offices for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools, ironically for me, the building that had housed former Black high school. I had been there to photograph trophies and medals during the Northside project.
That set me off on a journey with my camera: Fotos Del Pueblo. I began to take photos of “el pueblo” in town, in restaurants, hotels, schools, medical centers and at celebrations.
Today Fiesta Del Pueblo is held at the Raleigh Fairgrounds. It’s a huge event. We have bilingual schools and there is hardly a construction project in town and around the state without Latino/a workers. Off on a small road in the Blue Ridge it’s no surprise to see a Mexican restaurant. From sheetrock to flowers, from sweet potatoes to poultry, it’s a Spanish flavored world.
