Telling the stories of immigrants with her camera, Alison Ziegler '98 shows how 'they' are becoming 'we' here in the heartland
by Michael Barnes '06

Above: Maria Trujillo and her daughter, photographed by Alison "Quito" Ziegler at the Worthington, Minn., International Festival. The family emigrated from Mexico in 1993.

By dragging along a camera whenever she visits her "friends," and keeping an eye out for quiet, personal moments, Alison "Quito" Ziegler '98 combines her passion for photography with activism on behalf of immigrant communities.

A newcomer to Minnesota herself when she enrolled at Macalester, the native New Yorker has been capturing the stories of immigrants in Minnesota for the last two years. She has documented their lives through photography as part of her role with the Minnesota Immigrant Freedom Network, a nonprofit organization she co-founded that works to reform what it describes as the "broken immigration system" in the United States.

Last summer, Ziegler (she was nicknamed "Quito" in her first year at Mac when a friend compared her to a mosquito because of her small size and pesky behavior) organized her largest project yet, which she named the Minnesota Family Project. Partnering with several nonprofit organizations and supported by local foundations, including the McKnight Foundation, she rented a 36-foot truck and plastered both sides of it with life-size images of immigrants in their homes, at work and places of worship. She and four full-time staff members toured Minnesota, making 33 stops in 22 towns.

The truck, plastered on both sides with life-size images of immigrants, that toured Minnesota last summer.

Ziegler wanted Minnesotans to see the photographs, but she also incorporated her audience into her art. "I wanted folks to start interacting with the ideas behind the photographs, instead of just taking 10 seconds and looking at some pictures on a truck."

When this art project on wheels pulled into the county fair in Albert Lea, the public library in Pelican Rapids or the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, it unloaded no cargo. Instead, visitors were encouraged to step inside the truck, have their picture taken and asked to write out their own personal history of immigration on a printed copy of their portrait.

What if their family had lived in Minnesota for six generations? No problem. They were asked to write about their ancestors' story of immigration. These photos and the hand-scrawled histories they contained, whether recent or centuries old, were pasted up inside the truck for the next community to appreciate.

"I wanted people to feel this personal connection to the issue of immigration and to their own personal history of immigration," Ziegler says. "I could see the people who participated understanding in their head that we all came here for the same reasons."

Not everyone had such a positive reaction to Ziegler's exhibit or her staff, three of whom were immigrants themselves. "There were a lot of people that were visibly uncomfortable with talking to us. They saw what we were doing and walked away."

But Ziegler says Minnesotans will have to get used to talking to people who don't look like them, as increasing numbers of immigrants continue to flock to the Midwest. And as she notes, with the increase in population comes a growing tension. "They speak a different language. They eat different foods, they have different colored skin and people don't know how to handle that."

Ziegler says her own introduction to diversity in Minnesota began with an internship right after graduation, with fellow photographer Wing Young Huie. The trips they took into immigrants' homes and businesses provided a contrast to her childhood in a predominantly Jewish community in New York. "I grew up in this cloistered environment on Long Island, and then I came to Macalester's campus, which is another bubble. Working with [Huie] really helped me break out of that for the first time."

By connecting people from different backgrounds through her photographs, Ziegler hopes she can help others break through some of the same barriers she once faced. "If I take my camera and I can show people where I've been, it helps broaden their understanding of who these [immigrants] are," she says.

Michael Barnes '06, a political science major from Marietta, Ga., writes regularly for The Mac Weekly, where he has contributed news articles, editorials and cartoons for three years.