Dolores Huerta helps launch bilingual exhibit on a century of U.S. Mexican deportations
A new bilingual show at Sacramento’s California Museum, guided by activist Dolores Huerta, chronicles a hundred years of U.S. deportation campaigns against Mexican workers.
Sacramento’s California Museum has opened a bilingual exhibition called “Help Wanted/Leave Now: ‘Operation Wetback’ and the Revolving Door of Mass Deportation,” with guidance from labor leader Dolores Huerta. The exhibit traces U.S. deportation efforts targeting Mexican laborers from the 1930s Mexican Repatriation through the 1950s Operation Wetback and the World-War-II bracero program, drawing connections to today’s detention centers.
Personal accounts, such as Victor Ochoa’s forced relocation at age seven, and family photos, illustrate the human impact of these policies. An advisory board of experts and descendants of braceros, including former state senator Martha Escutia, helped shape the narrative. The show will remain in Sacramento until Jan. 10 and then travel to additional institutions. Huerta hopes the display will encourage more humane treatment of immigrant workers and remind visitors of their contributions to the nation.
Why it matters
The exhibit reveals how past deportation policies still shape immigration debates and the lives of migrant workers today.
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