Port Honors Generations of Workers with Labor Exhibit

By Daniel Rivera, Labor Reporter

On Aug. 27, the City of Long Beach, in collaboration with the Historical Society, set up an exhibition at the Long Beach Port Administration Building to celebrate labor day and worker contribution to the port. 

“Through the collaboration of the Long Beach Historical Society and the Port of Long Beach [the exhibition tells] the story of the workers, not just what the port is, but how the port became what it is,” Long Beach Port Commissioner Bobby Olvera Jr. told Random Lengths News. 

The exhibit intends to reach as far back as possible to highlight the multiple generations who contributed to the port. 

“Often we only look at shiny things. We don’t look at the strife, the blood, sweat and tears that generations of workers, generations of men and women contributed to make this complex so fantastic,” Olvera said. 

The exhibit began life as a mere idea discussed for about three years between the executive of the Historical Society and representatives of the port. 

“Some port representatives and I have been talking about it for three years, and at the beginning of 2024, we got serious about it. We have to make this happen this year, and opening around Labor Day seems like the right thing,” Julia Bartolotto, executive director of the Historical Society of Long Beach, told Random Lengths.

The exhibit includes various newspapers dated back to labor events, uniforms, tools and some photographs from various times and industries involved with the port. Also included is the history of First Nation people like the Tongva and their contributions to the port long before it became an industrialized hub with the overland trade routes along the coastlines and river systems. 

The port has been in operation for over a millennia, if the history of First Nations people is included in the timeline. 

“They also made wood plank boats they used for trade, which is something the port of Long Beach does today, but they did for thousands of years, trading in the Pacific islands, throughout the Channel Islands, and to Vancouver Canada,” Brian Chavez, project specialist for the Historical Society told Random Lengths. He is responsible for collecting and picking the exhibits.

“What we found is that they lived in a way that was known as traditional ecological knowledge, using the natural environment to enrich their way of life, but in a way that was sustainable,” Chavez said.  

A large part of the First Nations influence revolves around sustainability. Indeed, Long Beach has expressed more and more Tongva representation in combination with sustainability practices. 

The ports have undertaken several measures to reduce their impact on the communities they service, from switching to electric fleets, using alternative fuel sources, and chasing efficiency by making seemingly small but important changes, like having the trucks travel at night when there is less traffic out. 

The collection has a variety of sources, large swaths of the collection either came from the Historical Society and Port of Long Beach collections. However, various community contributions helped fill the holes in the record.  

The exhibit is located in the Long Beach Port Administration Building, and will remain there until Nov. 15. They are feeling out the community’s interest, explaining that it depends on the local desire for this history. It may travel, however, it will likely return to the Historical Society’s museum located in Bixby Knolls in the spring. 

“The Historical Society of Long Beach has a museum in Bixby Knolls, so this is a great opportunity to do an exhibition somewhere else …  in the spring it will travel and be hung up in the historical section of Long Beach,” Bartolotto said.