CSRC Newsletter - April 2016

The CSRC was proud to be a partner in “Your Future Starts Here,” the first ever faculty welcome event for newly admitted Latino students. UCLA faculty, administrators, and staff welcomed eighty prospective first-year students and their families to the campus. The March 31 event at Pauley Pavilion featured music performed by the UCLA School of Music Latin Jazz Band, led by ethnomusicology professor and CSRC faculty associate Steve Loza, and catering by Casablanca restaurant. Bilingual invitations were sent out to Latino students admitted to the incoming class for 2016-17, possibly the most competitive cohort to date given the approximately 97,000 applicants. Faculty from across the College spoke with students and their families in Spanish and English, while staff answered questions about financial aid and housing. Professor Abel Valenzuela spoke on behalf of the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies, where he serves as chair. As CSRC associate director, I highlighted the numerous opportunities for undergraduate students at the CSRC—our many events, library resources and services, research support and awards, archival projects, and work-study positions. I can say that all of the faculty members taking part were truly moved by the students’ and families’ excitement and pride. I expect this event to become a CSRC and UCLA tradition and to significantly increase the number of exceptional Latino high school students who choose to become Bruins.  

 

Charlene Villaseñor Black

Associate Director and Professor

 

 

Don Nakanishi, présente!

The CSRC is greatly saddened by the passing of Don Nakanishi, professor emeritus director emeritus of the Asian American Studies Center at UCLA. A highly prolific and influential educator who helped develop the field of Asian American studies, Nakanishi was the recipient of numerous awards for his scholarship and public service. Funeral services were held Saturday, April 2, at the Hompa Hingwanji Buddhist Temple, where IAC vice provost M. Belinda Tucker spoke on behalf of UCLA chancellor Gene Block. Current AASC director David K. Yoo and AASC staff members were among the ushers and receptionists. Nakanishi was born and raised in East Los Angeles, and was elected student body president of Theodore Roosevelt High School. Fellow students and lifelong friends Carlos Moreno and Castulo de la Rocha served as pallbearers and spoke at the service. Both recounted how Nakanishi combined keen political strategy with humility and dedicated service to social equity. CSRC director Chon A. Noriega remembers Nakanishi as a close colleague who not only advanced the intellectual cause of ethnic studies but also nurtured its professional and institutional underpinnings. “He mentored countless students as they made their way into the academy and the world,” Noriega stated. “And he fought to maintain the unique and necessary infrastructure provided by the ethnic studies research centers at UCLA. Without his leadership at crucial moments these centers would not be here today. Don was unerringly humble and generous, but he also had an infectiously humane laughter even in the most difficult moments. During the service, I could almost hear Don laughing as his Chicano friends noted how he was often more Mexican than them, and the Buddhist officiant, Rimban William Briones, confessed that he was in fact Mexican.” Nakanishi's contributions endure in the many lives he touched and in the field he helped develop. Tribute donations may be made to the Don T. Nakanishi Award for Outstanding Engaged Scholarship in Asian American & Pacific Islander Studies, which annually recognizes and provides cash awards to UCLA faculty and graduate students who are pursuing outstanding community-based research in Asian American studies.

 

Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA

On March 30 the Getty Foundation held a press conference at Vibiana in downtown Los Angeles to announce the implementation grants allocated as part of its Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA arts initiative. A panel consisting of CSRC director Chon A. Noriega, curator and former CSRC visiting scholar Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, curator Dan Cameron, and curator and artist Rubén Ortiz-Torres spoke about the initiative—an exploration of Latino and Latin American art in dialogue with Los Angeles—and the exhibitions they are developing. (The CSRC is involved with three exhibitions in the initiative.) Other speakers at the event included James Cuno, president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust, Deborah Marrow, director of the Getty Foundation, and Eric Garcetti, mayor of Los Angeles. The announcement was covered in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and The Art Newspaper. Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA exhibitions and programs will open in 2017. For coverage of this event see In the News, below.

 

Romero arrested in civil protests against deportations

Robert Chao Romero, pastor and associate professor of Chicana/o studies and Asian American studies at UCLA, was among over twenty people arrested for civil disobedience in two separate protests (March 23 and March 30) in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles. Romero and other faith leaders and allies were arrested while protesting the detention and deportation of Central American refugee mothers and children who have come to the United States to flee extreme violence in their home countries. Protestors called for sanctuary and refugee status for these immigrants.

