Latino community highlighted in photographer's work

National Hispanic Heritage month kicked off in Bloomington Sunday with a reception at the Mathers Museum for the work of local photographer Tyagan Miller. The collection, called "La Cara Latina de Bloomington" (The Hispanic Face of Bloomington), is a series of portraits and biographical captions of some of the many people of Latin decent in the Bloomington area.\nLillian Casillas, director of IU La Casa, contacted Miller with the idea to document the Latino presence in Bloomington.\n"Tyagan has done photo essays like this in other communities and offered to do it here," Casillas said. "People knew Latinos were coming, and the population was growing, but it wasn't really visible." Latinos are currently the largest and fastest growing ethnic group in the United States.\n"When people talk diversity," Casillas said. "It's still a black and white issue. Latinos are not at the forefront."\nThe Latinos pictured in the exhibit were of all different skin tones and from many different countries, including Brazil, Costa Rica and Peru. \n"There is no one definition (of Latino), and people have a hard time grasping that," Casillas said. "We don't fit real nice into a category."\nThe captions for the pictures were written in Spanish, Portuguese and English, as an all-inclusive measure for Hispanic people, as well as non-Spanish speaking people.\n"We are not excluding anyone to be able to have access to the information," Casillas said.\nMiller said he spent a lot of time in Mexico as a young man. \n"I grew to love the Latino culture," Miller said. \nBoth Casillas and Miller said they think that a tribute to the diversity of Latin culture has been a long time coming.\nMiller said he wanted to show gallery patrons the many different faces that could be considered Latino.\n"One thing that I think may be fairly common is the misunderstanding of spanish culture," Miller said. "I didn't realize many things about those cultures before I did this."\nMiller said he learned a lot from the subjects of his pictures.\n"In some ways I was as removed from the Latino culture as everyone else," Miller said. \nArturo Rodriguez, formerly of Peru, was a subject of one of the photos. A multi-talented man, the former metalsmith and jewelry designer is now a nursing student and dance instructor in Bloomington.\n"I thought (the exhibit) was important so the community can understand what the Latino culture is all about," he said.\nMaria Muriel, a recent IU graduate, helped to translate the subjects' stories. An immigrant herself, Muriel shared a bond with some of the subjects' stories.\n"My experience as an immigrant reflected in some of their stories," Muriel said. "It was a very nice experience for me." \nMuriel said it is hard for her to visit family and friends in her home country of Colombia because of the violence and political instability.\n"It's hard for me because I live here and I see bad news every day," Muriel said.\nCasillas said she hopes that this exhibit is the beginning of a new multicultural education. Already, a curriculum is in the works for use in the Monroe County Schools' multicultural education program.\n"This exhibit is a window to our community, saying this is what we're proud of," Casillas said.\n"La Cara Latina De Bloomington" will be on display until Dec. 22 at the Mathers Museum.