CSRC Newsletter - October 2019

VOLUME 18,  NUMBER 1

DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE

In June 2020 I will conclude an eighteen-year run as director of the CSRC. Eighteen years! It’s something I never imagined when I started, and it’s hard to believe even now. Typically, directors serve one or two five-year terms or, in exceptional cases, a third term. I am fortunate to have been granted an additional three years back in 2017 so that I could see the CSRC through the Centennial Campaign and the CSRC’s fiftieth anniversary.

As many of you know, we do a lot here, and in the last three years alone we’ve brought in nearly $4 million in gifts and grants, maintained collaborations with 148 campus-based units, and organized and supported public programs that reach over 140,000 people each year in the United States, Latin America, and Europe! And, as you will see below and in the coming months, we have a lot in store for this academic year.

It has been my honor to serve the Chicano-Latino community in my capacity as CSRC director. Needless to say, I will certainly continue to do so as a senior faculty member at UCLA. And the CSRC will always have my strong support. But as UCLA starts its second century, it is time for new leadership to continue the vital work of the CSRC’s library, archive, press, and community partnerships while nurturing and adding to the interdisciplinary research profile of the center and campus.  

The search has begun for the next CSRC director, and I hope you will help spread the word. Information is available here: https://recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF04722. And I hope that, like me, you will continue to support the center. “Research that makes a difference” is necessarily a collaborative effort, and you have been a significant part of our successes.

See you at our events this fall!

Chon A. Noriega

Director and Professor

NEWS

Raul Ruiz, Melquiades Mares, and Anna Soto, presente!

Over the summer the CSRC lost three deeply valued members of our community. Dr. Raul Ruiz was an educator, photojournalist, and lifelong Chicano activist. A professor at Cal State Northridge who received degrees from Cal State LA and Harvard, he was also an editor and one of the dedicated photographers of La Raza newspaper and magazine (1967–77). More than 25,000 images taken by La Raza’s photographers have now been digitized by the CSRC, thanks to the help and support of Raul and the other photographers who worked for the community-based publication. These images were the basis of the exhibition La Raza at the Autry Museum in 2017. Melquiades Mares Jr. was a Bruin (class of 1964), an educator, and a longtime supporter of the CSRC. In a recent email, his daughter, Dr. Michaela Mares-Tamayo, wrote that Melquiades supported the center because “he witnessed firsthand what an impact Chicana/o studies and ethnic studies had on me.” Mares-Tamayo is now a lecturer in Chicana/o studies at UCLA and co-editor of the anthology The Chicana/o Education Pipeline: History, Institutional Critique, and Resistance from CSRC Press. Finally, CSRC mourns the passing of Anna Soto, the daughter of pioneering California politicians Nell and Phil Soto. Anna was instrumental in donating her parents’ papers to the CSRC in 2018 so that these documents could be archived for future research. They were featured in the exhibition Family, Community, Country: The Nell and Phil Soto Story, which was on view at the CSRC Library in 2018-19. See a tribute from Xaviera Flores, CSRC librarian, in the Library section below.

CSRC Press wins award

The Before Columbus Foundation has named the CSRC Press the winner of its Editor/Publisher Award in the fortieth annual American Book Awards (ABA). As the foundation stated in its announcement, “The American Book Awards were created to provide recognition for outstanding literary achievement from the entire spectrum of America’s diverse literary community. The purpose of the awards is to recognize literary excellence without limitations or restrictions. The Awards are not bestowed by an industry organization, but rather are a writers’ award given by other writers.” All ABA winners will be formally recognized in a ceremony November 1 at the San Francisco Library. The list of winners can be found here.

La Raza Interactive Touchscreen Table installed at the CSRC

The La Raza Interactive Touchscreen Table has been installed in the CSRC Library. An interactive archive, the table was commissioned by the Autry Museum of the American West in collaboration with the CSRC for the 2017 exhibition La Raza, part of the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative. The table contains nearly all of the more than 25,000 images in the CSRC’s La Raza Photograph Collection. These photographs were shot during the late 1960s and 1970s, at the height of the Chicano movement, for La Raza newspaper and magazine. The table was created to allow users to explore the collection and to discover how the photographs connect people, places, and events. Digitization of the photographs and research on what they portray was performed at the CSRC (visit the CSRC Post to learn more about the project) and was funded by the Council on Library and Information Resources. The table will be installed at the CSRC for the 2019-20 academic year as part of the CSRC’s fiftieth anniversary celebration. Stop by during regular library hours!

