Created by
National Museum of African American History and Culture, American, founded 2003
Interview of
Varela, Maria, American, born 1940
Interviewed by
Steiner, Marc B., American, born 1946
Recorded by
Moir, Kim, American
Subject of
Poor People's Campaign, American, 1967 - 1968
Dr. King, Martin Luther Jr., American, 1929 - 1968
Chavez, Cesar E., American, 1927 - 1993
Tijerina, Reies, Mexican American, 1926 - 2015
Gonzales, Corky, American, 1928 - 2005
Date
April 26, 2018
Medium
digital
Dimensions
Duration: 01:49:21
23.54 GB
Description
An oral history consisting of a single digital video recording (2018.78.9.1). It was collected as part of the Poor People’s Campaign Interviews.
In this oral history interview, Maria Varela discusses the Poor People’s Campaign and her photography of the movement as well as her work as an activist and community organizer in other movements (SNCC organizing, the Land Grant Movement in Southwest, and the Chicano Movement). Maria Varela begins the interview discussing how she was recruited into the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) through student activist communities while attending Alverno College in Milwaukee, WI. She then discusses her work with SNCC and the years she spent involved in grassroots activism in the South (1963-1967), as well as her organizing work post-1967 in the Southwestern U.S. She explains that her commitment to the Chicano and Land-Grant movement was motivated by the relative invisibility of Latino rights movements during the 1960s. Varela then turns to a discussion of her experience of the Poor People’s Campaign and her photography of the movement.
Throughout the interview, Varela describes her experiences as a woman in the various movements she took part in as well as her mounting frustration with the sexism and “adultism” of the public-facing male leadership and the media. She also compares youth activism in the 1960s to youth activism in the twenty-first century, such as the Black Lives Matter movement and the March for Our Lives.
Place depicted
Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North and Central America
Collection title
Poor People’s Campaign Oral Histories
Classification
Time-based Media - Moving Images
Movement
Civil Rights Movement
Chicano Movement / El Movimiento
African American - Latinx Solidarity
Poor People's Campaign
Type
video recordings
oral histories
digital media - born digital
Topic
Activism
Civil rights
Feminism
Gender
Humanitarianism
Justice
Labor
Politics
Poverty
Race relations
U.S. History, 1961-1969
Women
Credit Line
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
Object number
2018.78.9.1
Restrictions & Rights
© Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
GUID
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/fd54a19845e-4c9c-4601-8470-b03e2f98e19a

Cataloging is an ongoing process and we may update this record as we conduct additional research and review. If you have more information about this object, please contact us at NMAAHCDigiTeam@si.edu

Share this page