(bright instrumental music) (bright instrumental music continues) - In this edition of WLIW Arts Beat photographs of a family's legacy.

Their lives teach us a lot of, not only about just the rail yard workers, but I think immigrants.

(gentle instrumental music) - [Diane] An immersive floral exhibition.

- People were really sort of in awe of the scale of this.

Something so big yet made up of so many tiny pieces.

(gentle music) - [Diane] Creating music in the Florida Keys.

- There's no way I could be doing what I do without the support of the community and their love of live music.

♪ Like you only comes once in a ♪ - It's all ahead in this edition of WLIW Arts Beat.

Funding for WLIW Arts Beat is made possible by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(bright instrumental music) Welcome to WLIW Arts Beat.

I'm Diane Masciale.

(bright instrumental music) We take a trip to New Mexico to hear about a family who worked at the locomotive repair shops in Albuquerque.

Through photographs, their powerful story is told and a shared immigrant history is revealed.

(bright instrumental music) - How did you first become interested in the history of rail yard workers?

- My grandfather, three of my uncles and many cousins all worked at the rail yard or as part of the railroad.

It was part of my culture.

And so when I decided to look more into rail yard, it really was more about the genealogy of my family.

I'm like, why did we come here to Albuquerque?

Why did so many of my relatives all come to work here in the rail yard?

(gentle acoustic music) My grandparents came to this country in 1904 from Mexico, and when I thought about this, I thought, gosh, the Mexican revolution hadn't started yet.

Why were they leaving?

What I learned was that my grandfather was 29 years of age and my grandmother Mauda was 23.

She was five months pregnant and they had three sons from between ages seven to four.

And so, they came because something happened and there's one of two things that could have been the reason.

One is at that time, the (speaks in foreign language), the police of Mexico were conscripting the men.

They were making them become part of the Mexican military.

We are thinking he didn't wanna fight or is it because my grandfather was a curandero and there's a story that he had to treat the captain of the military and he had to treat them in a way that he knew he could not heal, but he was being forced to do it.

And apparently that captain died and that's part of this other part of the narrative and stories of my grandparents.

Either way, my grandfather was punished for it and what we have, what we know our evidence was my grandfather had scars across his body from being slashed, especially on his back.

So for some reason he was being physically punished that he made that decision to take him and his family to travel 1,200 miles to Albuquerque, and why Albuquerque?

Word of mouth was going on that the railroad was being built across the United States and right now in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1904, that period, that time, they were looking for laborers.

So that's why my grandfather came from La Barca, Jalisco, Mexico straight to Albuquerque.

He didn't deviate, he didn't go look for other work.

This was going to be his destination.

This was to be ultimately his destiny.

But interesting, he didn't get the job.

He came to Albuquerque, they were homeless.

The story they lived under a tree while my grandfather looked for work.

He was not hired and we don't know why.

For 15 years he kept going back to the railroad.

(tense upbeat music) It really was hard, especially for my grandmother, looking at the woman's perspective, right?

My grandmother being five months pregnant ends up delivering a child but because of the poor living conditions, that child only lived six months and then he dies.

(tense upbeat music) But then my grandmother, she ends up having three more children and then my grandfather finds other jobs and my grandmother has four more kids, and altogether she ends up having 13 children.

(tense upbeat music) After getting his job at the railroad.

He only worked five years before he hurt his foot.

He was picking up a railroad tie, if you know those are very, very heavy and it fell on his foot.

He lost two toes and then he was out of a job again from the railroad 'cause they didn't offer workers' compensation in those days.

So he ends up working as a janitor because he had no option, he had to work.

But then a year later he's back at the railroad and he's working as a flagman and he ends up working there for over 30 years when he retires at the age of 75.

(gentle music) And every day while he went working, my grandmother and her other cousins who eventually came from Mexico and they all live in the same community.

At lunch when the pito would blow, the women would get their tables, pull them out in their yard, the front yard 'cause the yard was right in front of the railroad.