Lytle Hernández wins MacArthur fellowship

The CSRC congratulates Kelly Lytle Hernández on being named one of this year’s recipients of a MacArthur Fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Lytle Hernández is professor of history and African American studies, director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, and former CSRC associate director. To read the UCLA Newsroom story, click here.

CSRC affiliated faculty lead research on Latina/o physician crisis

Three faculty affiliated with the CSRC are leading a research project that focuses on the need for more Latina/o physicians to meet the healthcare needs of California’s increasing Latina/o population. The Latino Politics and Policy Initiative, hosted at the Luskin School of Public Affairs, has generated research reports, policy briefs, and videos that are available to the public. The lead investigators are David Hayes-Bautista, professor of medicine at the Geffen School of Medicine and the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture and former CSRC director; Arturo Vargas Bustamante, associate professor of health policy and management and CSRC faculty associate; and Matt Barreto, professor of Chicana/o studies and political science and member of the CSRC faculty advisory committee. To learn more, visit the LPPI website.

Black delivers lectures on Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Charlene Villaseñor Black, professor of art history and Chicana/o studies and CSRC associate director, has presented a series of talks focused on Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a seventeenth-century nun, self-taught scholar of the Latin American colonial period, and an advocate for women's rights. In May, Black presented the keynote lecture, “Decolonizing Art History? Chicanx Studies and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz,” at the eighth annual graduate student art history conference at UC Riverside. In September, she presented the Distinguished Lecture in Art History at the University of Houston, titled “Decolonizing Art History with Mexico’s ‘Tenth Muse,’ Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.” Also in September, Black presented at the Women of the Book symposium at Johns Hopkins University, where she gave the talk “Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and the Dangers of Intellectual Desire.” In November, the CSRC will cosponsor a two-day symposium on Sor Juana’s life and work that is being organized by Black and Alicia Gaspar de Alba, chair of the LGBTQ studies program and professor of Chicana/o studies, English, and gender studies. More information will be provided in the November newsletter.

Josten in residence as CSRC IAC visiting scholar

The CSRC welcomes Jennifer Josten as the 2019-20 CSRC Institute of American Cultures visiting scholar. Jennifer is associate professor of history of art and architecture at the University of Pittsburgh, where she holds a secondary appointment in Hispanic languages and literatures and is a core faculty member of the Center for Latin American Studies. Her research and teaching interests focus on the art and architecture of Greater Mexico and Latin America, transnational artist-based networks of the Cold War era, and the presence of the pre-Columbian past in modern and contemporary art and design. She is the author of Mathias Goeritz: Modernist Art and Architecture in Cold War Mexico (Yale University Press, 2018), and she has contributed essays to exhibition catalogs such as Pop América: 1965–1975 (Nasher Museum of Art & McNay Art Museum, 2018) and Found in Translation: Design in California and Mexico, 1915–1985 (LACMA, 2017). During her fellowship year, Josten will research and write two chapters for her current book project on networks of artists in California, Mexico, and Cuba whose work embraced graphic and environmental design during the late 1960s. One chapter will explore David Botello's and Johnny Gonzalez's visionary designs for sculptural monuments for East Los Angeles, and the other will focus on antiwar posters designed by Rupert García, Malaquías Montoya, Alfredo Rostgaard, and others.

Belcher publishes second edition of writing workbook

Wendy Laura Belcher, professor of comparative literature and African American studies at Princeton University and former CSRC executive editor, has published the second edition of Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success (University of Chicago Press). First published in 2009, it is the best-selling book on how to publish a scholarly article. Some examples in the book are based on Belcher’s experiences at the CSRC. She quotes CSRC director Chon A. Noriega on writing habits and uses articles submitted to Aztlán to demonstrate how to achieve excellence. CSRC friends will receive 25 percent off by using the press link above and the code PR12WEEKS25.

Stewart hired as TCM host

Jacqueline Stewart, professor of cinema and media studies at the University of Chicago, has been hired as a host on the cable channel Turner Classic Movies. She is TMC’s first African American host. Stewart was among the researchers on CSRC’s Race and Independent Media Project from 2001 through 2005.

