Fotos usadas con el permiso de Raymond E. Wiest ©

In Those Days: Daily Life in Acuitzio del Canje, Michoacán, Mexico 
Exhibit celebrating sol de medianoche's first anniversary

BY SARA KOMARNISKY p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 15.0px 'Times New Roman'} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 15.0px 'Times New Roman'} span.s1 {font-kerning: none}

Anthropologist Raymond Wiest began ethnographic research in Acuitzio del Canje, Michoacán, Mexico in the 1960s, first researching the effects of migration on household and family life, and then tracing patterns of transnational migration between Acuitzio and points in the United States. Wiest’s work has been influential within anthropological studies of US-Mexico migration. An important part of Wiest’s early fieldwork was visual. He documented 50 years of history in Acuitzio with his cameras. In 1966, and on subsequent visits throughout the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, Wiest took photographs and videos of daily life in the small rural town. These images highlight some of the economic activities of central importance in the late 1960s and early 1970s that are no longer practiced today, such as ox-cart wheel repairs, weaving, shoe-making, and large-sized utilitarian pottery. Photos also show cobblestone street scenes; local townspeople at work and leisure; the use of oxen, burros (donkeys), and horses in place of motorized transport; religious and secular celebrations; and iconic locations in the town, such as the plaza, the quererimo (water pump), and the ojo de agua (spring). His photography also records the overall scene of Acuitzio del Canje from above in photos taken from the Cerro Viejo in 1967 and 2005. In 1967, Wiest prepared a new map of the community based on an air photo from the Department of Forestry, his own photos, and personal surface surveys. His map was adopted by the State of Michoacán as the official map of Acuitzio del Canje in the 1990s. 

Many in Acuitzio today remember Dr. Wiest and his camera, and many have asked where the photos are and how they can view them today. To share the results of many decades of research and share access to these visual materials, Dr. Wiest has donated the original photographs and videos to the archives at the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo (UMSNH) in Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico, and made digital copies of over 3,000 photos available online (www.bit.ly/Acuitzio). 

On December 2016, the exhibit In Those Days, including a selection of Wiest’s photographs and videos, has been brought back to Acuitzio, as a means to give back to the community memories of their daily life. During 2017 the images were taken on tour to locations where Acuitzences (those born in Acuitzio) live in the United States. In April, they were shown in Dinuba, California, and in May will be displayed in Anchorage. For Acuitzences, this is an opportunity to come together and remember what life in Acuitzio was like back then, and to share their history with a new generation. It is also a unique opportunity for others in Anchorage to see what life in small town Mexico was like half a century ago, and how things have changed over time. 

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Dr. Sara Komarnisky, from Alberta University, in Canada, curated In Those Days. Since 2005 she has conducted research into the links between Acuitzio and Anchorage. Dr. Komarnisky has continued Wiest’s legacy of research in Acuitzio, and they both collaborate spreading the story of this important photographic record. 

Opening: 
May 4, 5:30 p.m. 
Innovation Lab at the Loussac Library 
​3600 Denali Street, Anchorage, Alaska. 

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