<I>Maria Varela Oral History Interview</I>
date: label: Date
content: April 26, 2018
name: label: Created by
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture, American, founded 2003
label: Interview of
content: Maria Varela, American, born 1940
label: Interviewed by
content: Marc B. Steiner, American, born 1946
label: Recorded by
content: Kim Moir, American
label: Subject of
content: Poor People's Campaign, American, 1967 - 1968
label: Subject of
content: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., American, 1929 - 1968
label: Subject of
content: Cesar E. Chavez, American, 1927 - 1993
label: Subject of
content: Reies Tijerina, Mexican American, 1926 - 2015
label: Subject of
content: Corky Gonzales, American, 1928 - 2005
notes: label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: 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.
label: Description
content: 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: label: Place depicted
content: Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North and Central America
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Activism
label: Topic
content: Civil Rights
label: Topic
content: Feminism
label: Topic
content: Gender
label: Topic
content: Humanitarianism
label: Topic
content: Justice
label: Topic
content: Labor
label: Topic
content: Politics
label: Topic
content: Poverty
label: Topic
content: Race relations
label: Topic
content: U.S. History, 1961-1969
label: Topic
content: Women
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Collection title
content: Poor People’s Campaign Oral Histories
label: Classification
content: Time-based Media - Moving Images
label: Movement
content: Civil Rights Movement
label: Movement
content: Chicano Movement / El Movimiento
label: Movement
content: African American - Latinx Solidarity
label: Movement
content: Poor People's Campaign
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2018.78.9.1
objectType: label: Type
content: video recordings
label: Type
content: oral histories
label: Type
content: digital media - born digital
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: © Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: digital
label: Dimensions
content: Duration: 01:49:21
label: Dimensions
content: 23.54 GB