CSRC Newsletter - April 2010

Volume 8, Number 8

Director’s Message

In eight years as CSRC director, I have never once written an April Fools’ message in this newsletter. Today, for some reason, I find that odd. After all, I do have a sense of humor, if not a predilection for bad puns. Really bad puns. But my failure to deliver on April Fools’ Day can be easily explained. Everyday life seems to have become a hoax: a national economy built on speculative bubbles, a public good that now serves private interests, a funding priority on prisons over schools, and the triumph of name calling over evidence and expertise. Read the morning paper and see how often you mouth the words, “They’ve got to be kidding!” And yet, they are not. It is the hoax of no hoax, the cruelest hoax of all. As Flip Wilson used to say on his NBC show in the 1970s, “What you see is what you get.” Of course, he said that in drag as Geraldine Jones. But that was the point.
 
Chon A. Noriega
Director and Professor
 

News

Noriega at Harvard
On April 8 Chon A. Noriega, CSRC director, will lecture at Harvard University’s Sackler Museum. His presentation, “Emptiness Is Fullness: Latino Artists and U.S. Avant-Garde Art in the 1950s and 1960s,” is part of Harvard’s Latin American Leventritt Lecture Series, which is presented by the Harvard Art Museum and the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.
 
Call for Grant Applications
The CSRC, in conjunction with the IAC, is offering research grants in support of projects dealing with Chicano and Latino issues for the 2010-11 academic year. Visit the IAC website for more details and the application form. Submit completed hard-copy applications to Javier Iribarren, CSRC assistant director, 193 Haines Hall. The deadline is Friday, April 23, 5:00 p.m. Please send questions to Dr. Iribarren at jiribarren@chicano.ucla.edu.
 
2010 Education Summit
The CSRC held its fifth annual Latina/o Education Summit, “Funding K–12 and Higher Education: Impact on Latina/os,” on March 18 at the UCLA Faculty Center. The conference focused on funding for public education and the impact it has on Latino students, programs, and departments at every level, from Kindergarten through graduate school. Thomas A. Saenz, MALDEF president and general counsel, and Scott L. Waugh, UCLA executive vice chancellor and provost, were the featured speakers. We will be posting videos of the summit on the CSRC’s YouTube Channel. To learn more, visit the CSRC Education Summit page.
 
Now Available: Exhibition Guide and Worksheet
A teacher’s guide and a student worksheet for Art, Activism, Access: 40 Years of Ethnic Studies at UCLA are now available online. The activities in the teacher’s guide and the student worksheet address California content standards in the visual arts, history, and social science for grades 7–12. For additional information about the exhibition and the fortieth anniversary of the UCLA ethnic studies centers, visit the 40th Anniversary websites hosted by the CSRC and by UCLA.
 
High School Educational Program
A group of fifty-five students from Franklin High School will visit the CSRC on Wednesday, April 28. The all-day educational program, sponsored by the CSRC and the Fowler Museum, will include a walk-through of Art, Activism, Access, an interactive session with Gronk as he paints a mural at the entrance to the exhibition, educational and art activities, and a tour of the CSRC.
 

CSRC in the News

Pacific Standard Time, a set of exhibitions focusing on art in Southern California from World War II to 1980, was the subject of an article published last month in the New York Times. The CSRC is staging Los Angeles: The Mexican Presence in L.A. Art, 1945–1980, a three-part show at three area museums, as part of this initiative; each of the three exhibitions addresses an aspect of Chicano art in Los Angeles. CSRC Director Chon A. Noriega is quoted – and pictured – in the story. The exhibitions, made possible by a grant from the Getty Foundation, will open in 2011. The article is available on the CSRC website.
 
CSRC History
The history of the CSRC and the other three ethnic studies centers at UCLA is presented in Forty Years of Ethnic Studies at UCLA, 1969–2009, a book that commemorates the centers’ fortieth anniversary. Among those quoted are Chon A. Noriega, CSRC director; Carlos Manuel Haro, postdoctoral scholar-in-residence and former CSRC assistant director; Juan Gómez-Quiñones, Reynaldo Macias, and Robert Chao Romero, CSRC affiliated faculty; Mirasol Riojas, CSRC graduate student; and Colin Gunckel, associate editor for the CSRC’s A Ver series and assistant professor at the University of Michigan. The book was compiled and edited by UCLA Vice Chancellor Claudia Kernan-Mitchell and published by the UCLA Graduate Division.
 
