Their Words, Shared Stories, Our Future

New Virginians, an exhibition at the Library of Virginia, explores the immigration and refugee experience and our increasing diversity

Recent estimates place the number of foreign-born Virginians at just under one million, or about one in every eight people in the state. The composite portrait of Virginia is becoming more complex, challenging an older, simpler understanding of what it means to be a Virginian. Whether our roots in the state go back ten thousand years, ten generations, or ten weeks, we must create the future of the commonwealth together.

New Virginians: 1619–2019 & Beyond explores the historical and continuous journey toward the ideals of America and seeks to foster an honest discussion about the immigrant and refugee experience and Virginia’s increasing diversity. Produced jointly by the Library of Virginia and Virginia Humanities, the exhibition highlights the changing demographics of the Commonwealth on the eve of the 2020 federal census through a series of interviews with first-generation immigrants and refugees who arrived in Virginia after 1976. The interviews reveal the complexity of the experience for people representing a wide range of personal backgrounds, experiences, ages, and countries of origin—Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East.

The interviews were conducted by David Bearinger, director of grants and community programs at Virginia Humanities, who noted that if he “had to choose just one word to describe the essence of these conversations, the place where all of them converge, that word would be ‘gratitude’: for the opportunities, freedom, and protections—the relative safety—this country offers.”

To complement the videos, the exhibition includes objects that have special meaning for the interviewees. The artifacts on loan include:

• A graduation stole given to Isabel Castillo by her grandmother to celebrate Castillo’s receipt of an honorary doctorate from the University of San Francisco
• A copy of Wedding Song, a memoir by Farideh Goldin about her journey from Iran to the United States
• A mask crafted by Ganna Natsag for a tsam (masked dance) ceremony practiced in his native Mongolia
• A stringed instrument called a charango from Bolivia
• A Qur’an from Aliaa Khidr that represents the free practice of religion guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

New Virginians is a Legacy Project of the 2019 Commemoration, American Evolution.