Arias Diaz reports from Colombia

Oscar Arias Diaz, a PhD student in communications at Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla, Colombia, was a visiting graduate researcher at the CSRC in 2018-19. During his residency he completed the paper “Latin-American Female Filmmakers: A Voice Out of the System,” which examines how technological, organizational, and legal changes in Latin American film industries between 2012 and 2018 are widening inequalities of wealth and power between male and female filmmakers across Latin America. Now back in Colombia, he is coding all the interviews with Latinx filmmakers that he conducted while in residency at the CSRC, and he is working on his dissertation, titled “The Colombian Dream: Film, Culture and Politics of Colombian Cinema in the 21st Century.”

The Wetback celebrated at festivals

The CSRC congratulates A. P. Gonzalez, filmmaker and recently retired UCLA faculty, on his award-winning short The Wetback (2018), which is receiving accolades on the festival circuit. The film, inspired by Ron Arias’s novel The Road to Tamazunchale, tells the story of what happens in a Latino community when the body of an immigrant is discovered on the banks of the Los Angeles River. The Wetback features Latinx actors and employs magical realism. It premiered in March 2018 at the San Diego Latino Film Festival and continues to screen around the world. To view the trailer, click here.

CSRC co-sponsors screenings of Chulas Fronteras

On September 16, Mexican Independence Day, the CSRC cosponsored four Los Angeles–area screenings at Laemmle Theatres of the documentary films Chulas Fronteras and Del Mero Corazón. Recently restored in 4K resolution, Chulas Fronteras (1976) celebrates famed Mexican American musicians of the borderlands and documents borderlands culture. The film was produced by Chris Strachwitz, founder of the online archive Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American Music, a joint project of the CSRC, the Arhoolie Foundation, and the UCLA Digital Library Program. Strachwitz also served as a director on Del Mero Corazón (1979), which focuses on Tejano and Norteña love songs and was constructed from outtakes from Chulas Fronteras.

Museums acquire artworks shown in CSRC exhibitions

In recent weeks, several artworks shown in CSRC exhibitions have been acquired by museums. Christina Fernandez’s María’s Great Expedition, which was exhibited in Home—So Different, So Appealing, is now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. MoMA also recently purchased La Reina del Barrio by Judithe Hernández, which was included in Mapping Another L.A.: The Chicano Art Movement. Several artworks by Laura Aguilar that were on view in the traveling exhibition Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell have been acquired by the Getty Museum. They include the triptych Three Eagles Flying, one of Aguilar’s most renowned works. Finally, at the bequest of CSRC collections donor Raphael Montañez Ortiz, the CSRC donated his Piano Destruction Ritual, Cowboy and Indian Part Two, commissioned for the 2017 LA Art Show, to the Vincent Price Art Museum, a CSRC community partner. In addition, the CSRC donated Ortiz’s video Henny-Penny Piano Destruction Concert, 1966–1998 to the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles. The video documents the destruction concert in 1998 that resulted in Henny-Penny Piano Destruction Concert, an artwork now in MOCA’s collection. Both will be on view as part of a MOCA exhibition opening this month on contemporary Colombian artist Gala Porras-Kim.

Artist utilizes Homeboy Industries Records

Sleeved Out with Radical Kinship, an interactive installation coordinated by art therapist Laura Miera, was presented in September at the Other Art Fair L.A. The installation comprised personal letters from the CSRC’s Homeboy Industries Records collection and artwork created by formerly gang-involved and previously incarcerated men and women. Viewers were invited to respond to the exhibition by writing letters on coffee-cup sleeves from Home Girl Café that could be incorporated into the installation or taken home. Sleeved Out with Radical Kinship was developed as part of Art Heals, a community art therapy program run by Homeboy Industries. Information about the work and a video of responses to it can be found on The Other Art Fair website.

Kim and Noriega co-author study on teaching East Los High

“The Value of Media Studies Approaches for the Evaluation of Entertainment Education: A Case Study of ‘East Los High’” published in Health Education & Behavior, August 6, 2019. The article is available on the Sage Journals website.

Aguilar participates on panel for SJSU students of color

On July 29, CSRC community engagement coordinator Michael Aguilar participated in a panel discussion for twenty undergraduate students of color from San José State University. The panel was part of a UCLA campus tour designed to expose these students to opportunities in higher education. Aguilar, who received his MA and MLIS degrees at UCLA, discussed his academic journey and some of the challenges faced by first-generation students of color who pursue graduate studies.

