Photographic exhibit spotlights Latin people making an impact in Sask.

A photographic exhibit unveiled Saturday night aims to evoke a sense of belonging and to deepen the connection among the Latin American community in the province.

“Rastros” Latinidad Through Images features portraits of nine Latinx people making an impact in their community. The event was created by Ay, Caramba!, a Latinx theatre in Saskatchewan.

Those featured include chefs, actors, musicians and more. Yulissa Campos is the project manager behind the exhibit and says Latinx people in the province can often feel invisible.

“We don’t know much about our heritage and how we’re building a life here. For me, it was important to tell the community we’re here and there’s a lot of us, this is just a short sample of who we are,” Campos told CTV News.

The night was also an opportunity to get a taste of Latin America, with food from La Taqueria Mexicana and entertainment with live music and dancers.

The word “rastros” in Spanish means footprint. It has a lot of meaning for Latinx immigrants.

“(It’s the) people that came before us, our parents or being first and second generation Canadian-Latinos. That’s the rastros they left, they did something and we’re going to continue that,” Campos said.

Daniel Nwabuko is a portrait photographer and took all the photos featured in the exhibit. While he often takes portraits, he says this project had a bigger vision attached to it.

“It is quite surreal, it is one thing to take a photo but it’s another thing for it to be displayed openly in the public for everyone to see and hopefully feel what you felt when you had taken the photo,” Nwabuko said.

Nwabuko says the creative process for the project was to showcase two things in each photo - Latinx heritage and the person.

“Everybody here does something different … some things I considered were colours, florals and brightness for some of the photos,” he said.

Under each photo is the persons name and a QR code that leads to a website where people can learn more about them and their impact.

The exhibit’s opening night took place at College Park Covenant Church and will remain there until Thursday. It will be moved to the Bunkhouse Gallery in the Forestry Farm from October 21 to 23 and then to the Persephone Theatre Gallery from October 24 to 31.