They'd bring out their beans and their chile, their karne, tamales, whatever they happened to be making that time of year.

And the single men by word of mouth learned they could go and get a meal.

It was interesting because they never set a price for how much to pay for food.

They let the men put whatever money they felt the food was worth on the table and my grandmother and all the other ones would accept it because it was money.

It was something that was coming in to help the family because that was part of, everybody had a role to play.

(gentle music) Of the family culture was that my grandfather did not allow his sons to marry till their 20s or 30s because they needed the money.

My grandfather felt without the family pulling together, they would never succeed in this country.

So they pooled the money, he took all their money and he doled it out as he thought necessary, but saved enough that he ends up opening a grocery store.

He also finds jobs for his other sons by managing the grocery store and then eventually he opens up a bar, a cantina, Alta Monte Carlo.

(gentle music) My grandfather was very entrepreneurial in working to again try to create advantages for his children that he knew otherwise they would not find outside the community.

(gentle music) And I would say that not only for my grandfather, but I think for most rail yard workers, this was the heartbeat for them, the railroad.

It was the one that gave opportunity to them and to their families and that's the reason for them staying and working as many decades as many of them did.

And life was hard.

It was a smoky, dirty, loud place.

(machines buzzing) My uncles who became boiler makers are a testament because they became deaf.

You know, think about the big machinery, the pounding of working in boilers, and the welding and all that was going on.

Also, they all got emphysema.

The youngest cousin who worked at the rail yard shared stories that when he would go look for his father to take him lunch or just to go him, he would say it would be so smoky in there and dusty, you could hardly see people.

So can you imagine working there every day what that does to your lungs?

The other of course are job advancements.

Those are always the hardest.

As I talk with other workers, especially Black American families and also within our Mexican community, the darker you were, the harder it was to advance.

(gentle music) - How does understanding the history of your family and other rail yard workers' families help us today?

- Their lives teach us a lot not only about just the rail yard workers, but I think immigrants like my maternal grandparents, people who come with little education.

What they bring to this country is that they help to fill the gaps in the job industry for the low skilled labor work.

They also help to drive economic growth.

They buy homes, they buy cars, they buy groceries.

Everything that leads towards building the economy of this country as a whole.

(gentle music) We need immigrants.

We need young blood, we need young people to help continue to build this country.

We're the fabric of the country and we help again to make it a beautiful tapestry of people of color and different backgrounds.

And that's what I think immigrants and like my grandfather, my grandmother, and my uncles all bring and all of us descendants bring to this country.

(gentle music) - And now the artist quote of the week.

(bright instrumental music) (bright instrumental music continues) (bright instrumental music continues) Artist Rebecca Louise Law's installation, The Archive, is made up of thousands of flowers that seem to float in the air.\ Located at the Cleveland Public Library in Ohio, the dazzling exhibition was made possible through the efforts of the local community.

Here's the story.

(playful instrumental music) (playful instrumental music continues) - People were really sort of in awe of the scale of this.

Something so big yet made up of so many tiny pieces.

- First impressions were it's incredible, way bigger than I imagined, way more immersive.

- I was overwhelmed.

We've had many great exhibits in this space, but by far this is the largest exhibit.

- Rebecca Louise Law has just been on my artist's crush list forever.

Rebecca is an artist from the UK, she lives in Wales now.

She is best known for these installations that are stringing flowers, but she has a pretty extensive artistic practice with lots of materials.

(playful instrumental music) - Early in her art career, she was trying to sort of paint the world as she remembered it as a child and she wasn't able to capture that feeling with paint, and she started working directly with flowers.

- One thing that drew me to her is how she involves the community in the creation of her works and also her stance on sustainability.

This installation uses over 500,000 flowers.

A hundred thousand are from Cleveland and they were saved from the landfill.

- Some of the flowers in The Archive are actually from her father's garden and they've traveled all around the world over 20 plus years.

- People were bringing them.