CSRC IN THE NEWS

“Celebs and Activists Are Campaigning to Build Latino Museum in D.C.”
A piece published on the HipLatina website discussed the recent campaign by celebrities and activists to build a Latino museum in Washington, D.C. Findings from the 2018 report Invisible No More by the CSRC and the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative are referenced to demonstrate the need for the inclusion of Latinos in arts and cultural institutions. CSRC director Chon A. Noriega is quoted.

HipLatina.com, August 30, 2019 (PDF)

“Art Exhibition Forces Viewers to Confront Invisible Laborers”
CuratorLove founder and UCLA alumna Erika Hirugami was interviewed for a piece on the exhibition On Their Backs: Latinx Labor in the US, on view at Fellows of Contemporary Art through September 6. The exhibition was organized in partnership with the CSRC.

UCLA Newsroom, August 26, 2019 (PDF)

“Commentary: Targeted in El Paso, Vilified by Trump. Why the Latino Culture Vacuum Is Dangerous”
Alex Nogales, Harry Gamboa Jr., and Carmen Argote were quoted in a piece in the Los Angeles Times regarding the representation of Latinos. Nogales is cofounder of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, a CSRC community partner, and a Bruin; Gamboa is an artist whose work was featured in L.A. Xicano (2011–12), a set of exhibitions organized by the CSRC; Argote, also a Bruin, is an artist whose work was shown in the CSRC-organized exhibition Home—So Different, So Appealing (2017–18).

Los Angeles Times, August 15, 2019 (PDF)

“Veronica Alvarez Appointed as Director of CalArts Community Arts Partnership”
The Santa Clarita Valley Proclaimer announced the recent appointment of former CSRC consultant Veronica Alvarez as director of the CalArts Community Arts Partnership. Alvarez served as an educational consultant at the CSRC, where she helped develop teacher guides for the A Ver series.

The Santa Clarita Valley Proclaimer, July 20, 2019 (PDF)

“Making Change”
UCLA Magazine featured an article on UCLA’s Centennial Celebration Initiatives, which include the exhibition UCLA: Our Stories, Our Impact. (See under “Events,” below.) The exhibition is a joint production of the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, the Labor Center, and the Chancellor’s Advisory Council on Immigration Policy, in partnership with the American Indian Studies Center, the Asian American Studies Center, the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, and the CSRC.

UCLA Magazine, July 1, 2019 (PDF)

“I Am a Mexicano: The Legacy of Chicano Journalist and Activist Raul Ruiz”
A piece for Artbound examines the legacy and contributions of Chicano journalist and activist Raul Ruiz. CSRC director Chon A. Noriega discusses the contributions that Ruiz’s photography made to the Chicano movement.

Artbound, June 28, 2019 (PDF)

“Escuchando la Frontera Presented”
Matthew Vest, a music inquiry and research librarian at UCLA, created an Adobe Spark webpage that recaps "Escuchando la Frontera: Listening to Collection and Communities," a symposium held at UCLA last summer. The event was held to celebrate the Strachwitz Frontera Collection, a collaboration between the UCLA Music Library, the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive, and the CSRC

UCLA Library Website, June 13, 2019

“Latino Representation in Film Remains Limited, Despite History of Inclusion”
CSRC director Chon A. Noriega was extensively quoted in a piece  in the Daily Bruin. He discusses Latino inclusion and representation in the film industry.
Daily Bruin, June 8, 2019 (PDF)
 
“LAUSD Snapshot”
KLCS, a public broadcasting network, shared a snapshot video containing archival images held by the CSRC that document the Eastside walkouts in 1968–70. The images are currently on display at Theodore Roosevelt High School. CSRC assistant director emeritus Carlos Haro was interviewed for the video.
KLCS Twitter, June 7, 2019 (PDF)
 
“Christina Fernandez’s ‘María’s Great Expedition’”
MoMA’s Magazine featured an article on Christina Fernandez’s installation María’s Great Expedition, which was recently acquired by the museum. CSRC director Chon A. Noriega is mentioned as facilitating an honorarium by the Mexican Museum that helped the artist produce the work.
Magazine, May 31, 2019 (PDF)
 
“Efrain Gutierrez, Academy Visual History”
Director and producer Efrain Gutierrez took part in a visual history for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’s Academy Oral History Projects. Gutierrez discussed the CSRC’s recovery effort of his film Please, Don't Bury Me Alive!/Por Favor, No Me Entierren Vivo! (1976) and its nomination to the National Film Registry.
Oscars YouTube Channel, August 25, 2017 (URL)
 
All “In the News” articles are available in PDF format on the CSRC website.
 