 

Indych-López discusses Baca’s Great Wall

Anna Indych-López, associate professor and department chair of art history at The City College of New York and The Graduate Center/CUNY, gave a talk titled “Judith Baca’s The Great Wall of Los Angeles: A Public Art of Contestation” at the Association for Latin American Art’s Fourth Triennial Conference, “Art at Large: Public and Monumental Arts in the Americas.” The conference took place March 18–20 at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. Indych-López is the author of Judy Baca, a forthcoming volume in the CSRC Press’s A Ver: Revisioning Art History book series.

 

Fifth Chicana/o studies PhD cohort visits CSRC

On March 15 the CSRC welcomed the fifth cohort of students admitted to the PhD program in the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies. CSRC director Chon A. Noriega and CSRC associate director Charlene Villaseñor Black met with the students in the CSRC Library to discuss their research interests and resources available at the CSRC, including publishing opportunities. The students will begin their coursework in Fall 2016.

 

Torres and Alatorre to receive service awards

Former US congressman Esteban Torres and former California state assemblyman Richard Alatorre will each receive a 2016 Pobladores Award from LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes at the organization’s tribute dinner on June 17. As leaders in the local Latino community, they have a combined forty-one years of service in the California State Assembly, Los Angeles City Council, and U.S. Congress and in White House appointments. Proceeds from the event will go toward LA Plaza’s educational programs, exhibitions, and free public programs. Tickets are available here. The CSRC has the Esteban Torres Papers.

 

Ulises de Jesus Diaz, présente!

The CSRC mourns the passing of Ulises Diaz, artist, architect, educator, and community activist who addressed the increasingly diverse population of Los Angeles through design projects, publications, exhibitions, and works of art. Diaz exhibited at museums internationally, served on the board of directors for Avenue 50 Studio in Highland Park, and was one of the founders and a design principal of ADOBE LA (Architects and Designers Expanding the Border Edge of Los Angeles), a collective of architects, artists, and designers whose public art projects focused on the Latino cultural landscape. The CSRC houses the Ulises Diaz ADOBE LA Archive Collection, 1980–2005.

 

New videos on CSRC YouTube

 

 

“Getty Foundation to Issue $8.5 Million in Grants for Latino and Latin American-Themed Shows across SoCal”

The Los Angeles Times covered the announcement of new implementation grants given by the Getty Foundation for organizations participating in the Getty arts initiative Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA.

Los Angeles Times, March 30, 2016 (PDF)

 

“More Funding for Pacific Standard Time Art Exhibitions for 2017”

The forthcoming CSRC-organized exhibition Home—So Different, So Appealing was mentioned in this story on the implementation grants given for exhibitions in the Getty arts initiative Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA.

The New York Times, March 30, 2016 (PDF)

 

“Latino and Latin American Artists to Meet in Pacific Standard Time”

The Art Newspaper covered the implementation grants for institutions participating in the Getty arts initiative Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA. The article discusses the exhibition organized by the CSRC and co-curated by Pilar Tompkins Rivas (LACMA), Mari Carmen Ramirez (MFAH), and CSRC director Chon A. Noriega.

The Art Newspaper, March 30, 2016 (PDF)

 

“Daniel Solórzano: Naming the Pain of Microaggressions”

A profile of Education professor Daniel Solórzano and his recent research on racial microaggressions. The article includes a link to a policy brief co-authored by Solórzano and CSRC visiting scholar Lindsay Pérez Huber and published by the CSRC Press. Ampersand, March 21, 2016 (PDF)

 

“Capturing Californian Youth Culture in the 90s"

Dazed Digital covered CSRC collections donor Guadalupe Rosales and her Instagram project, which posts crowd-sourced photographs pertaining to Chicano party scenes and everyday life in the 1990s.

Dazed Digital, March 14, 2016 (PDF)

 

“Photos of the Chicana Gang and Party Scene in the ’90s”

CSRC collections donor Guadalupe Rosales’s Instagram project was featured in Flavorwire.