We are saving them from funeral homes that were gonna throw them out, grocery stores, drying them and then stringing them.

And then the other 400,000 are reused from past installations that Rebecca has done.

- Rebecca has really wanted to look at sustainability when it comes to her work.

She's wanted to look at how to get that sort of emotional sense of the natural world that we're in.

- Once this installation is done, she keeps them for the next one.

So that's why it really is the archive of her artistic practice.

And even when she came, I mean, I knew she was into sustainability but she was saving every single petal, all the crumbs like nothing was going to waste, which was just amazing to see it as part of someone's artistic practice.

- The Archive here is called The Archive because it has flowers from every single project she's worked on all over the world.

So we have a bit of every single one of her projects here.

So this is sort of the archive of her projects here at Cleveland Public Library.

- I mean these are many, many years of exhibits that are part of this installation and then the hand of Cleveland residents in bringing their own flowers, it's a really cool collaborative effort.

(playful instrumental music) - She really believes that her art speaks to everyone that she likes.

Like what we did in Cleveland where we bring folks from all different generations, older folks and younger folks to work on her exhibit.

(playful instrumental music) - Rebecca came to town and taught us how to string them on the copper wire and we divided them into different types, different colors.

We had volunteers helping immensely to string up all them on the copper wire.

- It was really cool.

I mean, seeing everybody learning how to take these flowers and wrap them and put them together, and then understand what the larger picture was going to be when it ultimately was done.

(playful instrumental music) - Then we took all the completed strands and put them in a blast freezer, which preserves them more, make sure there's no pests, which is really important for the library.

We have never worked on such a project with so many community volunteers that are so involved and passionate and part of a project.

- What was one of the really great things about the volunteers is when they've come to see the exhibit, you will hear people say, "Oh, I worked on those."

They can see, did I string the pine cones?

Or was I making the clouds of baby breaths?

- All of a sudden I'll be like, "Oh, I remember working on that table."

And I like some of the stories that both people were sharing at the tables of the Cleveland volunteers but then also Rebecca will say, "Oh, that's from my father's garden."

This strand that was one of her strands I worked on and it's here now, and it's like part of the whole story.

- There's like fungus in there.

There are these pods that look like birds and you see things and you think, how has that been here this whole time and I haven't seen it?

So you do have that sensibility going through here that like your different days, your senses are like attuned to different things.

So, even though I get to see this most days of the week, it's a different experience most days.

So that's really special too.

- [Erin] We had over 200 volunteers.

It was a very amazing team effort to pull it off.

(playful instrumental music) - We worked with a local fabricator called Mercer Works.

They created this wooden structure here.

They have a whole team of people down in Kent, Ohio who worked on this.

(playful instrumental music) If you zoom in on these, they're all strung on copper wire.

What's really amazing about this is you can see the hand touches.

Every single piece of this project, was touched by human hands.

So many times throughout this project, (gentle piano music) - One of the bonuses of bringing it inside has been, we've been bringing more people back into the library, which is really important for us.

- [Tiffany] The way that Rebecca's piece fills the space was just really special.

It's like that great marriage between a great idea and a great concept, and a great execution in a beautiful space.

- So, to have something that people are drawn to, that people are talking about on social media and they want to come into our institution and see has been really a big plus for us.

- After COVID, just getting people back in our library buildings and frankly back in public spaces and in downtown at the level that we used to be, it's been work and I'm so happy that the library's been able to be part of that sort of reactivation and reenergization.

(gentle piano music) - Every time I talk to folks about libraries, they still have the general stereotype of us sitting around, shushing people and the general stereotype of what a library is.

(gentle piano music) But libraries are so much more than that, right?

We are the community living room for so many folks who may not have an opportunity to see an exhibit like Rebecca Louise Law.

(gentle piano music) - I'm especially excited to be able to come to this installation in the winter when I'm like craving some prettiness, some greenery, some pretty flowers, those kinds of things.

