A chat with Rosa Cabrera from the Field Museum

On June 29, 2009 I sat down with Rosa Cabrera, Public Involvement Manager at the Field Museum in their department of Environment, Cultural and Conservation (ECCo).

ECCo works on research and implementation projects with an aim to integrate environment, culture and conservation. This is done through collaboration with community organizations in the City of Chicago or the Chicagoland region and in South America. These two diverse geographies are included because two different departments within the Field Museum, the Center for Cultural Understanding and Change (CCUC) and the Environment and Conservation Programs (ECP), merged in January 2009 to become officially ECCo. ECCo works primarily with the Chicago Cultural Alliance to address cultural aspects of their mission and with Chicago Wilderness to tackle the environmental areas of their mission.

The CCUC, now ECCo, and Field Museum are particularly significant partners for the Alliance, which grew out of a program called Cultural Connections managed by the CCUC. Cultural Connections ran from 1998 - 2009, with an emphasis of connecting heritage to contemporary issues by comparing "Common Concerns, Different Responses" among Chicago's ethnic communities. At the urging of Chicago's ethnic museums, centers, and historical societies, the CCUC hired a consultant in 2005, with the intention of separating the role of Cultural Connections from the Field Museum, and the Alliance was officiallyincorporated as an independent organization in 2006.

ECCo brings a new model of integration and cultural understanding through facilitating collaboration between small and large organizations who normally would not have a relationship. They also try to draw the larger organizations into work on environmental conservation. Many of ECCo's goals are similar to the Chicago Cultural Alliance because they were born of the same ideas. Working with community organizations is a significant part of the work that both ECCo and the Alliance do because these organizations truly understand the needs of their communities, who make up a major part of Chicago's population.

For Rosa personally, the most rewarding part of her work with ECCo and the Field Museum has been to see the growth of the Alliance and to see the Partner Institutions expand their missions to include work on environmental issues. Rosa's background in is cultural anthropology, she received her master's degree from the University of Illinois - Chicago and went straight into working at the Field Museum, first as an intern in 1999, and later as a paid staff member in CCUC in 2000. In 2009, she earned her Ph.D in Cultural Anthropology, with a dissertation that focuses on Chicago's ethnic museums.

The mission of the Chicago Cultural Alliance is "effecting social change and public understanding of cultural diversity", an idea that Rosa sees happening as the Alliance helps Core Members expand their notion of heritage through addressing notions of identity. This in turn allows these organizations address contemporary issues in their community and helps them to fulfill their missions.

Cultural Connections: Bodies in Motion

On April 15, 2009 the Swedish American Museum and the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian came together for aCultural Connections: Bodies in Motion event sponsored by Chicago 2016 and organized through The Field Museum and the Chicago Cultural Alliance. This series of Cultural Connections examines sport, athleticism and games in different cultures, and this program highlighted some of the outdoor activities of the Swedes and by different American Indian tribes. The speakers from the Swedish American Museum discussed bicycling, cross-country skiing and kick sleds, while the Mitchell Museum talked about lacrosse, tobogganing and snow snakes. They discussed the beginnings of these activities and how they have progressed through time.

The Cultural Connections program looks at the questions of what is culture and what is the value of cultural diversity. Human responses to challenges result in a multitude of ideas and this makes up the cultural diversity that makes human interaction so interesting. Cultural Connections is a platform for Chicago's ethnic and cultural centers to examine cultural diversity in its different forms. The April 15 program looked at physical activities and how they are viewed in such different ways. A bicycle can be a mode of transportation or a weekend hobby. Lacrosse can be a way to resolve disputes without violence or simply a sport. By examining these differences, we can see how people treat each event or idea in their own personal way. Some children love running around outside after school, playing video games, organized sports, or individualized physical activity. One man at the program cycles 365 days a year while others, considering winters in Chicago, find it hard to just get into their car! American Indians have given American culture many forms of entertainment from activities that were once purley function. Lacrosse was a peaceful solution for disputes, and toboggans were forms of transportation and methods to carry items, but now they are a extremely popular sport and one of the best snow activities of all time.

The next program is Cultural Connections: Transplanted Sports, hosted by the Indo-American Heritage Museum and the Brazilian Cultural Center of Chicago on May 16, 2009. Here sports that were brought to these countries through colonialism and immigration will be examined. This will be the last Cultural Connections program run by the Field Museum, before the program is handed over to the Chicago Cultural Alliance.