EVENTS

Exhibition Opening: UCLA: Our Stories, Our Impact
Thursday, October 3, 7:00 a.m.–11:00 p.m.
Kerckhoff Art Gallery, UCLA

Join us for the opening of UCLA: Our Stories, Our Impact, a multimedia exhibition that will showcase 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.

Traveling Exhibition: UCLA: Our Stories, Our Impact
Sunday, October 6, 9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
100 W 1st Street, Los Angeles, 90012

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

CSRC Open House
Thursday, October 17, 5:00 p.m.–7:30 p.m.
CSRC Library, 144 Haines Hall

Join us for the annual CSRC Open House! This year’s open house will launch the CSRC’s fiftieth anniversary celebration and serve as the official opening of an exhibition featuring archival materials representing fifty years of Chicanx activism. Included in the exhibition, on view in the CSRC Library, will be new artworks by Bruins Salomón Huerta and Angélica Becerra. There will be special guests, CSRC publications on sale, a chance to explore the La Raza Interactive Touchscreen Table (see News, above), and more. Plus, meet CSRC staff and enjoy catering by Casablanca on the patio. All are welcome!

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.

CSRC LIBRARY

A personal tribute to Anna Soto

On July 26, 2019, Anna Marie Soto, daughter of Nell and Phil Soto, passed away suddenly at the age of fifty-eight. She is survived by her husband, Reggie; her brothers, Tom, Patrick, and Michael; her mother’s sister, Ginny; and many nieces and nephews. Anna was kind, fierce, and loyal. She was a devoted public servant, and she followed in the footsteps of her parents by giving all of herself to her community and family. To read the entire tribute by Xaviera Flores, CSRC librarian, go to the CSRC website.

Flores participates in LAUSD workshop

On June 27, as part of an ongoing collaboration between the IAC and the UCLA School of Education, CSRC librarian Xaviera Flores was one of several instructors to participate in the Teaching Ethnic Studies Program Workshop. The workshop taught LAUSD teachers about the resources available at the CSRC for K-12 instruction.

Flores and Jimenez present at conferences

Xaviera Flores, CSRC librarian, and Krystell Jimenez, former CSRC student worker and recent recipient of an MLIS degree from the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, attended conferences this summer where they presented their co-authored work on creating equitable custody agreements between libraries and collection donors. In July, at the Archival Education Research Institute in Liverpool, England, Jimenez gave the talk “Alternative Deeds of Gift.” In August, at the Society of American Archivists Annual Meeting in Austin, Flores gave the talk, “Solidarity, Not Appropriation: Writing Deeds That Benefit Both Community and Institution.”

Flores teaches in Mellon Mays training program

Every summer the CSRC helps support research and instruction for the UCLA Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Writing and Research Training Program. The program’s aim is to diversify the professoriate by supporting students from underrepresented groups who demonstrate a commitment to teaching in higher education. Flores provided primary source instruction for the students and met individually with students working on projects related to Chicana/o studies.

New collections received

The CSRC is happy to announce the acquisition of three new collections: the Susan Alva Papers, the CHIRLA (Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights) Records, and the Myriam Gurba papers.

  • Susan Alva is an immigrant rights lawyer and activist and associate director of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center. She has worked for the Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project, the Legal Orientation Program for Custodians (LOPC), Occidental College’s Urban and Environmental Policy Institute, and CHIRLA. Her collection represents forty years of immigrant rights work at the local, state, national, and international level.

  • The CSRC has partnered with CHIRLA to help provide greater access to their organizational records. The organization’s home offices will continue to maintain a small library with reference materials and provide research services, but the bulk of the research collection and the organization’s historical papers will be housed at the CSRC, where library staff will provide access and reference services to researchers.  CHIRLA is a nonprofit organization that focuses on immigrant rights. The collection includes subject files, ephemera, publications, educational and programming materials, and more.

