A group of public artworks commemorating organized labor is the newest addition to the River Walk Public Art Garden.
, steel sculptures by Washington D.C.-based artist Ries Niemi relocated from their former home in Hemisfair, and sidewalk etchings commemorating a number of local labor leaders.When Quintanilla received the commission to write a poem for the plaza project, he didn’t have to search far for inspiration. His grandfather worked the South Texas railroads, and he once labored in construction and as a migrant worker in the Upper Midwest before becoming a high school teacher.
Quintanilla said, “For this plaza, it was completely necessary for us to remember where we come from,” speaking not only of his own experience, but of noted labor leaders such as Emma Tenayuca, Joan Suarez, Robert Thompson and Shelly Potter, who are among those to whom Labor Plaza is dedicated. People explore the newly opened Labor Plaza located in the River Walk Public Art Garden on Market Street Monday., executive vice president emerita of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations , is recognized for her pioneering work as a Hispanic labor leader. Thompson was present at the 1983 dedication of the Gompers statue, and was instrumental in leading the effort to replace it with public art focused on organized labor.
“I found out what the labor movement was, how it protected people … how important it was for workers to actually earn good wages,” she said. “I fell in love with the labor movement. That was in 1967, so now we are here 55 years later and I’m still in love with the labor movement, I’m still in love with continuing to do an advocate for workers, because sometimes they have no way to speak for themselves.
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