CSRC Newsletter June - July 2003

As we reach the end of the academic year and my first year as director, I want to take the opportunity to thank the many people who have contributed to our programs and our mission. Near the end of the newsletter I list some of the faculty, students, alumni and community leaders who have dedicated their time and energies to the center. Much has been accomplished due to their involvement and commitment. I would especially like to acknowledge our Faculty Advisory Committee as well as MEChA and the Raza Graduate Student Association for their ongoing efforts on our behalf.

 

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not end by expressing my gratitude to our diverse and talented staff. Through their daily efforts, we have turned our publications unit into a press, reorganized the library, started an externally funded archival program, expanded preservation projects, established faculty exchanges and student workshops, developed strong community and international relations, and supported research through grants, fellowships, and office assistance. And they're just getting started!

 

 

Your continued support is an important part of our success. The state budget crisis has imposed a 20 percent permanent reduction in the center's operating budget, posing a serious threat to our library programs and services. In order to continue our development of a state-of-the-art library serving the community, we are asking for contributions to the CSRC Library Fund. Donations will be used for (1) acquiring new books and reference works, (2) expanding the special archival collection, including the Hunger Strike special collection, (3) supporting library exhibitions in Chicano Studies, and (4) enhancing on-line and computer services. You can make donations to the CSRC Library Fund on-line at the CSRC home page (click at CSRC Library Fund) or UCLA Development.

 

The UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center hosted the tenth year commemoration of the 1993 UCLA Student Hunger Strike and Plaque Ceremony at the CSRC Library on May 12, 2003. Guest speakers recounted the struggles and events that helped to create the César E. Chávez Center for Interdisciplinary Instruction in Chicana & Chicano Studies. Artist and UCLA alumna Barbara Carrasco created an original color painting for this special occasion. The piece will be prominently displayed in the library as a tribute to Chicano student activism at UCLA.

As part of the program, the CSRC also premiered an exhibit, "1993 Hunger Strike for a Chicano Studies Department at UCLA: A Retrospective," which draws from the Daily Bruin campus newspaper photo archives and the CSRC Library 1993 Hunger Strike Archival Collection. The exhibition chronicles the series of events that led up to the Hunger Strike (May 24-June 7, 1993), and depicts the breadth of student, faculty, and community support.

 

The exhibition will be on display during spring and summer quarters, until September 30, and can be viewed on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 9:00 - 12:00 a.m. and 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. in Haines Hall 179. Individual and group docent tours are available by appointment only on Monday afternoon 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. Please call 310 825-0648 or e-mail the archivest to schedule an appointment.

 

The CSRC announced its recipients for two grant programs: The Institute of American Cultures (IAC) and the Latino Research Program. The IAC awards both faculty and graduate student research grants. This year's faculty recipients include César Ayala, Sociology, "Why Not Martha's Vineyard"; Alicia Gaspar de Alba, César Chávez, "Witch Hunting the Border: The Maquiladora Murders"; and Daniel Solárzano and Patricia McDonough, Education, "Latino Students, Hispanic Serving Institutions and Their College Choice Process." Graduate student recipients include Nadine Bermudez, Education, "Mendez v. Westminster School District"; Christine Calderon, Ethnomusicology, "Mexican and Chicano Artists Asserting a Transnational Identity Through Hip-Hop"; and Danielle Lillehaugen, Linguistics, "Oral Narratives in Tlacolula de Matamoros Zapotec." The following proposals received funding through the interethnic research grants program: Leobardo Estrada, Urban Planning, "Minority Communities in Post-Suburban Los Angeles" and Yesilernis Peña, C.Phil, Psychology, "Discrimination Without Opposition: Latin America 's Racial Permeability and Its Effects."

The CSRC Latino Research Program is coordinated by Professor Vilma Ortiz and funded through the University of California Committee on Latino Research. This year's recipients include Eric Avila, César Chávez, "Race and the City: Los Angeles and the Geography of White Racial Formation"; Dianne de Anda, Social Welfare, "Violence Prevention Curriculum for Middle School Students"; Kris Gutiérrez, Education, "Parent Involvement in an Urban Los Angeles Elementary School"; Rubén Hernández - León, Sociology, "Metropolitan Origin Migration and Intermetropolitan Circuits Between the Mexico and the United States"; Deborah Koniak - Griffin and Evelyn Gonzalez-Figueroa, School of Nursing, "Ethnic Identity and HIV Prevention Among Young Latino Parents"; and Donald E. Morisky, Community Health Sciences, "Health Related Behaviors of Latino Adolescents."

 

On May 21, the center held its last Research Exchange for 2002-03 by featuring the landmark "Mexican American Study Project," headed by Vilma Ortiz and Eddie Telles, UCLA Professors of Sociology. This year, the center hosted six exchanges with eight faculty and scholars-in-residence at UCLA. The center staff extends a note of gratitude to all the presenters and participants for a successful series.