Flavorwire, March 6, 2016 (PDF)

 

“The Instagram Account Letting Us Relive the Chicano Gang Life of the 1990s”

Konbini’s story on Guadalupe Rosales’s Instagram project includes several of the posted photographs.

Konbini, March 4, 2016 (PDF)

 

“Artist Depicts Oscar Winners as Mexican to Highlight Lack of Diversity”

The Daily Bruin covered the collaboration between CSRC and Los Angeles artist Linda Vallejo.

The Daily Bruin, March 2, 2016 (PDF)

 

“Art Coffee Project #4 Set for Thursday”

El Paso Herald-Post covered the appearance of pioneer Chicano video artist Willie Varela at a screening of Video Art by Willie Varela in downtown El Paso. Volume 9 in the CSRC Chicano Cinema and Media Art series, Video Art contains twenty-two videos created by Varela between 1974 and 2004. The CSRC’s DVD series showcases important and rare films and videos by Chicano artists and filmmakers.

El Paso Herald-Post, February 13, 2016 (PDF)

 

“Veteranas and Rucas: Documenting 1990s Chicano Youth Culture”

KCET Artbound published a story on CSRC collections donor Guadalupe Rosales and her Instagram project, and covered the related panel discussion held at the CSRC.

KCET, February 5, 2016 (PDF)

 

All “In the News” articles are available in PDF format on the CSRC website.

 

 

Urgent Issues Forum: “The Assassination of Berta Cáceres and the Future of Indigenous and Afrodescendant Environmental and Land Rights in Honduras”

Friday, April 8, 9:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.

UCLA Charles E. Young Research Library, Presentation Room

On March 2, 2016, environmental and indigenous rights activist Berta Cáceres was assassinated in her home in Honduras. Gustavo Castro, a Mexican activist who was injured in the attack, is now being held illegally in Honduras, and there are international concerns that he is being framed for the attack. Speakers will explore the issues of resource extraction and state violence and their impact on the future of indigenous and environmental rights activism in Honduras. The event is hosted by the UCLA American Indian Studies Center and cosponsored by the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, UCLA Center of Study for Women, UCLA Chicano Research Studies Center, UCLA Institute of American Cultures, and Grassroots International.

For more information, visit http://www.aisc.ucla.edu/events/urgentissuesforum.aspx

 

The Chicano Legacy Project: Encuentro with Jesús Treviño and Luis Torres

Saturday, April 9, 2:30-4:30 p.m.

Chicano Resource Center, East Los Angeles Library, 4837 E. 3rd St., Los Angeles, 90022

Meet renowned film director Jesús Treviño and award-winning journalist Luis Torres as they discuss their careers and involvement in the Chicano Legacy Project, a program that offers high school students the opportunity to create theater based on the Latino experience. The event will include the performance of excerpts from a play created by students in the Chicano Legacy Project (see below) and excerpts from Treviño's film and television work, including the documentaries Yo Soy Chicano and La Raza Unida and episodic television dramas Resurrection Blvd. and New York Undercover. The CSRC is a cosponsor of this event. The Chicano Legacy Project, part of the About...Productions Young Theaterworks program, works with at-risk students in East Los Angeles. For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/1699810120290758/

 

Addressing Latino Health Inequity Through Art, Policy and Science: No Más Bebés Film Screening and Discussion

Wednesday, April 13, 4:00-7:00 p.m.

CSRC Library—144 Haines Hall

Join us for the UCLA premiere of the critically acclaimed documentary No Más Bebés, which tells the story of a small group of Mexican immigrant women who sued county doctors, the state, and the U.S. government after being sterilized at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center during the late 1960s and early 1970s. A Q&A with filmmakers Renee Tajima-Peña (producer/director and professor of Asian American studies at UCLA) and Virginia Espino (producer) will follow the screening, moderated by members of the UCLA Reproductive Health Interest Group. A reception will follow the Q&A. Seats are limited. Please RSVP at http://uclanomasbebes.eventbrite.com/. This is the first event in a three-part symposia series cosponsored by the CSRC, the UCLA Blum Center on Poverty and Health in Latin American, and the UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity and supported by the UCLA Office of Interdisciplinary and Cross Campus Affairs.

