History: A Spinning Wheel
From Irene Vega
Editor’s Note: Irene Vega is the’Made in Iowa’ project coordinator for the ‘Made in Iowa’ project in the Iowa Depat. of Human Rights.
She can be contacted at
irene.vega@iowa.gov
515-281-7018
I spent last Fall studying in Strasbourg, France.
I can tell you that those four months abroad exposed me to the pluralism residing within a singular culture. For instance, I enjoyed eating typical delicacies of three different regions: Alsace, Brittany and Paris. As I was getting familiarized with the names of these dishes, I realized that these recipes are part of the living history of their region, making its food different from that of any other region in the country.
Another thing that has intrigued me about France is the often incensed political field. There, I became a witness of students’ strikes and the active power of labor unions.
There, I noticed the faces of those who passed me on the streets, faces that seldom figure on the pages of well-written magazines or on TV screens. They are the receiving ends of silent segregation. If you ask me, that’s the deadliest kind.
These opening paragraphs told you a bit of what I’ve learned from this memorable experience and now I’ll tell you what I’ve been learning in the ongoing process of making this documentary a reality.
“Made in Iowa” needs to be accurate and personal. Research and an advisory committee are taking care of the first need. The second need is missing one face to make it real. Your story. Here’s why.
After reading through compact historical accounts by well-known scholars who stack numerous paragraphs with factual information, I close my eyes and I see empty pages, where I would love to hear the voices of those who were not allowed to decide, the ones caught in between with stolen hopes.
I now know that History is a spinning wheel of steel that leaves trails of tears on the soil of people’s collective memory. If History is a cycle of events marking paths from generation to generation, I also know that there are those who have gone to great lengths to erase any trace of its passing; from textbooks to their own consciousness. It makes me wonder if their goal is to spread collective amnesia.
I believe that one of the missions of “Made in Iowa” is to give the time and space to those voices to be heard. I want to see the whole picture, don’t you?
A documentary film project which aims is to capture the story of the people who make our Iowa.
This documentary film project aims to capture the story of the people who make our Iowa. The purpose is to reveal the whole of the community through the telling of five individual family stories from those, free or not, who crossed the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, from those who over the generations journey across a river, and from the native people who across the ages have called this their home. Here we seek to puzzle together the enduring human story of the common struggle for freedom and the opportunity to progress.
Our hope is to piece together the stories of five Iowan families and their connection to history and the land. In the telling we’ll know of their sorrows and joys, and of what in them has been assimilated and what cannot be. What will emerge is the larger story of the great American experience.
The point of view is through the eyes of five middle-school students who ask the film’s premise question of their families, in particular that of their grand-parents: “How did we get to Iowa?”\\“Made in Iowa” is a documentary film project that seeks to reveal the stories of the people who make our Iowa, through the telling of five Iowan families: An Asian, a Native American, an European, a Latino and an African American.
The stories are told through the eyes of middle school students who journey back in time to assess what in them has been assimilated and what cannot be.
She can be contacted at
irene.vega@iowa.gov
515-281-7018
I spent last Fall studying in Strasbourg, France.
I can tell you that those four months abroad exposed me to the pluralism residing within a singular culture. For instance, I enjoyed eating typical delicacies of three different regions: Alsace, Brittany and Paris. As I was getting familiarized with the names of these dishes, I realized that these recipes are part of the living history of their region, making its food different from that of any other region in the country.
Another thing that has intrigued me about France is the often incensed political field. There, I became a witness of students’ strikes and the active power of labor unions.
There, I noticed the faces of those who passed me on the streets, faces that seldom figure on the pages of well-written magazines or on TV screens. They are the receiving ends of silent segregation. If you ask me, that’s the deadliest kind.
These opening paragraphs told you a bit of what I’ve learned from this memorable experience and now I’ll tell you what I’ve been learning in the ongoing process of making this documentary a reality.
“Made in Iowa” needs to be accurate and personal. Research and an advisory committee are taking care of the first need. The second need is missing one face to make it real. Your story. Here’s why.
After reading through compact historical accounts by well-known scholars who stack numerous paragraphs with factual information, I close my eyes and I see empty pages, where I would love to hear the voices of those who were not allowed to decide, the ones caught in between with stolen hopes.
I now know that History is a spinning wheel of steel that leaves trails of tears on the soil of people’s collective memory. If History is a cycle of events marking paths from generation to generation, I also know that there are those who have gone to great lengths to erase any trace of its passing; from textbooks to their own consciousness. It makes me wonder if their goal is to spread collective amnesia.
I believe that one of the missions of “Made in Iowa” is to give the time and space to those voices to be heard. I want to see the whole picture, don’t you?
A documentary film project which aims is to capture the story of the people who make our Iowa.
This documentary film project aims to capture the story of the people who make our Iowa. The purpose is to reveal the whole of the community through the telling of five individual family stories from those, free or not, who crossed the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, from those who over the generations journey across a river, and from the native people who across the ages have called this their home. Here we seek to puzzle together the enduring human story of the common struggle for freedom and the opportunity to progress.
Our hope is to piece together the stories of five Iowan families and their connection to history and the land. In the telling we’ll know of their sorrows and joys, and of what in them has been assimilated and what cannot be. What will emerge is the larger story of the great American experience.
The point of view is through the eyes of five middle-school students who ask the film’s premise question of their families, in particular that of their grand-parents: “How did we get to Iowa?”\\“Made in Iowa” is a documentary film project that seeks to reveal the stories of the people who make our Iowa, through the telling of five Iowan families: An Asian, a Native American, an European, a Latino and an African American.
The stories are told through the eyes of middle school students who journey back in time to assess what in them has been assimilated and what cannot be.