Phantom Opening
Phantom Sightings: Art after the Chicano Movement opened at El Museo del Barrio in New York City on March 24. The exhibition, which is co-curated by Chon A. Noriega, CSRC director, originated at LACMA in April 2008. Among the publications reporting on the NYC opening and the exhibition were: The New Yorker, El Diario, DNAinfo, Tiempo en Linea, New York Daily News, MSN Latino, Artdaily, Yahoo! Noticias, and amNY. All articles are available in PDF format on the CSRC website.
 
Summit on Economic Security
This spring the Latinos and Economic Security Project (LES) will host a summit focusing on economic security for Latinos. LES is a national research project, funded by the Ford Foundation, whose goal is to advance economic security for middle-age and aging Latinos by advocating, developing, and fostering a public policy agenda that prioritizes the needs of the Latino community. It is a collaborative effort of the UCLA Center for Policy Research and Aging, the USC Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center, and the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, in partnership with the National Hispanic Council on Aging (NHCOA), the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), and the National Council of La Raza (NCLR). To learn more about the project and the upcoming summit, visit the LES website.
 

Events

The Raza’s Edge
What is Chicano art? Learn the many answers to this question at “The Raza's Edge: The Chicano Presence in L.A. Art History,” Saturday, April 3, 1:00–4:00 p.m., at LACMA’s Bing Theater. This town-hall style event will include panels and conversations related to the role of art and artists in the Chicano community and beyond. The discussion anticipates Los Angeles: The Mexican Presence in L.A. Art, 1945–1980, a three-part exhibition sponsored by the CSRC; one of the exhibition components will be a site-specific installation at LACMA. Admission to “The Raza’s Edge” is free. For more information contact Pilar Tompkins at pilar_tompkins@yahoo.com or visit LACMA’s website.
 
Discussion and Performance
Michoacán: Música y Músicos, a book that explores the rich musical history of Michoacán, will be the focus of a discussion on Monday, April 5, 12:00 p.m., in the CSRC Library (144 Haines Hall). Fermin Herrera (professor of Chicana and Chicano studies at CSU Northridge) and Steve Loza (professor of ethnomusicology and CSRC affiliated faculty member) will join the book’s editor, Alvaro Ochoa Serrano (professor at El Colegio de Michoacán), to talk about the contributions of composers, performers, and regional styles to Michoacán’s diverse musical tradition. A performance of songs from Michoacán by Efrén and Jacqueline will follow the discussion. The event is sponsored by the UCLA Center for Mexican Studies, the Latin American Institute, and the CSRC.
 
Film Screening
The CSRC will host a screening of short films by Harry Gamboa Jr. on Thursday, April 15, 4:00­–6:00 p.m., in the CSRC Library (144 Haines Hall). Mr. Gamboa is an internationally recognized writer and visual artist. As co-founder of the Chicano art group Asco, he developed such multimedia forms as the “no movie” and the “fotonovela,” which drew attention to the workings of mass culture. In his films, Gamboa combined the political influences of the Chicano Movement with the narrative excess of film noir, B movies, and Mexican telenovelas. The films are contained in volumes 2 and 3 of the CSRC’s Chicano Cinema and Media Arts Series. For more information on these and other films in the series, visit the CSRC website.
 
Action Painting
Visit the Fowler Museum to meet celebrated artist Gronk, and watch him create a site-specific mural as part of Art, Activism, Access: 40 Years of Ethnic Studies at UCLA. Gronk will paint the mural in two three-day segments: Wednesday–Friday, April 21–23 and April 28–30, noon to 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday, and noon to 8:00 p.m. on Thursday. The completed mural will be displayed until the exhibition closes on June 13. More information about the event and the exhibition are available on the Fowler Museum website. Media coverage is available on the Los Angeles Times, LAist, and Rafu Shimpo websites; these articles are also available in PDF format on the CSRC website.
 
Presentation on Incarceration
The public is invited to “Youth Crime and Juvenile Justice in California, 1900­–1940,” a presentation by Miroslava Chávez-García, associate professor of Chicana/o studies at UC Davis, on Friday, April 23, 2:00 p.m., in 179 Haines Hall. The talk is part of a two-day faculty workshop on incarceration in California on April 23 and 24. The workshop, which will be hosted by the CSRC, is for junior and mid-career scholars from the UC system who are working on incarceration and immigrant detention; it is being organized by Kelly Lytle Hernandez, assistant professor in the UCLA Department of History and the associate director of the CSRC.
 
CSRC at the Festival of Books
Visit the CSRC Press at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on Saturday, April 24, and Sunday, April 25, 10:00 a.m.­–6:00 p.m., at booth 534. UCLA’s four ethnic studies centers—the African American, American Indian, Asian American, and Chicano studies centers—will celebrate “40 Years of Ethnic Studies Research at UCLA.” The Press will have new books, DVDs, and our ever-popular T-shirts for sale. Booth 534 will be opposite the south entrance of Haines Hall.
 
