Omaha's news leader chronicling the stories and people making *** difference in our community. This is KE TV News Watch Seven's Chronicle. Good morning and welcome to K *** TV, news watch Evan's Chronicle. I'm Rob mccartney. We are in the middle of Hispanic Heritage Month. It runs from September 15th through October 15th. That's because September 15th, if you didn't know is the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries like Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Now, the month is *** celebration of art, food advocacy work and more. And this morning, we're talking about the Hispanic culture in the metro, how its past is celebrated and the hope for the future and the generations to embrace it. First, immigrants now have *** place that commemorates their sacrifices to the growth and development of South Omaha. The South Omaha Immigrant History Museum opened in May at the Center Mall Gay TV News watch. Evan's Jessica Perez shares what the creators hope people learn from stories shared there. Starting out, the museum will focus on the history of the meat packing industry in Omaha. Starting with the theme, the smell of money. The museum curator says he wants people to understand how vital immigrants have been to the development of Omaha Museum. Curator, Gary Cast describes South Omaha as the Ellis Island of Nebraska, *** place where people from all over the world came in hopes of prosperity. They come in to do the jobs. Other people don't want to do stock houses and giant packing plants attracted immigrants looking for work in the 18 and 19 hundreds making South Omaha the largest meat packing center in the world bringing in $1.5 million *** day. They would say that that stunk down here and it really did all through Omaha. But *** lot of people down here say, well, we better watch out when you stop smelling it because that's the smell of money. It's the inspiration behind the South Omaha Immigrant History Museum theme meant to showcase their contributions, but also the immigrant experience often fearful of deportation. Much like an encounter director Jose Garcia recalls years ago with *** group at *** bar, I had run them out by my presence by the fact that I was speaking English pack up, you know, from security, go to *** place where they don't know where they don't know the language. Both say learning South Omaha's history is crucial to how people treat immigrants today. What they take away is ***, *** sense of togetherness, *** sense of unity, *** sense of purpose that was already demonstrated by *** prior generation as Jessica Perez reporting here now from the Mexican American Historical Society in the Midlands is its director Jose Garcia. Thanks so much for being here today. Appreciate it. Wonderful being here. So tell me about the museum it opened in May. How's the attendance been? Well, we have had some incredible response from the community. I had *** baseball show um just recently and the aficionados of the people, their fans came out in droves, we made contact with the storm chasers. Uh It, it was an incredible exhibit. Uh the smell of money hit the spot. It was like turning on an alarm bell and everyone woke up to the history and to the the importance of having roots and they brought their Children. II, I really haven't seen that many Children that came around and said, dad, what's that? So it's, it's been *** wonderful experience so far. Well, judging from that response, I mean, why is it important then to have for Omaha to have this, to have to have the museum put in place? I mean, Omaha is *** product of people like Fred Astaire Marlon Brando. I mean, we've got all, all, all kinds of Americans that have made incredible universal uh impacts on, on the culture on the world. Well, we wanna continue that and being *** museum right now. We're *** table top museum. We, we're, we're not *** Jocelyn or *** Durham um or even the Douglas County Historical Society, even though we have been collaborating with them. We're learning. So we're, we're learning the craft and it's important to have *** institution in, in the community that's making the history. Yeah. And, but that's why I wanna know. So why is that important to, to, even though you are just table top, you're only *** few months in, I mean, why is it important? What's your, what's your goal here? We're, we're closer to our, to, to our mission of reaching out to youth of reaching out to ha have them become ***, *** well, can I say AAA vessel of their own making of their own city of their own culture, the people that made the culture, their ancestors and the fact that they come with their parents or with their uncles or aunts, we've seen *** lot of grandmothers and grandpas too. So it, it all kind of fulfills ***, *** unity that uh our community sorely needs continuously being refreshed like such things as *** museum. I like, I really like that. And, and uh in Jessica's report, we heard Gary say immigrants came here to, came here to do the jobs that other people didn't want to do. Um That's still the case. You think it's been that case universally speaking, uh specifically in Nebraska uh when the crops needed to be picked, well, when there were crops that needed to be picked. Um They, they went to the, the, the, the, the largest source of manpower available So what did they do? While Hirsch went down to Mexico built trains. And all of *** sudden, uh the, all of the men in Mexico came to Nebraska to work in the sugar beet fields. And then they started working in the sugar making factories and then started working throughout every city because the railroad would put families every 30 miles on their right of way to maintain the track. So then they showed up in Omaha when all of the other prior immigrants, the Germans, the Italians, the Irish had moved into *** different work. So they needed somebody to fill the gap. Do the slaughtering, got you. And so hence the meat packing plant, meat packing plant. Um In 1955 the biggest in the world. Um later this month and end of November, you're presenting an exhibit of the 1st 100 years of the Mexican Mutual Society. Uh Forgive me if I butcher this name. So Ciudad Mutualist Mexican, right? And, and so thank you, how, tell me about that. And what's the, what's the plan? And you also have other another exhibit coming up next week. Yes. Well, the plan is to go from 1929 to 1979. Uh with the sociedad Vista Mexicana, their establishment codified their civility in the United States of America. They became the Mutual of Omaha of the Mexican population and were able to provide benefits for those that needed help, but they couldn't go to the, the, the, the main, the main resources that were available at the time. And then that, that morphed into things like the church. *** Guar Lady Guadalupe church became *** big um institution in the Mexican American community, which was then it started as *** Mexican community, but very quickly it became *** Mexican American community. And, and then, and then we, we jump started to the seventies when uh institutions like the Mexican American Commission, the Indian Chicano Health Clinic, which is now *** multi million dollar corporation called One World, right? So the the the the population has just been not only growing but expanding. And Saturday, you have uh the 14th, you have something in exhibit coming up, right? And, and this focuses in on the 1st 50 years with the mutualist at at the front end. And the other book end is 1979 where things started to change. It wasn't *** Mexican American population started to morph into *** Latino population that brought in people from Venezuela, from Argentina, from Chile, from Colombia, Uruguay. So Omaha started changing but it still be it was still very Latino, very Spanish surname and *** very, still very much Spanish speaking. And finally, then Jose why should celebrate the successes of the Hispanic community? Well, we celebrate it every day because Omaha is *** very successful city and it was Raza, it was Spanish speaking Spanish surname. People that were part of the team, part of the immigrant population that make this city as great as it is today, Jose Garcia. Thanks so much for being here today and best of luck with the museum. Oh, absolutely. Thank you for having me. You bet. Well, next here on KE TV news watch Seven Chronicle. The next generation, learning about Hispanic heritage, the director of UN Os Office of Latino and Latin American studies joins us going to talk about the importance of that office and research he's doing focusing on South Oma. You right back.