Hispanic women often live in two worlds, struggling to hold onto the cultural traditions of their homeland while making a new home in the United States.

“A lot of times, we don’t fit in where we live,” said Natalia Palacio, a 16-year-old from Ogden. “It’s kind of like the home is separate from everything else that surrounds it.”

“Nosotras: Portraits of Latinas,” an exhibit about the lives of Hispanic women, opens Tuesday in the Shaw Gallery of Weber State University’s Kimball Visual Arts Center.

“Nosotras” is the Spanish feminine for “us” or “we”; it can also mean “we women.” The traveling exhibit features 50 photographs of Hispanic women, taken by eight photographers. Most of the portraits are of first- or second-generation immigrants to the U.S.

The images examine the difficulty of keeping families together even when borders separate, and the challenges of bicultural identity. They also capture the inner pride of Hispanic women.

Local Latinas

Weber State ’s showing of “Nosotras: Portraits of Latinas” has a twist: Six young Latinas from Ogden were invited to create a companion exhibit.

Natalia Palacio was born in Columbia, and Isabel Tovar was born in Mexico. The four other young women, Cristal Eliserio, Gabriela Garcia, Maria Nolasco and Desiree Wood, were born in the U.S. With the exception of Wood, who is home-schooled, all

attend Ogden High School.“Photography can be such

a powerful experience, and I think all of these young women had a pretty introspective experience with it,” said Lydia Gravis, outreach coordinator for the university’s visual arts department.

Gravis worked with Bruce Burningham, a teacher at Ogden High, to teach the girls about photography. They also had help from Fabiola Nevarez, a photographer who graduated from Utah State University last year, and Nancy Rivera, a photography student at WSU.

“It was interesting to see how they started with just snapshots of random things they saw, and then from that they went on to realizing that a picture could tell a story,” said Rivera.

Struggles

Some of the teens’ photographs tell stories of

22 Friday, January 30, 2009 Standard-Examiner

PREVIEWWHAT: ‘Nosotras: Portraits of Latinas’WHEN: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, noon-5

p.m. Saturdays, Tuesday-March 10WHERE: Shaw Gallery, Kimball Visual Arts Center,

Weber State University, 3848 Harrison Blvd., OgdenADMISSION: Free

SLIDESHOW:Check out the art of the six local young women participating in a companion exhibit to “Nosotras: Portraits of Latinas”

Wood

Tovar

Nosotras

“Taking Flight” by Desiree Wood, “Sister” (top) by Natalia Palacio and “Mom and Niece” by Isabel Tovar (left) are included in the “Nosotras: Portraits of Latinas” at Weber State University in Ogden.

‘Latinas’ on exhibit at WSU

Portraits of

Head shots by Lydia Gravis

struggles.“Language

is always the biggest barrier to overcome,” said Garcia. “If you don’t speak the language, then you don’t know what’s going on around you, so you feel lost.”

The lack of other barriers can also be overwhelming.

“Some people have a hard time adapting to the fact that there’s so much more opportunity here, because they’re used to being really restricted to what you’re going to do and what you’re going to become,” said Palacio, explaining that college is the only road to success in her home country — and even college graduates may end up driving a taxi to survive.

“Here, you can be successful, even if you don’t go to college,” she said. “It’s kind of hard to be open to that idea.”

Latinas who have been in the U.S. for a long time, or were born here, have their own struggles.

“I took a lot of pictures of my friend, who does not look Hispanic at all — she doesn’t’ even speak Spanish, and it’s kind of like a hidden part of her,” said Palacio. “We were talking about the viola as we were taking pictures, and she’s like, ‘I kind of think the viola’s the forgotten one of the instruments. No

one ever looks at the viola — it’s ignored and no one cares.’ It’s kind of how she feels about being Hispanic — she kind of forgot about it a little bit, and she kept asking if it counted. ... That’s why I took a picture of her with a viola.”

Joys

The teens also captured images of the joys of being Latina.

Tovar took photos of her mother wearing a black shawl — the images remind Tovar of her childhood, when her mother would embrace her with the shawl.

Garcia took pictures at her aunt’s 50th birthday party. One of the pictures, of a woman born in Mexico, turned into a class favorite.

“I think the picture just sums up how she is,” said Garcia. “She’s a beautiful woman, and she knows that. She’s proud.”

Common threads

Hispanic women are often stereotyped, say the girls. Tovar hopes the photographs will help people see beyond the stereotypes.

“Even though we are Latinas, there are differences, like in how you look and how you are,” she said.

At the same time the teens’ photographs show how different and individual Hispanic women are, they also show how much they have in common with each other — and with other people throughout the world.

“Most of us tried to photograph our families, and that’s what’s very close to us ... that’s what matters,” said Palacio. “I don’t think you have to be Hispanic to feel that — I think most people feel that way, so that’s something that we have in common. ... We all do care about our families.”

More meaning

The girls say they appreciate photography much more, now that they know what goes into making a great image — and it’s something they’ll take with them for the rest of their lives.

“Now, when we do take other pictures, I think they’ll be more than just a snapshot,” said Palacio. “We have to think, because now when we take pictures, it’s with emotion. If there’s no feeling in it, then there’s really no point — it won’t be an important picture afterward.”

NosotrasFrom 22

Standard-Examiner Friday, January 30, 2009 23

Garcia

Palacio

Eliserio

Nolasco

“Natalia” by Maria Nolasco, “Watching TV” (below) by Cristal Eliserio and “Aunt” (below, left) by Gabriela Garcia are included in the exhibit.