A sampling of images from the “Portraits of Immigrant Voices” project. New portraits and stories will be posted on the Richmond Office of Multicultural Affairs website through Nov. 27, and the portraits will be on view at Studio Two Three Nov. 23-Dec. 7. (Images courtesy Alfonso Pérez Acosta)
You cannot tell the story of America without telling the story of the American immigrant. But the romantic narrative of the early 20th century — of the humble and destitute European arriving on his own or with a family to build a better life in the United States — is not prevalent today. That story has been replaced by an often negative perception of people who live in this country but were not born here, fueled by controversies surrounding immigrant rights and policy.
“Portraits of Immigrant Voices,” a digital art exhibition sponsored by Virginia Humanities, the City of Richmond’s Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) and Studio Two Three, features portraits and stories of 24 immigrants who live in the greater Richmond area. According to the artist, Alfonso Pérez Acosta, and writer Joe Kutchera, the exhibit not only brings to light the valuable contributions of immigrants to our community, but also serves as an opportunity to showcase the rich cultural diversity in our area that can easily go unnoticed.
“Learning about our neighbors’ stories, you learn we are much more diverse in our community than you might think,” Kutchera says. “In listening to and documenting each person’s history, what’s amazing is their sense of gratitude about being an American — we can learn from them.”
The virtual exhibition opened with the first three portraits and narratives published on the OMA website Oct. 28, National Immigrants Day. A new portrait and narrative will be published there each weekday through Nov. 27. From Nov. 23 through Dec. 7, Studio Two Three, at 3300 W. Clay St. in Scott’s Addition, will install the portraits in its windows so visitors can walk or drive by to see the exhibit. The portraits will also be projected onto the building after dark on Nov. 23.
The artist behind “Portraits of Immigrant Voices,” Alfonso Pérez Acosta (Photo courtesy Alfonso Pérez Acosta)
The idea for the project began with Colombia native Pérez Acosta, tied to the idea of celebrating National Immigrants Day in Richmond. “It came out of being tired of the negative narrative around immigration, and people thinking of immigration and immigrants as a problem all of the time,” he says. “I thought, What if we started working on an event or even a narrative that would help us celebrate immigration, and the joy of immigrants?”
Pérez Acosta and his wife immigrated to Florida, where his mother lived, five years ago. The couple decided to move in with his in-laws in Richmond a month later. He says he immediately felt connected to the creative community here.
“I had visited Richmond a couple of years before and got a sense that this was a creative city,” he says. He began connecting with museums and galleries and the Sacred Heart Center, where he now works as the ExcELL (a support program for high school students learning English as a second language) and art programs facilitator.
Writer Joe Kutchera (Photo by Kim Frost)
Kutchera, an author and marketing, communications and public relations consultant, has worked in Hispanic marketing throughout his career. Born in Milwaukee, he decided to visit the homeland of his ancestors after college and moved to the Czech Republic to teach English. He also lived in Mexico, New York and Los Angeles before settling with his wife, an immigrant from Mexico, in Richmond seven years ago.
Last year, Pérez Acosta organized an event for National Immigrants Day that included an exhibit, dancers and food, attracting people from the immigrant community. This year, he wanted to expand that effort, but the pandemic compromised the likelihood of it happening at all. Determined to move forward, he contacted Karla Almendarez-Ramos, manager of Richmond’s Office of Multicultural Affairs. She connected him with Kutchera to start the “Immigrant Voices” project; Pérez Acosta created the portraits, and Kutchera wrote the immigrants’ stories.
Pérez Acosta says the exhibit is not solely intended to educate the Richmond community about immigrants. For the subjects of the portraits and other members of the immigrant community, the portraits are a source of pride. He also wanted to demonstrate how similar we are.
“It is an opportunity for people to recognize their inner diversity and explore the idea that we are layers and layers of different people and cultures,” he says. “I feel people may want to learn more about a different language or country, just by seeing the portraits or reading [the subjects’] stories.”
The immigrants’ stories include some who have come to the U.S. to escape war, others because they’ve fallen in love or followed a job opportunity.
Kutchera says the fresh perspectives that immigrants bring to our experience are one of his takeaways from writing the stories.
“Immigrants make you see things differently, in a way that you’ve never seen before,” he says. “They help us see that we have a very strong opportunity to see things in a new way, which can lead to resolving things and transforming relationships between one country and another.”
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