During the summers of 1999 and 2000, 40 college student interns who participated in Student Action with Farmworkers' Into the Fields Summer Internship and Leadership Development Program documented folk traditions of North and South Carolina's farmworker and immigrant Latino communities.

The SAF interns worked directly with farmworkers through health clinics, legal and immigration organizations, Migrant Education Programs, and community organizing groups in rural North and South Carolina. By working with community-based organizations, interns had direct access to the isolated farmworker population.

The interns learned about farmworkers' patterns of life andn work, observing how farmworkers define community in North and South Carolina. Through the survey, interns used audio recording and photography to document verbal, material, and customary traditions. The verbal traditions documented include songs such as rancheros and románticos and stories about La Virgin of Guadalupe. The material customs documented include traditional foods, crochet, folk, healing traditions, and piñatas. The customary traditions documented include home altars, quinceañera celebrations, weddings and festivals.

Part of SAF's mission is to increase interaction, communication and understanding among people of different cultures. This exhibit recognizes and records how farmworkers, Latinos and their families transport and recreate aspects of their native traditions as they migrate in pursuit of agricultural work or settle into communities. The photographs represent the value of face-to-face interaction between interns and farmworkers. In many instances, farmworkers reveal the dynamic process of the shaping and reinvention of traditional expressions through the forces of new settings and circumstances.

Farmworker literature and advocacy often focuses solely on work-related issues. This exhibit gives farmworkers a chance to communicate outside of this limited frame - to convey a sense of pride and value in their culture. As SAF identifies those who maintain the songs, stories, and craft traditions of their native cultures, opportunities arise for sharing our fieldwork with community members, students, and the general public. By highlighting the traditions and creative lives of farmworkers with those outside their occupational and cultural group, we hope to bring their humanity to the forefront.