 

Reception to Honor Mario T. García

Monday, April 18, 4:00-6:00 p.m.

UCLA Charles E. Young Research Library – Main Conference Room

In March 1968 thousands of students in East Los Angeles walked out of their classes to protest academic inequality in LAUSD high schools. Led by educator and activist Sal Castro, among others, these “blowouts” helped organize the Chicano community into a political force. For his book Blowout! Sal Castro and the Chicano Struggle for Educational Justice, Mario T. García, professor of Chicano studies at UC Santa Barbara, conducted an oral history with Castro in which Castro talked about his role in this transformative movement. García has given the UCLA Library audiotapes from his interviews with Castro and with others who chronicled their experiences during the blowouts. RSVPs are requested by April 11 to events@library.ucla.edu or 310.825.3985. Organized by the UCLA Library and the CSRC. Complimentary parking in Structure 5. Enter campus at Royce Drive off of Sunset Boulevard. At the first stop sign, turn right on Charles E. Young Drive, then enter parking structure five on your left. Tell the attendant that you are attending the Mario T. García Reception. The Research Library is located to the northeast of the structure.

 

Chicano Legacy Project Staged Reading

Thursday, April 21, 11:30 a.m.; Friday, April 22, 7:30 p.m.

Margo Albert Theatre, Plaza de la Raza

3540 N. Mission Road, Los Angeles, 90031

The Chicano Legacy Project will present a staged reading of a play authored by students participating in the project, which is part of the About...Productions Young Theaterworks program. The students created the play by weaving together new writing and material drawn from a rich archive of plays written by students who have participated in Young Theaterworks over the past five years. These plays are based on student interviews with Chicano activists, journalists, filmmakers, educators, and others. The reading will be performed by professional actors and volunteering students. The Chicano Legacy Project is a two-year project that works with at-risk high school students in East Los Angeles. Next year students will prepare a full production of the play, which will premiere in the spring. This event is cosponsored by the CSRC. For more information, visit

https://www.facebook.com/events/142818789443930/

 

Exhibition Tour: Don’t Look Back: The 1990s at MOCA

Thursday, April 21, 2016, 7:00 p.m.

The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, 152 N. Central Ave., Los Angeles, 90012

CSRC director Chon A. Noriega will lead an informal tour of the exhibition Don’t Look Back: The 1990s at MOCA, which includes works by Chicano artists Christina Fernandez and Gronk, and Cuban American artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres. Gronk donated his personal archive of papers, photos, and ephemera to the CSRC Library in 2007. No Movie: A Journey through the Archives of a Man Named Gronk, a film directed and produced by Steven La Ponsie, draws from this collection; the film is volume 5 in the CSRC’s Chicano Cinema and Media Art Series. Gronk, by Max Benavidez, is the first volume in the CSRC’s A Ver: Revisioning Art History series.

 

Workshop: Preserving Textiles in CSRC Collections

Friday, April 29, 11:00-3:00 p.m.

CSRC Library—144 Haines

Laleña Vellanoweth, costume and textile conservator and Andrew W. Mellon Conservation Education Fellow in the UCLA/Getty Graduate Program in Archaeological and Ethnographic Materials Conservation, will lead a hands-on workshop demonstrating the process of describing and preserving the textile components of four CSRC collections: the Alex Donis Collection, the Dennis E. Leoni Resurrection Boulevard Collection, the Ricardo Muñoz Collection, and the Sal Castro Collection. The workshop includes lunch. Space is limited; RSVP required to avargas@chicano.ucla.edu. Preference will be given to students in the UCLA MLIS program.

 

All CSRC events are free and do not require an RSVP unless otherwise noted. Programs are subject to change. For the most current information, visit the Events page on the CSRC website.

 

 

Boyle Heights College Track scholars visit CSRC Library

On March 21 eight high school students participating in the Boyle Heights College Track (CT) program visited the CSRC Library. Carlos Haro, CSRC assistant director emeritus, and Andrea Vargas, communications and academic programs assistant, spoke with the students about the history of the CSRC and its academic resources for undergraduates. CT is a ten-year program that provides underserved students with comprehensive academic support, leadership training, financial and college advising, and scholarships through high school and college. The visit to UCLA was designed to introduce students to a university campus and student life. The first cohort of Boyle Heights CT scholars to enter college will begin their undergraduate studies this fall.

