Trabajadoras Unidos of Washington D.C.
During the Fall of 2024 and Spring of 2025, Trabajadores Unidos of Washington, DC (TUWDC), American University students, the Humanities Truck and I engaged in collaborative work with day laborers in the District.
The Humanities Truck played a crucial role in the creation, development and final presentation of an art project in commemoration of International Labor Day, on May 1st, 2025. It also engaged in celebrating the accomplishment of a group of day laborers as they completed their OSHA training.
As it does every year, TUWDC organized a series of activities to mark International Labor Day, including a film screening, guest speakers, and both formal and informal conversations on the organization’s work and on the current state of labor and immigration in the city. Most importantly, TUWDC sought to celebrate day laborers through an exhibit featuring photographs of day laborers from different countries, backgrounds, languages, and stories. My Spring 2025 course, Issues in Latin American Studies (taught in Spanish), contributed to the exhibit by creating artistic backgrounds for the ID photos provided by TUWDC.
The May 1 commemoration took place at TUWDC headquarters. The exhibit, titled Rostros de la migración: Historias en cada mirada / Faces of Migration: Stories in Every Gaze, featured 17 large printed photographs, a curatorial statement (provided by TUWDC), and a poster with the title and other relevant information. The photographs lined two corridors, so all guests encountered the exhibit as they entered. The result was a colorful, lively, and engaging display of familiar faces from the community. In uncertain times, the images brought both comfort and recognition.
I parked the Humanities Truck outside, where we briefly welcomed the community before guiding them to the offices where the activities took place. As always, the truck served as a familiar gathering space—for conversation, memories, and, for newcomers, questions about the purpose of a “humanities truck.”
I was especially grateful that my students remained present throughout the day, assisting in whatever ways they could. The moment they valued most, however, was meeting face-to-face the person whose photograph they had worked on. They took pictures together, chatted, and laughed—a wonderful instance of critical pedagogy in action.
Equally moving were the moments when participants saw their own portraits displayed on the walls. Some of the photos had been taken a year or two earlier. Seeing themselves again brought laughter to some and happy tears to others. Some looked away, while others kept returning to meet their own gaze. Several took photos to send to family members back home. These were proud moments, even in the midst of lives often marked by uncertainty.
The exhibit underscored the importance of representation. It highlighted the presence of a diverse group of people who live and work in the city—people whose varied backgrounds make Washington, DC, a more vibrant and interesting place.