And so, I love how this is, they're preserved in a beautiful way that you can see them throughout the year.

(gentle piano music) - [Diane] Find out more at cpl.org and see more of the artist's work at rebeccalouiselaw.com.

(gentle piano music) Now here's a look at this month's fun fact.

(bright instrumental music) (bright instrumental music continues) (bright instrumental music continues) (bright instrumental music continues) Up next we meet singer songwriter Leah Sutter.

Born and raised in the Florida Keys, her home has played a big part in shaping who she is as a musician.

Have a listen.

(bright instrumental music) (gentle guitar music) - It's a special group of individuals who have lived down here and we love this town, and we realize when we've left and gone somewhere else, how amazing and unique the Keys are.

And so many people worked their entire lives just to get down here.

And we were blessed to live here and grow up down here.

Being a Keys kid is, it's like a badge of honor that we all wear.

I love to be called a singer-songwriter.

I pull from a lot of different influences.

So I love folk and bluegrass music but I also love top 40 country music as well.

I grew up with that and the songwriting as well as looking up to women who played guitar and singing.

I feel like my style and why I do music is so much those influences in my life.

These days I definitely love to like lean into the acoustic singer-songwriter with some of like the more country flair.

But I tend to play music from a variety of genres.

So, a little bit of everything is influenced in there.

♪ How we stand ♪ ♪ Two ships ♪ I have a lot of pride being from this town.

I love the Keys.

I, born and raised here, literally born on the island.

So I have so much pride saying I'm a Conch.

It's such a unique community that supports art and music and expression.

There's no way I could be doing what I do without the support of the community and their love of live music, as well as the musician community that we have down here.

We have so many talented people who we are all there for each other.

Being from here, I think has really taught me about who I am as a person and as a musician.

You know, you come to the Keys, you gotta slow down a little bit.

Take a look at the beautiful paradise that's around you.

So I've learned to just be a laid back person, as well as a laid back musician.

So I just try and enjoy myself, make sure everyone is relaxed, enjoying themselves as well.

When I perform the Keys is an amazing, amazing place, which is what has kept me here.

♪ You say I know something special ♪ ♪ And I see it ♪ ♪ I hope you meant me ♪ ♪ Life changes its hand ♪ ♪ Things don't go as plan ♪ ♪ What a discovery ♪ ♪ It's almost too good ♪ ♪ I want it to be true ♪ ♪ Someone like you only comes once in blue moon ♪ ♪ A blue moon ♪ ♪ So maybe the stars aligned and it was finally time ♪ ♪ I found you ♪ (gentle acoustic music) ♪ It's crazy how we stand ♪ ♪ Two ships from two lands would come to collide ♪ ♪ 'Cause on the sea there's storms ♪ ♪ And people fall overboard ♪ ♪ But you're by my side ♪ ♪ It's almost too good ♪ ♪ I want it to be true ♪ ♪ 'Cause someone like you only comes once in a blue moon ♪ ♪ A blue moon ♪ ♪ So maybe the stars align ♪ ♪ And it was finally time ♪ ♪ I found you, oh ♪ ♪ I found you ♪ ♪ I found you, oh ♪ ♪ I found you ♪ ♪ I found you ♪ ♪ I found you ♪ ♪ I found you ♪ ♪ I found you ♪ ♪ Like you found me too ♪ (bright instrumental music) - Learn more at leahsuttermusic.com and instagram.com/leahsuttermusic.

(bright instrumental music) And here's a look at this week's art history.

(bright instrumental music) (bright instrumental music continues) (bright instrumental music continues) (bright instrumental music continues) That wraps it up for this edition of WLIW Arts Beat.

We like to hear what you think, so like us on Facebook, join the conversation on X, and visit our webpage to watch more episodes of the show.

We hope to see you next time.

I'm Diane Masciale.

Thank you for watching WLIW Arts Beat.

(bright instrumental music) Funding for WLIW Arts Beat was made possible by viewers like you.

Thank you.

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