CSRC Newsletter - January 2020

CSRC director Chon A. Noriega has won the 2019 Distinguished Editor award from the Council of Editors of Learned Journals (CELJ). The award will be formally announced at the Modern Language Association (MLA) conference, January 9–12 in Seattle. Noriega received the award for his achievements as editor of Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies from 1996 to 2016. In addition, Aztlán won the CELJ Best Public Intellectual Special Issue for “Dossier: Gringo Injustice,” which focuses on Latinos and the law (Fall 2018). The dossier was guest edited by Alfredo Mirandé, professor of sociology and ethnic studies at UC Riverside. This is the first time in CELJ award history that a journal editor has been honored with the Distinguished Editor Award the same year the journal itself won an award. The awards will be presented in the panel session “Inventing and Inheriting Scholarly Journals: Perspectives on Beginnings,” on Friday, January 10, 8:30 a.m.–9:45 a.m., in room WSCC 401.

This quarter Alma López, assistant professor-in-residence in the Department of Chicana/o Studies and the LGBTQ Studies Program, is using three books from the A Ver: Revisioning Art History series from CSRC Press as classroom texts for CSM 175: “Chicana Art and Artists.” The course provides a historical and contemporary overview of Chicana art production. Students have been assigned A Ver volumes Yolanda M. López, Carmen Lomas Garza, and Celia Alvarez Muñoz. Students in the class receive a 50 percent discount when purchasing these books directly from the CSRC. Faculty interested in adopting CSRC Press publications for their courses should contact Ari Hoyos, CSRC business assistant, at ahoyos@chicano.ucla.edu or (310) 794-9167.

Former CSRC visiting scholars Robb Hernández and Leticia Alvarado are among nineteen recipients of individual grants from the 2019 Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program. The annual grants assist the completion of new writing projects. Grants range from $15,000 to $50,000 and are awarded in four categories: articles, blogs, books, and short-form writing. Both Hernández and Alvarado received support for new book projects. More information can be found here. Hernández is associate professor of English at UC Riverside and the 2015-16 Institute of American Cultures visiting scholar at the CSRC. He is also the author of Chicano Archives Series titles The Fire of Life: The Robert Legorreta–Cyclona Collection (2009) and VIVA Records, 1970–2000: Lesbian and Gay Latino Artists of Los Angeles (2013) from CSRC Press. Alvarado was a Ford Fellow in residence at the CSRC in 2014-15.

Chicano and Chicana Art: A Critical Anthology, edited by Jennifer A. González, C. Ondine Chavoya, Chon A. Noriega, and Terezita Romo (Duke University Press, 2019) was named by ARTnews as one of the top twenty-six art books of the decade. The magazine’s editors write: "One of many efforts in recent years to create a fuller picture of art history, this anthology is the first of its kind: a collection devoted to a range of Chicanx artists—from Amalia Mesa-Bains to Carlos Almaraz—who have long been kept out of displays at American museums and are now slowly making their way into the spotlight. Though focused on particular identities, the book broaches larger questions that have pervaded debates about representation overall." For the full book list, click here. González is the author of Pepón Osorio and Romo is the author of Malaquias Montoya; both publications are in the A Ver series from CSRC Press. Chavoya was the Institute of American Cultures visiting scholar at the CSRC in 2009-10.

The Getty Museum has acquired thirty-five prints by late Chicana photographer Laura Aguilar. The prints are from a number of series spanning Aguilar’s forty-year career, including Latina Lesbians, Plush Pony, Nature Self-Portrait, and Clothed/Unclothed. More information about the acquisition can be found here. In 2017-18, the Vincent Price Art Museum, in collaboration with the CSRC, presented Aguilar’s first career retrospective, Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell, as part of the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative. The exhibition catalog was published by CSRC Press.

Pilar Tompkins Rivas, director of the Vincent Price Art Museum, and Rita Gonzalez, head curator of contemporary art at LACMA, have been announced as co-curators of Frieze Projects 2020 at the art fair Frieze Los Angeles, which will take place next month at the Paramount Pictures studio backlot. Frieze Projects 2020 consists of site-specific works that address issues of representation, identity, and myth. Gonzalez will also curate Focus LA, a section of the fair that showcases thirteen Los Angeles galleries that have opened within the last fifteen years. Tompkins Rivas was a co-curator of the CSRC-organized exhibitions L.A. Xicano and Home—So Different, So Appealing. Gonzalez co-curated the LACMA exhibition Phantom Sightings: Art after the Chicano Movement and is a former CSRC arts project coordinator.

