The exhibition “Stars and Stripes. Valencians and the USA” takes us on a one-way trip to the United States one century ago when around 15,000 Valencians entered the United States via Ellis Island where they quickly scattered all over the country to engage in an array of diverse professions: mining, heavy industry, railway lines and services. Secondly, visitors are asked to take the return trip to reflect on how the United States has played its role of superpower, above and beyond the military and economic aspects, to centre on culture, in the anthropological sense of the word. As of 1950 there is no cultural influence, in the widest sense of the term, comparable to that of the USA; on television, at the cinema, in literature, painting, comics, rock, videogames, etc., part of everyday life takes place in the United States, from assembly lines to fast food, from the mushroom cloud to suburban housing estates, many parts of North American culture and lifestyle have been, are and will continue be reflected in many ways in Valencian society, where matches and rejection can be found, critical acceptance, but never indifference.
Sala 10 del Museu Valencià d'Etnologia