 

CSRC graduate research assistants Erica Bochanty and María Muñoz were awarded 2003 Summer Research Mentorships. The mentorship program provides students in the humanities and social sciences the opportunity to work closely with a faculty member to develop a paper for presentation or publication. Bochanty and Muñoz will be working with CSRC Director Chon Noriega. They will also be taking the program's nine-week "Writing and Publishing the Academic Article" workshop with CSRC Publications Coordinator Wendy Belcher. For more information on the workshop, click here. For more information on the program, click here.

 

The UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History has joined the CSRC as a co- sponsor of the upcoming "The Maquiladora Murders, Or, Who Is Killing the Women of Juárez?" Conference held October 31- November 2, 2003.

 

The UCLA Institute of American Cultures will host its annual Postdoctoral Fellows Colloquium on June 5, 2003, 4:00PM - 6:00PM at 131-135 Kerckhoff Hall. Presenters include American Indian Studies Center Fellow Sara-Larus Tolley; Asian American Studies Center Fellow Eliza Noh; Bunche Center for African American Studies Fellow Baz Dreisinger; and Chicano Studies Research Center Fellow José Alamillo. The UCLA IAC was created in 1969 as an umbrella organization to enhance support for ethnic studies on campus and to build connections among the four ethnic studies research centers.

 

Comision Femenil de Los Angeles and the center invite you to attend a very special evening with Jaramar, Magos Herrera, Iraida Noriega, and Lysa Flores at the Ford Amphitheatre on Saturday, June 7, at 7:00 p.m at 2480 Cahuenga Blvd. in East Hollywood, CA. There is a benefit VIP reception from 5:00-6:45 p.m. Proceeds go toward the Comision Femenil de Los Angeles ' Mentorship Program and the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Maquiladora Murders Conference. To reserve your tickets today, please RSVP to: Karin Davalos at:323- 222-0563 or e-mail her at karindavalos@yahoo.com or Isabel Melendez at 310- 825-3553 or e-mail her at imelendez@chicano.ucla.edu.

 

Graduate students and postdocs entering the academic career market need skills to help them negotiate their first job. The variety of questions about academic jobs that may not be anticipated by new academics goes beyond salary negotiations and includes teaching loads, facilities arrangements, non-salary funds for research, tenure reviews and many other topics. In this interactive workshop session developed by Professor Chon Noriega, students will be taught about the specifics of the job negotiation process and will obtain a better understanding of the academic job process and will help them to perform better in academic interviews. This workshop will be held on June 4, 2003, from 3 - 5 pm in Haines A18. RSVP to lkafka@gdnet.ucla.edu.

 

Last month, the CSRC hosted two distinguished visitors: Guillermo González, Deputy State Director, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein's office; and Daniel J. Aguilar, Legislative Aide, State Senator Joseph L. Dunn. Also, CSRC Director Chon Noriega had meetings with Antonia Hernández, President and General Counsel, Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF); and Todd Leavitt, President, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

 

Thanks to large book donations from former UCLA students, the CSRC Library will be holding a book sale beginning June 2, 2003 during regular library hours. There are many used books as well as new ones. Prices range from $5.00 to $1.00 with some even lower. Genres include science-fiction, Latin American novels, South American classroom texts, Caribbean literature, and so on. There are also a good number of books in Spanish. This book sale will assist the CSRC Library in fundraising to subsidize students’ printing and photocopying costs.

 

This summer, the CSRC Library will host graduate students from the University of Tunisia and the University of Helsinki who will be at UCLA to conduct Chicano studies research.

 

CSRC Library now offers Document Delivery for more information go to CSRC Library Document Delivery.

 

The workshop on how to write an academic book review concluded with quite a few of the participants completing their reviews and submitting them to Aztlán. Congratulations to UCLA students Dontraneil Clayborne, Rita González, Pauline Wong Lemasson, and Estela Zarate; USC students Reina Prado, Luís Carlos Rodríguez, and Edelyn Vallejo; CSUN students Gerard Meraz and Lorena Salazar; and CSULB student Ana Cino. Of course, it is not necessary to take the workshop to submit a review to Aztlán. The information on writing a book review is still posted at the CSRC Press web site. If there is a book you would like to review, just contact us to ask if it is already being reviewed.

 

If you are not a subscriber to Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, now is a great time to start! Our prices are going up next year, but if you send us a check for $50, we will subscribe you for two years at the old price. The fall issue dossier section has a focus on the Juarez murders, with quite a bit of information never before published in English. If you cannot afford to subscribe, make sure that your university library does.

 

The CSRC Press has a new e-mail address: press@chicano.ucla.edu. All general inquiries regarding the journal, briefs, books, or reports should be directed to this address. Please update your directories accordingly.