• Presentation of the Socorro Aguiñiga Papers to the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center (December 3, 2019) (video) Following the screening at UCLA of The Rise and Fall of the Brown Buffalo (2017), a documentary on the life and mysterious death of Oscar Zeta Acosta, Chicano activist, author, and lawyer, the CSRC announced two related donations to the CSRC Library: two master tapes of Acosta reading from his manuscript for The Revolt of the Cockroach People at an event in 1972, which will go into the CSRC film collection, and the Socorro Aguiñiga Papers. Aguiñiga, now deceased, was the wife of Acosta during the years he was active in the Chicano movement. The collection is currently being processed by the CSRC for public use and future research. Chon A. Noriega, CSRC director, led the presentations. For more information on the archival collections, see CSRC Library, below.

ARTnews, January 3, 2020 (URL) (PDF)

Hyperallergic, December 23, 2019 (URL) (PDF)

ARTnews, December 17, 2019 (URL) (PDF)

UCLA: Our Stories, Our Impact is on display at the Los Angeles City Hall Bridge Gallery. The multimedia exhibition showcases the role of UCLA and its alumni in advancing equity and equality in America. The exhibition features the stories of present and former Bruins who have advanced and shaped social justice movements. The project is led by the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, the Labor Center, and the Chancellor’s Advisory Council on Immigration Policy, in partnership with the Institute of American Cultures, the American Indian Studies Center, the Asian American Studies Center, the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, and the CSRC.

UCLA: Our Stories, Our Impact will be featured at Mercado La Paloma. The multimedia exhibition showcases the role of UCLA and its alumni in advancing equity and equality in America. (See above.) 

Central American migration to Mexico and the United States has attracted significant media and political attention in recent years, but migrants from Central America have been migrating and settling in these two countries for at least a century. This conference will explore the contributions that Central Americans have made to social and economic structures in Mexico and the United States over this historical period. Day 1 of the conference will feature a screening of Los Eternos Indocumentados and a conversation with the filmmaker, Jennifer Cárcamo (RSVP here). Day 2 will feature a keynote address and multiple panels exploring Central American family formations, political and economic integration, and political organization in Mexico and the US (RSVP here). This conference is made possible through a generous gift from Tamar Diana Wilson and is presented by the CSRC, the UCLA Center for the Study of International Migration, the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative, and the UCLA Center for Mexican Studies. It is co-sponsored by the Central American Studies Working Group at UCLA, the Central American Isthmus Graduate Association (CAIGA), and the Unión Centroamericana de UCLA (UNICA).

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.

On January 31, CSRC librarian and archivist Xaviera Flores will visit the Palms Springs Art Museum to give a behind-the-scenes look at the process of archiving the La Raza photograph collection. Flores will discuss the role of archives and archivists and the application of forensic methods to archival research as it relates to themes in the exhibition currently on view at the museum, Imaging Change: History, Memory, and Social Justice. For more information on the talk, visit the Palm Springs Art Museum website.

The CSRC announces the acquisition of new collections and additions to existing collections. These materials enrich our understanding of the Chicanx and Latinx experience in the United States.

• The CSRC received a set of documents from Socorro Aguiñiga, Chicana activist during the late 1960s and early 1970s. These documents vary in form and include photographs and memorabilia of her first husband Oscar Zeta Acosta, along with materials on the Chicano movement. The collection was donated by Socorro’s second husband and widower, Roy Meacham. Some of the materials were used for the film The Rise and Fall of the Brown Buffalo (2017).
• The CSRC also received materials from Jorge Aguiñiga, Socorro’s brother, who donated items belonging to Socorro Aguiñiga and Oscar Zeta Acosta. These materials will be added to the above-mentioned collection.
• The CSRC received two 2-inch master tapes of the 1973 Festival de Flor y Canto de Aztlán at the University of Southern California, donated by Ricardo Lopez, associate producer of the film. Flor y Canto (flower and song) was a literary festival for Chicana/o writers, poets, artists, and other performers. The recording includes footage of Oscar Zeta Acosta reading from his manuscript for The Rise and Fall of the Brown Buffalo (2017).
• Juan Garza, director and writer of the short film The Trouble with Tonia (1990), donated a master print of the film. The film, which will be added the CSRC film collection and housed at the UCLA Film and Television Archive, features acclaimed actress Lupita Ontiveros in the lead role of Tonia.