Gronk Studio Tour
On Saturday, May 8, spend the afternoon with Gronk and Chon A. Noriega. The tour will start at the Fowler Museum, where Gronk will discuss his just-completed mural (see above), then participants will travel by bus to the artist's downtown studio. The tour will conclude with a private screening of Gronk’s all-digital animation, BrainFlame, at the Glendale Planetarium. The bus will return to UCLA at 5:00 p.m. A box lunch will be provided. Tickets are $25 for Fowler Museum members and $30 for non-members. Reservations are required: (310) 825-8655.
 

CSRC Library and Archive

Service Learning at the Library
The CSRC participated in a service learning program coordinated by Lupe Escobar of the UCLA Department of English during the winter quarter. The five students who participated helped process the Yolanda Retter-Vargas Papers. Ms. Retter-Vargas, former CSRC librarian, was an activist, archivist, and mentor to numerous students, faculty, and staff. She was with the CSRC for four years before she passed away in 2007. The library will be seeking an intern for the upcoming academic year to continue work on this collection. For more information please see Lizette Guerra, CSRC librarian, in 144 Haines Hall.
 
Recently Published Finding Aids
The Rigoberto González Papers contains seven linear feet of papers, manuscripts, and books, which represent a significant portion of Mr. González’s research materials. Born in Bakersfield, California, on July 18, 1970, and raised in Michoacán, Mexico, Mr. González is the son and grandson of migrant farm workers. His extended family migrated to California in 1980, and when they returned to Mexico in 1992 González remained in the United States to complete his education. Details of his troubled childhood in Michoacán and his difficult adolescence as an immigrant in California are the basis for Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa, his coming-of-age memoir.
 
The Manazar Gamboa Papers comprises about five linear feet of Mr. Gamboa’s papers and manuscripts. After two stints in prison, where he discovered and cultivated his love of prose and verse, he began offering writing workshops for substance abusers, youths in juvenile halls, and prison inmates throughout the county. He often drove over 120 miles a day to teach literacy and writing. In 1988 a Brody Arts Fund award of $2,500 allowed him to replace his 1963 Dodge. In 1989 he became the artistic director of the Homeland Neighborhood Cultural Center in Long Beach. He turned his epic poem “Memories of a Bulldozed Barrio” into a stage performance and worked with the non-profit L.A Theatre Works for more than thirteen years. He died in December 2000 at the age of 66. The collection was donated to the CSRC by Michelle Kholos Brooks, Mr. Gamboa’s pupil and colleague.
The Anthony Beltramo Collection of Cancioneros contains one linear foot of song sheets and instruction books from the private research collection of Anthony Beltramo. Dr. Beltramo received his PhD from Stanford in 1972 and was a member of the Spanish faculty at the University of Montana until he retired in 2005. He has maintained a strong personal interest in Mexican and Mexican American music and folklore since the 1960s, when he studied and taught in Mexico. An amateur clarinetist and guitarist, he participated in the Banda Municipal de Torreón and in conjuntos with colleagues and students, and he often used music in his teaching. Activities over the years (aside from his academic work) have included forming a mariachi band, tracking down and recording the performance of corridos as well as other Latino musical forms, and documenting these in Montana as part of the state’s oral history program.
 
The Charles Rozaire Collection of Recordings consists of two linear feet of 78-rpm sound recordings of popular music in Spanish and English that date from the 1920s through the 1950s. Mr. Rozaire is a UCLA-trained, L.A.-based archaeologist and writer. Among his writings are “Ancient Civilizations of Latin America: An Exhibition of Art and Civilization in Ancient Latin America”; “Archaeological Investigations on Anacapa Island, California”; “Archaeological Investigations on San Miguel Island”; “Archaeological Investigations on Santa Barbara Island, California”; and “A Report on the Archaeological Investigations of Three California Channel Islands: Santa Barbara, Anacapa, and San Miguel.”
 

CSRC Press

Available Soon
A new edition of the best-selling Chicano Studies Reader: An Anthology of Aztlán is being prepared for release in May. This second edition, which celebrates Aztlán’s fortieth anniversary, will bring the anthology up to date with the addition of a new section containing five essays that were published in the journal between 2002 and 2009. These essays address topics that drew increasing attention in the journal over past decade, including cross-disciplinary studies, investigations of mass media and public culture, and explorations of the intersection of race, sexuality, and citizenship. The section opens with an introduction by Chon A. Noriega. Visit the CSRC Press webpage for a complete list of CSRC publications.
 

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