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Introduction
Witnessing New Mexico provides a critical look at often obscured perspectives, stories, and peoples. During the past sixty years, New Mexico public media has covered many societal issues that continue to impact communities today. NMPM programs in this exhibit address issues related to policing, drug abuse, nativist discrimination and prejudice, land rights, educational reform, poverty, gang violence, women's liberation and pursuit of self-determination, and legacies of colonialism. The programs often relate local issues to broader national discussions on topics such as immigration, the AIDS pandemic, mental health awareness, healthcare, and various human rights issues.
The word “witnessing” is key to understanding the intent of this exhibit because it underscores the vital role that contemporary viewers can play in the active, ongoing reinterpretation and relearning of New Mexico's history. Throughout this exhibit, viewers can witness how language and civic life have changed in response to federal and state policies, social advocacy and resistance, and the re-visioning of historical narratives as conveyed through public media by communities that undergo constant discrimination.
With its three thematic sections, Witnessing New Mexico hopes to engage viewers in the process of watching and listening to first-hand, personal expressions of human experiences that have remained inaccessible for decades. The oral stories, conversations, and interviews in this exhibit present an expansive array of past and recent perspectives about New Mexico and its peoples that warrant the attention not only of New Mexicans but of other Americans as well.
Acknowledgements
This project would not have been possible without the support of Angelica Bernaert, Karen Cariani, Jessica Cummins, Rachel Curtis, Casey Davis, Alan Gevinson, Michael Kamins, Megan Rose Kilidjian, and Miranda Villesvik.
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