The sculpture is made up of suite cases, duffle bags, backpacks, and roller bags and is located in Hamm park on East 7th street a few blocks East of Maria street. It is part of an art project around immigration. There are more details on the Indigenous Roots web site.
I know the East Side of St. Paul well it was where I grew up and went to school. At the time it was what people called a “working class” neighborhood and it was mostly white. The neighborhood is a lot more diverse these days partly because of immigration.
In my family, I am the third generation to be born in this country but the first generation came from Quebec, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. I can understand and read some French but do not know any Polish and I know very little about Czechoslovakia.
I don’t think it would be very easy to go back to where I came from. We are a country of immigrants, we invaded and took over from indigenous people, who also immigrated long, long ago.
If you haven’t seen the sculpture check it out. On the wall behind the suitcases, they have started putting up pictures of immigrants and some of their stories.