Currently on view at the CSRC Library are three mini exhibitions and an installation. They celebrate fifty years of Chicanx and Latinx activism through art, literature, and scholarship and mark the CSRC’s fiftieth anniversary. Profiles of Activism gathers together prints, photographs, and books from the collections of the CSRC Library. In Give Us Our Flowers: Latinx Artivist Portraits, artist and UCLA doctoral candidate Angélica Becerra presents watercolor portraits of four emerging or established artivists—artist-activists who are responsible for visual culture in contemporary social movements. Salomón Huerta’s Portrait Series of Chicana/o-Latina/o and Mexican–Latin American Icons honors the leaders—both women and men—who have played a key role in making positive differences in the United States and Mexico. The exhibitions will remain on view through the winter quarter in the library and vitrine and are viewable during regular library hours: Monday through Friday, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

Additions to Homeboy Industries Records processed                                                                                          Additions to the Homeboy Industries Records have been processed and the finding aid has been updated. Founded in 1988 by Father Greg Boyle, Homeboy Industries helps former gang members with job training and life skills. Located in downtown Los Angeles, the organization operates a bakery, a café, a silkscreen and embroidery service, and other businesses. It also offers tattoo removal, mental health counseling, substance abuse support, and other services. The bulk of the collection consists of letters from clients, most of whom were writing from prison or other detention facilities. The additions comprise both the newest and the oldest material in the collection, including correspondence and records from as recently as April 2019. It also has personal and family material from the childhood of Boyle, who was born in 1954 in Los Angeles. The finding aid for the Homeboy Industries Records can be found via the Online Archive of California.

The finding aids for the Comisión Femenil de Los Angeles (CFLA) records have been updated. Founded in 1970 as an offshoot of Comisión Femenil Mexicana Nacional, the organization sought to enhance and promote the image of Chicanas and other Latinas in society. Divided into three separate collections, the records consist of materials on meetings, conferences, and other events. It also includes newsletters and documentation of the group’s scholarship programs. The finding aids can be found via the Online Archive of California (Part I) (Part II) (Part III).

On December 12, a group of about twenty students from Orchard Academies Middle School in the city of Bell stopped by the CSRC Library. Archives specialist Doug Johnson gave them an impromptu tour and demonstrated the La Raza interactive exhibit, which the students explored for about half an hour. Students also went home with a complimentary back issue of Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies.

The following off-campus exhibitions opening this month or currently on view include images and artworks from CSRC collections and publications:

• Axis Mundo: Queer Networks in Chicano L.A., The Gund Gallery at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, January 17–April 12, 2020*
• Emiliano: Zapata después de Zapata, Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Mexico, through February 20, 2020
• Imaging Change: History, Memory, and Social Justice, Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, California, through April 5, 2020
• The 1968 Walkouts: Selections from UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Collections, Theodore Roosevelt High School Library, Los Angeles, California, through April 1, 2029
• LA Starts Here! Plaza de Cultura y Artes, Los Angeles, California, ongoing, permanent exhibition

La Raza, launched in 1967 in the basement of an Eastside LA church, was conceived as a tool for community-based organizing during the early days of the Chicano movement. The all-volunteer staff of the newspaper, and the magazine that followed, informed their readers and exhorted them to action through images and articles that showcased protests and demonstrations and documented pervasive social inequity and police abuse. La Raza’s photographers played a critical role as artists, journalists, and activists, creating an unparalleled record of the determination, resilience, and achievements of the Chicana/o community during a period of profound social change.

