Fort Bend Museum's Hispanic Heritage Month Presentations
October 3, 2024 at 6PM
Where: Exhibit Gallery, Fort Bend Museum, 410 S. 5th Street | Richmond, TX Speaker: Dr. Marie Theresa Hernandez, Professor of World Cultures at the University of Houston Topic: Remembered and Forgotten: The History of Latinos in Fort Bend County During the twentieth century, Fort Bend County's culture was deeply Southern. The plantations and enslaved were gone, but the memory and structure of this type of society was still embedded in daily life. Things changed through the decades and in the Twenty-First Century the county is a vibrant community of people whose parents and grandparents came from all parts of the world.
A century ago, a population of Mexican families began migrating to Fort Bend in search of work. Imperial Sugar and many area farms needed workers. Most of their descendants are now college educated professionals. Yet, the stories from those early times were very different. Fort Bend County's Southern world of 1900 had rigid dividing lines. There was a standing myth that only certain people were worthy of respect and acknowledgement. By 2024, that myth for the most part, has been shattered. Only a few traces remain. Some of the memories have stayed behind and some have been forgotten. This presentation is about forgetting and remembering. October 10, 2024 at 6PM
Raúl Herrera is a decorated Vietnam War Navy veteran who was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. He served on Swift Boats, PCF-79, in Operation Market Time (Task Force 115), 1967-68.
Via a PowerPoint presentation, he shares an eyewitness account of the capture of a 120-foot North Vietnamese steel-hulled resupply trawler, carrying more than 90 tons of weapons, ammunition, and explosives to an awaiting contingency of Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops at the mouth of the Sa Ky river on the Batangan Peninsula in Quang Ngai Province, Republic of Vietnam on July 15, 1967. Operation Market Time was the U.S. Navy’s picket line of defense along the 1200-miles of coastline. The Vung Ro Incident was the catalyst that brought about the coastal surveillance force concept. It was a chance discovery of a steel-hulled trawler, camouflaged with potted palm trees and shrubs, in a well-hidden bay that gave birth to the pudgy grey ghosts of the Vietnam Coast – Swift Boats. |
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Available Lectures Online
Our History, Our Diversity
Lecture Series
"Our History, Our Diversity" is a monthly speaker series that launched in March 2022 in our revitalized museum gallery and event space. The series is designed to elevate, celebrate, and illuminate the people of Fort Bend County.
Former Mayor of Rosenberg, Lupe Cabello shares the perspective of the Latino community and being the first Mexican American woman to serve in Fort Bend County.
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Rice University Professor and Kinder Institute Demographer,
Dr. Erin Baumgartner shares her perspective on the overall growing demographics of Fort Bend County. Program Manager of Houston's Asian American Archive, Dr. Anne Chao discusses immigration and contributions to farming rice lands in
Fort Bend County. Sheriff Eric Fagan, the second African-American to withhold the position since the Reconstruction Era sheds light on diverse communities, mental health stigmas and policing in Fort Bend County.
Author Dan Worrall highlights the perspective of the Prehistoric,
Native American, and geographical history of Fort Bend County. |
Lectures Available Upon Request
We offer a variety of lectures to organizations and clubs - in-person or virtually - free of charge. Below is a list of traditional and unconventional topics presented by our staff. To inquire about a lecture, please contact us at 281-342-6478.
The Smashing History of Carry NationExplore the life of prohibitionist Carry A. Nation from the beginning of her life in 1846 to her death in 1911. Most recognized as the "Lady with the Hatchet" who smashed saloons across Kansas and other parts of the country at the turn-of-the-century, there's more to be said about this larger-than-life activist. Once home to Nation in the 1880s, learn how Richmond helped shape her into the most famous and, one might argue, notorious prohibitionists of her time.
Early Medicine in Fort Bend CountyFrom home remedies and cookbook cures to miracle elixirs that sound too good to be true, take a journey through the foundations of early medicine and its modernization in Fort Bend County
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Omens & Superstitions
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