 

GEAR UP students visit CSRC Library

On March 23 a group of forty-five underrepresented low-income LAUSD high school students in the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) visited the CSRC Library. Andrea Vargas, communications and academic programs assistant, talked about the CSRC’s projects and programs, the value of getting involved with student organizations and leadership positions on campus, and the importance of mentorship.

 

Exhibition extended: Mexican surf and soccer leagues in West L.A.

On display in the CSRC Library and vitrine is the exhibition Mexican Surf and Turf: Mexicano Cultural Continuity in West Los Angeles through Surfing and Soccer, featuring photographs, trophies, ephemera, a video, and a surf board designed by surfing legend Jaime Perez. Curated by Leonard Melchor, CSRC visiting scholar and adjunct professor of history and Chicana/o studies at East Los Angeles College, the exhibition considers the role of surfing and soccer activities in the Mexican community of West Los Angeles and how they have fostered a vibrant transnational culture in this community from the early 1950s to the present. The exhibition is on view during regular library hours and has been extended through Spring Quarter.

 

 

Healing Latinos being reprinted

The Art of Healing Latinos, which has been a steady seller since its publication in 2008, is being reprinted and will be available in June. The book was conceived by its editors—David E. Hayes-Bautista, professor of medicine and director of the UCLA Study of Latino Health and Culture, and the late Roberto Chiprut, professor of medicine at UCLA—as a guide for non-Latino medical professionals. They intended the book to provide, as Hayes-Bautista notes in comments prefacing the book, “a deeper understanding of Latino patients and what makes them sick.” The Art of Healing Latinos contains nineteen essays that explore the role of religion, family, curanderismo, and faith in the healing process and discusses how successful treatment is dependent on the caregiver’s approach and sensitivity to Latino culture. The Art of Healing Latinos is available through the book’s distributor, University of Washington Press.

 

 

IAC Research Grant Program in Ethnic Studies*

The Institute of American Cultures invites applications from UCLA faculty, staff, graduate students, and IAC Visiting Scholars/Researchers for support of research on African Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans, and Chicana/os for 2016-17. The Institute also invites proposals on interethnic relations that will increase collaboration between the Centers and/or between the Centers and other UCLA campus units.

 

The Research Grant Program is on a reimbursement basis only. Ordinarily, faculty projects will be funded for no more than $10,000 and graduate student projects for no more than $7,000. Funds for the purchase of permanent equipment will be provided only under exceptional circumstances. Conference travel, whether the applicant is presenting or attending, is ineligible.

 

Eligibility

UCLA faculty, staff, graduate students, and IAC Visiting Scholars/Researchers only.

 

*The CSRC regularly funds a wide array of projects concerning the Chicano-Latino experience. It is also the custodian of Tamar Diana Wilson Fund, which was founded to support community-empowering research projects by undocumented Mexican and Central American students at UCLA. Funding is distributed through this IAC grants program. All qualified students are encouraged to apply.

 

Grant Period
July 1, 2016, through May 31, 2017

Deadline
Applications must be received by April 20, 2016, 11:59 p.m.

 

Grant recipients using human subjects will be required to submit her or his research proposal or exemption materials to the UCLA Institutional Review Board for approval. For those doing research on human subjects, funds will be available to grant recipients after completion of training and certification in the Protection of Human Research Subjects.

 

For more information, visit: http://www.iac.ucla.edu/fellowships_research.html

The application is available online at: https://sa.ucla.edu/IAC/ResearchGrant

 

2016 Getty Multicultural Undergraduate Internship: Preservation and Research

This paid summer internship at the CSRC is structured around current and ongoing CSRC projects in the arts. In addition to contributing to the CSRC’s mission to provide information resources on Chicano history and culture, the intern, who must be enrolled in an undergraduate program, will gain career-relevant archival experience.

 

Duties may include but are not limited to:

Applicants should submit a resume and cover letter to Connie Heskett, CSRC Management Services Officer, at cogarcia@chicano.ucla.edu. Applications are due Friday, April 29, 5:00 p.m. For more details about the MUI program, visit the Getty website.