SACRAMENTO– Screening of ADIOS AMOR– THE SEARCH FOR MARIA MORENO at the Organization for American Historians Annual Meeting

SACRAMENTO– The Annual Meeting of the Organization of American Historians will include a film festival. One of the films screened is California Humanities-supported film ADIOS AMOR– THE SEARCH FOR MARIA MORENO which will be followed by a panel with Laurie Coyle (Adios Amor Film Project), Vicki Ruiz (University of California, Irvine), and Devra Anne Weber (University of California, Riverside). The full line up of screenings can be viewed here. Over the past decade, the release of historical dramas like Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln and Ava Duvernay’s Selma have raised important questions about the strengths, limitations, and possibilities of film as a form of historical documentation. Can film as a visual medium convey ideas and information that lie beyond written forms of historical documentation? How do filmmakers draw from history to imagine new futures? How have recent technological shifts in the making and distribution of film transformed the ways artists, historians, and the public engage the past? And lastly, how might historians as teachers better incorporate the diverse forms of film (animation, narrative documentaries, historical dramas) into our pedagogical activities? The OAH’s 2018 conference in Sacramento will explore these and other issues in a series of film screenings, panels, and lectures specifically designed to elicit sustained dialogue and exchange about film as a form of history. Combined with exploring a variety of topics, ranging from the environment to racialized violence to student activism, the selected films showcase multiple aesthetic forms. There are feature length documentaries, as well as animated short films. Since new media along with new interdisciplinary opportunities have rendered film making more accessible, this conference also takes seriously historians’ growing role as creators and producers of art. ADIOS AMOR–  THE SEARCH FOR MARIA MORENO In Adios Amor, the discovery of forgotten photographs prompts a search for an unsung heroine, Maria Moreno, a migrant mother who sacrificed everything but her twelve kids in the struggle for farm worker justice. In the late 1950s at the height of the Cold War, Maria Moreno stepped out of the shadows and spoke up for 3 million farm workers living in poverty while they harvested the food for the most affluent nation in the world. Elected by a group of Okie, Arkie, Black, Filipino and Mexican farm workers to represent their demands for equal rights and fair pay, Maria took her crusade all the way to the halls of power in Washington D.C. Although she was silenced and relegated to the sidelines of farm worker history, Maria Moreno left an inspiring legacy of multi-ethnic unity that is deeply resonant today. After screening Adios Amor, filmmaker Laurie Coyle and historian advisors Vicki Ruiz and Devra Weber will engage viewers in a conversation about how the film challenges conventional histories of the farm worker movement Panelists: • Laurie Coyle, Adios Amor Film Project • Vicki Ruiz, University of California, Irvine • Devra Anne Weber, University of California, Riverside Registration for the Annual Meeting: http://www.oah.org/meetings-events/2018/registration/