  • Myriam Gurba is an American queer writer, storyteller, and visual artist from Santa Maria, California. She currently lives and teaches in Long Beach, and she is the author of several internationally recognized books. The collection includes writings, mementos, photographs, clothing, and other materials related to her youth and growing up queer and Latina in California during the 1980s and 1990s.
Maria Acosta Duran Papers processed

The Maria Acosta Duran Papers have been processed. Maria Acosta was born on August 15, 1906, in Mexico. Around 1914, her family moved to Columbus, New Mexico, where she would witness Pancho Villa's incursion into the United States in 1916. As an adult, she was a garment worker, political activist, and entrepreneur. This collection consists largely of photographs, mostly from the 1920s through the 1940s. Most of the photos depict her family, friends, and neighbors in Boyle Heights, many of whom were Japanese American. There is also a small amount of material on her involvement with labor unions and Mexican American community organizations. After World War II she moved to Lancaster, California, where she opened a café called Don Carlos. There is some documentation of this period of her life, when she apparently was the only woman on the board of what is noted on a photograph as Lancaster’s “Mexican Chamber of Commerce.” There is also a lengthy manuscript, written in 1983, in which she relates her first-hand account of Pancho Villa’s raid of Columbus and the U.S. Army’s response. She also recounts her 1973 meeting in Mexico with Villa’s widow, María Lux Corral. The finding aid for the Maria Acosta Duran Papers is available on the Online Archive of California.

James and Margarita Mendez Papers processed

The James and Margarita Mendez Papers have been processed. James Mendez was born July 21, 1921, in Los Angeles. He attended James Garfield High School and Frank Wiggins Trade School before joining the U.S. Army. He served in the 127th Infantry Regiment of the 32nd Infantry Division and fought in New Guinea and the Philippines. After the war he worked as a salesman for the General American Life Insurance Company. Mendez’s future wife, Margarita Acosta Duran, was born on December 5, 1925, in Los Angeles. She was the daughter of Maria Acosta Duran. She attended Theodore Roosevelt High School, UCLA, and USC, where she earned a master’s degree in social work. As a social worker, she specialized in youth and mental health issues. James and Margarita married on December 23, 1950. The collection consists of photographs, printed matter, memorabilia, correspondence, and realia, mostly pre-dating their marriage. There is a great deal of material on their secondary school years. Garfield and Roosevelt High Schools had large populations of Japanese American students whose educations were interrupted by forced relocation and incarceration. Margarita had many Japanese American friends throughout her life, and perhaps because of this fact she collected material from concerning the Gila River and Poston internment camps in Arizona. During World War II, James served alongside Margarita's brother Eloy. Both men retained a significant amount of material from their service in the Pacific theater and, in Eloy's case, the American occupation of Japan. While there is only a small amount of material related to James's career as an insurance salesman, there is a great deal on Margarita's career in social work. The finding aid for the James and Margarita Mendez Papers is available on the Online Archive of California.

Lupe Anguiano Papers finding aid updated

The finding aid for the Lupe Anguiano Papers has been updated. Born on March 12, 1929, Anguiano had intended to be a nun, but she left the convent to pursue more direct methods of social activism. She has been a tireless advocate for women’s rights and the rights of workers. In recent years she has shifted her focus to environmental issues. The collection consists of papers, photographs, publications and printed materials, ephemera, and realia related to Anguiano's personal and professional life. It includes material from her childhood and adolescence, as well as her time in the convent. It also documents her work with various social justice organizations and governmental agencies. The revised finding aid is available on the Online Archive of California.

IUPLR Records transferred to CSRC

The University of Notre Dame has transferred the Inter-University Program for Latino Research Records to the CSRC. The IUPLR was formally established in 1983 as a national consortium of university-based centers devoted to developing and promoting Latino scholarship. It currently has twenty-four member institutions, each dedicated to interdisciplinary research about, and of interest to, the Latino population in the United States. The collection contains administrative records from the first thirty years of the organization's history. Though only minimally processed, the finding aid is available on the Online Archive of California.

Diaz joins CSRC as UCLA/Mellon Community Archives Intern

The CSRC has been selected to host an intern via the UCLA/Mellon Community Archives Internship Program. Thanks to the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Community Archives Lab in the Department of Information Studies is funding paid internships at community archives in Southern California for six second-year students in the Master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) program during the 2019-20 academic year. This year’s intern, Chantel Diaz, will help create a digital archive to support online exhibitions and programming around the fiftieth anniversary of the National Chicano Moratorium, which occurred on August 29, 1970. Collaborating in this project are Rosalio Muñoz and the Church of the Epiphany.

