TRINIT Y
Recognizing History Citizens see family members in Let the Sunshine In. BY JILL HARTKE, DIGITAL ARCHIVIST
ROBERT RECK
THE EXHIBIT, LET THE SUNSHINE
Meridel Rubenstein, Oppenheimer’s Chair, 1993, steel, glass with photographic images, chair, video screen, 10 x 7 x 9 feet, courtesy the Tia Foundation
and raised four children. Sotela’s
IN, features street photography
grandson called me from California
from 1969. Unidentified people are
to say that selling items on Central
captured in unguarded moments
Avenue was her social outlet and
because they didn’t know they
she didn’t like to stay away for long.
were being photographed. In
Responding to a social media post
choosing images to showcase,
discussing downtown in the late
I harbored hopes of someone
1960s, people fondly remembered
claiming the
a woman who
subject of one
sold gum and
photograph,
piñon. Sotela
for him are those demanding that visitors
in particular.
loved sitting in
question the events of the time. Meridel
In one of the
the bustle of
Rubinstein’s Oppenheimer’s Chair asks
images curated
Central Avenue
viewers to imagine the decisions that
for the project,
sidewalks, and
Los Alamos National Laboratory director
an older woman
people loved
Robert J. Oppenheimer had to make. “It’s
sits on a stool
visiting with her.
a mythic piece ... that carries the weight
wearing a
She died in 1980
of being responsible for the detonation
brown dress
and is buried
of the bomb over Japan.”
and a black
in San José
The exhibition covers a lot of ground,
scarf over her
Cemetery in
artistically and from a global socio-po-
eyes. A sign
Albuquerque.
litical standpoint. But perhaps its most
around her
significant accomplishment is challenging
neck reads, “I
preconceptions about radiation and the
am blind and
atomic age–and looking at them through
sell piñon and
the humanist lens of artistic creation.
gum.” With the
“From 14,0000-year-old stone tools to
When the exhibition Walter McDonald, Sotela Garcia Jaramillo selling gum and piñon, 1969, 35mm slide, Albuquerque Museum
opportunity
opened, the label beside her photograph read: Blind
the invention of the atomic bomb, tech-
to publicize the exhibition, we
woman selling gum and piñon. It
nological invention and social interaction
encouraged people to come
was an honor to update that label
represent a unique, unbroken history in
forward if they recognize anyone
to: Sotela Garcia Jaramillo selling
New Mexico,” Traugott says. “The art of
in the photographs. To my delight,
gum and piñon. She was our first
New Mexico is clearly a reflection, and a
a man showed up at the Museum
identification for this exhibition,
by-product, of those technological and
saying he was sent by his uncle to
but not our last. Others have
cultural experiences. We have not always
tell us about his great-aunt Sotela.
come forward to identify friends
treated each other kindly, and art is one
She was our piñon and gum seller.
and share stories. We continue to
of the vehicles that allows us to treat our
Sotela Garcia Jaramillo was born
welcome information allowing us to
fellow humans in a civilized manner. Art is
in Albuquerque in 1895. She lost her
change more labels and make our
a very important healing medium.”
eyesight in her twenties. She married
collection stronger.
4
SPRING 2020
Art. History. People.
