Roots in South Omaha: Navigating Identity, Culture, and Justice
Natalia Lopez
This Essay explores the Latino cultural influence on South Omaha and its impact on the Author’s childhood. By sharing personal stories and her observations from working on a research project, the Author explores her experience growing up in South Omaha and the history of Latinos in Omaha. The Author offers insight into immigration through her lived experience, which influenced her research project of mapping Mexican immigrants in Omaha by using World War II draft records. The Author appreciates the positive impact migrant workers had on building a culturally diverse center in South Omaha. This piece expands the concept of Nebraskan identity by recognizing the historical influence and contributions of migrant workers.
Truth Comes Before Reconciliation: An Exercise in American Truth-Telling
Hannah Fidler
The political is personal, and the personal is political. In this Article, the Author shares a personal deep dive into family history as a means to reckon with American history. Faced with questions about the future of her grandfather’s farm after his death, the Author delves into the hyper-local history of Nemaha County, Nebraska, to understand this farmland in its historical and contemporary context. From the Lewis & Clark expedition to the opioid crisis, from the Underground Railroad to Google data farms, the Author leaves no stone unturned in her attempts to understand the past and present of the land now resting in her family’s hands. In doing so, the Author explores sweeping arcs of American history as well as underlying questions—what does it mean to tell the truth about American history? How does grappling with history help build a better future? The Author offers her unique journey into family history as a model for both individual and collective truth-telling in America and argues that truth-telling is but the first step on a long road to reconciliation
