Time to Get Ready: Fotografía Social | Civil Rights Photography of Maria Varela

Maria Varela's Time to Get Ready: Fotografía Social | Civil Rights Photography of Maria Varela opens at the African American History Research Center at the Gregory School on Tuesday, October 27, 2026. It's an all-day exhibition, and admission is free.

To understand the photos, you have to know where Varela started. Born in 1940, she was inspired by the social justice activism of her Catholic high school on Chicago's South Side. In 1963, she joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), working mostly in Alabama and Mississippi. There, she helped develop a voter literacy program, and by 1965, she had become the organization's only female staff photographer. Her filmstrips and photo books were used by organizers, and her presence behind the lens often protected marchers from violence.

In 1968, she answered Reies Lopez Tijerina's call to join the Land Grant Movement in New Mexico, where she helped members establish co-ops and non-profits to restore ancestral lands and cultural practices. Varela says the images trace the evolution of resistance movements over nearly three decades, moving from demonstrations to political organizing and finally to the building of alternative institutions.

The exhibition was organized by the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago. Varela's work is held by the National Museum of African American Art, the National Museum of Mexican Art, and the National Gallery of Art. You can see it at the African American History Research Center at the Gregory School on October 27; it's free to enter.