Vela Exhibit
| The Museum will host the temporary exhibition Vela Treasures through December of this year in the Old Jail upstairs gallery. With this exhibition, MOSTH entered a unique partnership with the Vela Reunion 2007. MOSTH provided the venue and organizational advice, and Vela family members, led by Carola Chapa, organized and installed the exhibition. |  |
The wealth of documents and artifacts in the exhibition have been loaned by descendants of Salvador and Leonor Vela, who came to what is now Hidalgo County from Reynosa Díaz in the 1800s. Because of the family’s long presence in the area, and their association with historic properties such as the Laguna Seca Ranch, the exhibition provides a unique perspective on the history of the region. It also highlights the value of preserving family treasures and their importance to history repositories such as museums and archives.
“One of the most interesting aspects of this exhibit is its demonstration of the vast quantities of family heritage and stories that are held in private collections,” said Executive Director Shan Rankin. “As such, they are not available in Museums for researchers to access in their study of the history of the region. More importantly, the information can dissipate as families grow and become larger and these family treasures are dispersed over multiple generations. The Museum has recently had this point reinforced as images and artifacts were sought for its soon-to-open River Crossroads exhibit. The inaccessibility of stories, artifacts, and photographs from families like the Velas has been a challenge as the exhibit has been developed. We are hopeful that the Vela Treasures exhibit will motivate families in the region to fill this void by sharing their heritage with the Museum as a central repository so their stories will be accessible and reflected in future exhibitions and studies of our regional history.”
Originally scheduled to run only during the Vela Reunion, the exhibition now will continue through December of this year. During the reunion, held Father’s Day weekend, more than 600 Vela descendants from across the United States visited MOSTH. The exhibition proved a key factor in boosting June’s attendance to 2,889, a record for a summer month.