JACKSON, Mississippi -- Hispanic life is portrayed in the photographs presented by a Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibit titled "Americanos: Latino Life in the United States."
The collection of black-and-white and color photographs taken by Hispanic photographers will be on display in Jackson, Mississippi, through Aug. 12 thanks in part to the efforts of Mexican-American actor and activist Edward James Olmos.
The more than 100 images captured on film reflect varying facets of the daily lives of Hispanic immigrants at home, work, church, or play.
Subjects range from common folk to celebrities such as musician Carlos Santana, baseball player Sammy Sosa, singer Marc Anthony, designer Carolina Herrera and actor Andy Garcia, among others.
The exhibit has been crossing the United States since 1999, stopping primarily in cities with large Hispanic populations.
In Jackson, the photographs will be housed at the Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center, the state's first museum dedicated to Afro-American culture.
"The exhibition portrays a contemporary approach to the situation of Hispanic culture in the United States," museum curator Turry Miguel Flucker said.
"It's an impressive sample of our nation's diversity (and) it shows that the Latin community is a fundamental part of the makeup of the United States," he said.
The list of exhibiting photographers includes Alexis Rodriguez Duarte, Genaro Molina and Rita Rivera.
Each picture is accompanied by text in both English and Spanish, as well as commentaries by Olmos, whose Olmos Production coproduced the exhibit with Mexican intellectual and novelist Carlos Fuentes, and Cuban singer Celia Cruz.
The exhibit, first displayed at the National American History Museum in March 1999, is the centerpiece of a multimedia project that includes a book and an HBO documentary film.