This volume, edited by Colin Gunckel, presents photographs drawn from the more than 25,000 images in the CSRC’s La Raza Photograph Collection and from the exhibition La Raza, curated by Luis C. Garza and Amy Scott, at the Autry Museum of the American West. The exhibition was a collaboration between the museum and the CSRC. The accompanying essays offer not only scholarly assessments of the role of Chicana/o photographers in social movements and art history but also personal perspectives from La Raza photographers. Order today from the University of Washington Press, the distributor for this CSRC Press publication.

The UCLA Institute of American Cultures offers in-residence appointments to support research on African Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans, and Chicana/os. We especially encourage applications that advance our understanding of new social and cultural realities occasioned by the dramatic population shifts of recent decades, including greater heterogeneity within ethnic groups and increased interethnic contact.

The 2020-21 IAC Visiting Research Scholar will receive funding for one or more quarters and may receive up to $35,000 for three quarters (contingent upon rank, experience, and date of completion of their terminal degree). In the event that an award is for less than three quarters or a nine-month appointment, the funds will be prorated in accordance with the actual length of the award. The Visiting Research Scholar must have a home institution. Visiting Research Scholar funds will be paid through the successful candidate’s home institution, and she/he will be expected to continue her/his health insurance through that source. Award funding can be used to supplement sabbatical support for a total that does not exceed the candidate’s current institutional salary. Awardees may receive up to $4,000 in research support. The Bunche Center for African American Studies will not have a Visiting Research Scholar in 2020-21. The American Indian Studies Center will host a Visiting Scholar for one quarter.

Applicants must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States and hold a Ph.D. from an accredited college or university (or, in the case of the arts, an appropriate terminal degree) in a relevant field at the time of appointment. UCLA faculty, staff, and currently enrolled students are not eligible to apply.

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

Click here for a preview of the application pages. 

For further information, please contact the coordinator of the appropriate UCLA Ethnic Studies Research Center.

The Inter-University Program for Latino Research is now accepting applications for the IUPLR/UIC Mellon Fellowship Program (academic year 2020-21). The program supports doctoral students in the humanities who are writing dissertations in Latina/o studies. Doctoral students in the social sciences whose research uses humanities methods may also be considered.

IUPLR will select fellow affiliated with the following six designated research centers:

• The Center for Mexican American Studies and the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at the University of Texas-Austin
• The Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Houston
• The Chicano Studies Research Center at UCLA
• The Dominican Studies Institute at CUNY
• The Center for Puerto Rican Studies at CUNY
• The Latin American and Latino Studies Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago

The fellowship includes a $25,000 stipend, participation in an intensive summer institute, a structured writing program, faculty mentorship, and ongoing professionalization support. For more information and to view the online application, visit https://mfp-lals.uic.edu.

Deadline to apply: January 30, 2020. All queries should be directed to the Mellon coordinator, Dr. Jennifer Boles, jlboles@uic.edu. UCLA applicants are additionally asked to contact Rebecca Epstein, CSRC assistant director, repstein@chicano.ucla.edu.

The Institute of American Cultures (IAC) invites applications for support of research on African Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans, and Chicanas/os for 2020-2021. The Institute also invites proposals on interethnic relations that will increase collaboration between the UCLA ethnic studies research centers and/or between the centers and other campus units.

Eligibility Requirements:
UCLA faculty, staff, graduate students, and IAC visiting research scholars

Funding: The Research Grant Program is on a reimbursement-basis only. Funds for the purchase of permanent equipment will be provided only under exceptional circumstances. Conference travel, whether the applicant is presenting or attending, is not eligible.

Grant Period: July 1, 2020 through May 31, 2021.

Deadline to apply: March 1, 2020. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed. Applicants will be notified in May. Prior to submission of the application, applicants should briefly discuss their proposal with the coordinator of the appropriate center, or in the case of interethnic proposals, with each applicable center. All grant recipients, where appropriate, must comply with UCLA’s Protection of Human Subjects in Research before receiving funding. All grant recipients, where appropriate, must comply with UCLA’s Protection of Human Subjects in Research before receiving funding. If you have been awarded this grant for the last two academic year (2018-19 and 2019-20), you are not eligible to apply for a 2020-21 grant.

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

For further information, please contact the coordinator of the appropriate UCLA Ethnic Studies Research Center.