José Galvez, a Pulitzer Prize-winning artist and documentarian, uses black and white photography to document Latino life in the United States. A selection of his photographs is currently on display in the West Hall of Mullins Library through Sept. 16.

Galvez is a Tucson, Arizona native. He began working for the Arizona Daily Star as a staff photographer and then spent over a decade at the Los Angeles Times. With his work, Galvez is creating a historical record of what Latino life is like in the United States over more than forty years. Through photographs taken at various times in places across the U.S., he studies behavior – he learns and shows how new immigrants adapt, how their children navigate a bilingual, bicultural existence, and how their grandchildren display American-ness with a tense mixture of social savvy and longing for the past.

As a third or fourth generation Mexican American, depending which side of his ancestry he traces, Galvez has a deep appreciation for his subjects and the places where they live and work. “I hope that the viewer as well as the viewed can sense the respect and love that underscores my commitment to this documentary work,“ Galvez says, “I hope I have done justice to who we as Latinos really are, have been, and are becoming.”

The exhibit in Mullins Library, “Al Norte al Sur: Latino Life in the South” is featured in conjunction with “Shine,” a keynote lecture presented by Galvez at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 11, in Giffels Auditorium at the University of Arkansas, to kick off National Hispanic Heritage Month. The lecture and exhibit are sponsored by the departments of Latin American Studies, English, and History. All of these events are free and open to the public.

National Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates Hispanic and Latino heritage and culture and begins Sept. 15, which is the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. These countries declared independence in 1821. Mexico, Chile, and Belize celebrate their independence days on Sept. 16, Sept. 18, and Sept. 21, respectively.

Juan José Bustamante, professor of sociology and Latin American studies, will be at Mullins Library next Wednesday, Sept. 3, in the West Hall to give a talk titled “Southern Politics: The Role of Immigration Policy in Emerging Latino Communities” in the exhibit space. Bustamante's research focuses on Latinos/Latinas in Northwest Arkansas. He has also conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, and teaches a class on Latinos and Migration in the New South. Bustamante will draw attention to specific images in “Al Norte al Sur: Latino Life in the South,” while at the same time providing important historical, sociological, and cultural background to what viewers see in the photographs. The talk begins at 4 p.m. All of these events are free and open to the public.

The University Libraries have also devoted September’s Multicultural Book Display to Latino culture and heritage. Phil Jones, the Subject Librarian for Latin American Studies, says of the selection, “the display features a sample of recently published titles that illustrate the contemporary experience of inhabitants of the Southwestern and Southern United States with a Latin American heritage: the literature, the history, and the culture.” These titles can be found in Mullins Library’s main lobby, across from the Circulation Desk. Please feel free to look at the display – and check out a book! – when you view the exhibit.