The new exhibit is called “Changing Demographics: The People of Lane County.” The largest exhibit in the museum’s Sesquicentennial celebration, it includes collected testimonials from various ethnic peoples and tells the stories of Latino roots, Native American termination and the Ping Yang School Bombing (a mysterious domestic terrorism act that remains unsolved), among others.

   Martinez’ Latino component, "Latino Roots in Lane County," includes display materials as well as a thirty-six minute documentary created in the Latin American tradition of testimonio or testimonials.  It took months and months of research, compiling, interviewing, transcribing, shooting video, editing and piecing together a history that she says "shows the different experiences, positive and negative, of Latinos in Oregon." This work was assisted by SOJC graduate student Sonia De La Cruz and Anthropology graduate students Mauricio Magaña and Lukacs Nguyen.

    The entire exhibit is presented in both English and Spanish. Martinez said she wanted everyone to have access to the information so no one missed anything. The museum’s curators helped design the rest of the exhibit.
    “It was really a community organized event founded by collective efforts,” Martinez says of the project, which combines her passion for filmmaking with her expertise on Latin America studies. She worked with grassroots organizers from local organizations FACETA and CAUSA who helped finding people in the community wiling to share their stories. After making the proper arrangements, she captured their stories on tape and edited their narratives into one documentary. The museum exhibit includes video, sound bites and traditional 3D panels.
    “Some of them [the subjects] were more shy than others, but in my career as a documentarian, I have techniques to help get people to talk,” Martinez says. “Some were disclosing the fact that they were tortured or other emotional stories that are hard to talk about. But they trusted us to ethically tell their stories.”
    In telling their stories, Martinez says she learned of the rich history the Latino population has in Lane County.
    “We see them almost as a ‘new’ community in Oregon, which isn’t true,” she explains. “What’s new is that it’s growing at a fast rate. But their history goes far back. It’s amazing how little attention we’ve given to this community.”
    The film explores social and economic issues such as the state failing to provide enough social spaces or resources for the Latino community.
    “There’s a lot that could be done, and I believe we’re just at the beginning,” Martinez says.
   Through the research, she discovered that in Lane County there wasn't a Catholic Mass in Spanish until the early 1980s, which was a real problem for some of the Latinos in the area. However, presently there are six churches county wide conducting Mass in Spanish. This is an indicative of the demographic changes in the past 25 years.
    Many of the interview subjects and their family members attended the exhibit’s unveiling, which included festive dancing and a reception Saturday, February 14 at the Lane County Historical Society museum. Martinez was impressed to see Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy and Oregon representatives in attendance to show their support of the project. 

Mary Dole, exhibition coordinator at the Lane County Historical Museum, said Saturday's unveiling was extremely well-received. "We had the biggest opening we've ever had," Dole said. "We had 531 people come through the museum Saturday."  Dole said the museum collaborated with more people for this exhibit than for any other in the past, and she is very pleased with the result. "The hard work University faculty put into the project impressed museum staffers and encouraged them to coordinate on similar projects again in the near future. There were a lot of people we depended on for this, and they really came through for us," Dole said.
The exhibit includes demographics many Oregonians aren't familiar with, Dole added.  "It's nice to recognize folks who are not always included as a part of Oregon history," Dole said.
    “The expanding Latino population is indicative that these people are growing as a part of our society” Martinez says. “That’s why I was so enthusiastic about not only this opportunity to learn about Latinos but to put out information rich in content to show the transformation of our state.”
    “This experience has been great in what we can do as University members working with grassroots community members,” Martinez says.

Watch  the documentary here.