 

On May 30-31, the CSRC held its planning meeting for A Ver: Revisioning Art History, an oral history and monograph series on individual Latino and Latina artists. The national advisory board selected initial artists for the series and set the long term plan and structure for the overall project. The board includes: Alejandro Anreus, William Patterson University; Gil Cardenas, Notre Dame University; Karen Mary Davalos, Loyola Marymount University; Henry Estrada, Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives; Jennifer González, University of California, Santa Cruz; Kellie Jones, Yale University; Mari Carmen Ramirez, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Yazmin Ramirez, City University of New York; and Tere Romo, independent curator.

 

Thanks for the support!

 

This year has been a productive one for the CSRC. But it would not have been possible without our many on- and off-campus supporters.

 

We would like to thank the following people at UCLA for their time and effort in serving on the various committees, projects, and forums that help us both define and implement our mission:

José Alamillo, CSRC Postdoctoral Fellow; Sandra Alvear, Graduate Student Rep, Sociology; Howard Batchelor, Digital Library Coordinator; Max Benavidez, Media Relations; Lisa Catanzarite, CSRC Senior Research Sociologist; Clara Chu, Information Studies; Norma Corral, Young Research Library; Stephen Davison, Music Library; Elizabeth Delgado, Chair, MEChA; Leobardo Estrada, Urban Planning; Alicia Gaspar de Alba, César Chávez; Hanay Geiogamah, Theater; Anne Gilliland-Swetland, Information Studies; Laura Gómez, Law; Juan Gómez-Quinoñes, History; Kris Gutiérrez, Education; Patsy Hawthorne, Library Human Resources; David Hayes-Bautista, Internal Medicine; Ellie Hernández, César Chávez; Steve Lopez, Psychology; Reynaldo Macias, César Chávez; Letisia Marquez, Media Relations; Kim Morris, Development; Vilma Ortiz, Sociology; Andy Ramirez, Undergraduate Student Rep, César Chávez; John Riemer, Young Research Library; Michael Rodríguez, Family Medicine; Adrian Soldatenko, Graduate Student Rep, Physics; Ruth Simon, Legal Counsel; Rosa Solorio, Family Medicine; Daniel Solárzano, Education; Eddie Telles, Sociology; Gordon Theil, Music Library; Fernando Torres - Gil, Social Welfare; Belinda Tucker, Psychiatry & Bio-behavioral Sciences; Concepción Valadez, Education; Abel Valenzuela, César Chávez, José Luis Valenzuela, Theater.

Our activities this year were greatly enhanced by the active participation of the following community leaders and alumni (*):

 

Bonnie Abaunza*, Amnesty International; Susana Bautista, Mexican Cultural Institute; Tomás Benitez, Self-Help Graphics; Barbara Carrasco*, Artist; Karin Davalos, Comisión Feminil de Los Angeles; Castulo de la Rocha, President, AltaMed Health Services; Tom Diamant, Arhoolie Records; Armando Durán*, Lawyer; Moctesuma Esparza*, Film Producer; Hon. Marco Antonio Firebaugh*; Mike Flores*, VerchesFlores; Oscar Garza, Los Angeles Times Magazine; Felicidad Gongora Berlin, University of Veracruz; Sophie Guel - Valenzuela, AltaMed Health Services; José Huizar*, LAUSD Board; Dennis Leoni, Television Producer; Peter Mattair, Fund for Folk Culture; Dr. M. Magdalena Mejia, Superintendent, Montebello Unified School District; Josephine Ramirez, Getty Grant Program, Olivia Sanchez, Comisión Feminil de Los Angeles; Chris Strachwitz, Arhoolie Foundation; Alma Ruiz, MOCA; Joe Smoke, Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department; Dwayne Ulloa, Los Tigres del Norte Foundation; David Valdes* Film Producer; Mario Valenzuela*, SEIU Local 660; Richard Verches*, VerchesFlores; Victor Viramontes, MALDEF; Arturo White Ibañez, University of Veracruz Foundation; Angel Zapata*, Northern Trust Bank; and legislative field representatives Daniel J. Aguilar (Sen. Joseph L. Dunn), Michael Cortez (Sen. Richard Alarcon), Valerie Cuevas (Asm. Carol Liu), Ed Espinoza (Sen. Gloria Romero), Salvador Gonzales (Lt. Gov. Cruz M. Bustamante), Guillermo González (U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein), Iris Miranda (Sen. Gilbert Cedillo*), Jorge Morales* (Asm. Marco Antonio Firebaugh*), Miguel Santiago* (Asm. Cindy Montañez), Alejandra R. Sotelo (Asm. Judy Chu*), Jeanette Soriano (Asm. Judy Chu*), Ken Spain (Sen. Bob Margett).

 

Thank you all! If we missed your name, please accept our apologies and know that we deeply appreciate your support.

 

The CSRC welcomes undergraduate and graduate students with an interest in Chicano Studies to work as interns and volunteers in various areas of the Center. If interested, send an inquiry to Carlos M. Haro.

 

To learn more about us, visit UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center.

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