Back-Support Belt

Description:

Day laborers found plenty of work in New Orleans in the weeks and months following Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Mammoth quantities of trash removal from devastated homes and businesses, clean-up, and reconstruction offered the promise of gainful employment to anyone willing and able to undertake heavy labor. The possession of technical skills was less important than pure muscle power and persistence.

Mexican immigrant Francisco Zu&ntild;eiga, wearing this heavy, tooled leather back-support belt, was waiting in a downtown gas station in December 2005 for drive-up labor needs when he was approached instead by a Smithsonian team looking for something to acknowledge this aspect of the human response to Katrina. Much has been made of the outpouring of volunteerism after the hurricane, but another form of service was the individual with an aching back willing to labor under very adverse conditions for the hope of a small wage.

Associated Date: 2005

User: Zuniga, Francisco

Location: Currently not on view

Referenced: United States: LouisianaUnited States: Louisiana, New Orleans

Related Event: Hurricane Katrina

Subject:

See more items in: Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering, Health & Medicine, Clothing & Accessories, Cultures & Communities, Work, Art

Exhibition:

Exhibition Location:

Credit Line: Gift of David Shayt

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Id Number: 2006.0018.01Catalog Number: 2006.0018.01Accession Number: 2006.0018

Object Name: Belt

Physical Description: leather (overall material)Measurements: overall: 4 in x 1 in x 11 in; 10.16 cm x 2.54 cm x 27.94 cm

Guid: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746ac-0edf-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Record Id: nmah_1313396

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