While planning her project as the first-ever Student Storyteller in Residence for the Center for Great Plains Studies earlier this year, Karla Hernandez Torrijos reflected on what the Great Plains meant to her. Though she had countless reasons to be thankful for growing up immersed in them, she knew her experiences alone weren’t enough to provide a complete picture.
“I can't singularly tell the story of the Great Plains,” Hernandez Torrijos, a sophomore English major, said. “That doesn't feel genuine to what the project should be, because there’s not one single voice of the Great Plains.”
The realization sparked her exhibit “Dear Great Plains,” a collection of over 70 (and counting) postcards to the Great Plains that are on display in the Great Plains Museum through May.
“I'd always loved the act of letter writing, and that sparked the idea of bringing a project like this to the Center,” Hernandez Torrijos said. “Letter writing forces you to be really intentional about what you want to express.”
A multidisciplinary writer whose first book is set to be published this year, Hernandez Torrijos didn’t know what to expect when she began soliciting postcards from friends, family, classmates and anyone who would respond.
“People have written recipes; people have written poems — we’ve even had a few little kids that drew pictures,” Hernandez Torrijos said. “I made a point of asking people to write honestly, whatever this place invokes in you.”
Offering people the chance to have their words on display brought Hernandez Torrijos an important realization about access to art.
“A lot of people love and want to create art, I think a lot of people are waiting for that invitation to create,” Hernandez Torrijos said. “If you have ever felt or been told that you could not be an artist, a poet, a writer, or whatever, this project is for you.”
Born in Mexico City, Karla was especially moved by postcards reflecting her own experience coming from an immigrant family.
“Lots of folks wrote about their experiences migrating here and describing how the plains have become a home. That was really wonderful to see.”