Sandoval concludes Getty internship

For ten weeks over in the summer, the CSRC was fortunate to have Cira Sandoval working with us as a Getty intern. A recent graduate of Cal State Long Beach, Cira spent much of her time digitizing graphic materials in the archives and posting them online, greatly boosting accessibility to some of our collections. Online items are now available for the Self Help Graphics & Art Research Collection and the America en la Mira Archive.  

Farewell, Lupe Sanchez

This summer we said goodbye to our undergraduate student worker Lupe Sanchez, who has worked with us since her freshman year. She assisted with our NEH grant, processing the Esteban Torres Papers and Moctesuma Esparza Papers (read her blog post about working on this collection), and she helped us inventory audiovisual materials from the Lorena Parlee Papers, Nell and Phil Soto Papers, Robert Legorreta-Cyclona Fire of Life Collection, and La Opinión Newspaper Records. Sanchez graduated in June, receiving a BA in psychology with a minor in labor and workplace studies. She is now working as a substitute teacher for LAUSD and plans to attend graduate school. We wish her all the best. 

Exhibitions with CSRC loans

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

  • Queer Forms, Katherine E. Nash Gallery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, through December 7, 2019
  • Pop América, 1965–1975, Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, through December 8, 2019*
  • Axis Mundo: Queer Networks in Chicano L.A., Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, Massachusetts, through December 9, 2019*
  • Art After Stonewall, 1969-1989, The Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum, Miami, Florida, through January 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, permanent exhibition

*Exhibition catalog available in the CSRC Library

To schedule a tour of the CSRC Library, contact CSRC librarian Xaviera Flores at floresx@ucla.edu or fill out the form on the CSRC Library Services page.

CSRC PRESS

CSRC Press and UCLA faculty win awards

CSRC Press and two UCLA faculty received recognition at the 2019 International Latino Book Awards. The winners were announced September 21 at a ceremony at Los Angeles City College. Both books entered by CSRC Press won multiple awards. The Aztlán Mexican Studies Reader, 1974–2016, edited by Héctor Calderón, UCLA professor of Spanish and Portuguese, won first place for Best Academic-Themed Book and second place for Best Latino-Focused Nonfiction (English). Barrio Harmonics by Steven Loza, UCLA professor of ethnomusicology and CSRC faculty affiliate, received an honorable mention for Best Arts Book and Best Cover Design. The International Latino Book Awards are produced by Latino Literacy Now, a nonprofit organization co-founded in 1997 by Edward James Olmos and Kirk Whisler. For more information, visit https://lbff.us/awards/.

Fall issue of Aztlán has shipped to subscribers

The essay section of the Fall 2019 issue of Aztlán opens with a consideration of Rodolfo Anaya’s texts as narratives of Indohispano resiliency expressed through the symbol of maize. Next are two complementary critical analyses of the work of two turn-of-the-century New Mexican folklorists, Aurelio M. Espinosa and José Agapito Olivas. The final essay evaluates the work of Denver artist Carlota d.R. EspinoZa as an example of Chicana/o critical regionalism. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz is the subject of the dossier section, curated by Alicia Gaspar de Alba. In personal letters and works dedicated to Sor Juana, the dossier contributors explore how the seventeenth-century scholar, writer, and nun has influenced their lives and careers. The editor’s commentary acknowledges the upcoming fiftieth anniversary of Aztlán with an explanation of the journal’s submission process. Charlene Villaseñor Black outlines the procedure step by step and offers tips on how to develop a successful submission. The cover and the artist’s communiqué feature the work of artists Misael Diaz and Amy Sanchez Arteaga, who together form Cog•nate Collective. Their work confronts questions of citizenship, personhood, displacement, erasure, agency, and solidarity in the borderlands. To purchase or subscribe (print, digital, or both), visit the CSRC website.

opportunities

Faculty position in Latinx urban issues

The Department of Urban Planning at the Luskin School of Public Affairs seeks applications from scholars in urban studies and urban planning for a tenured/tenure-track appointment. Applicants with varied research interests within this broad area are welcome to apply, including but not limited to neighborhood change, community development, social mobility, race and ethnicity, immigration, and urban planning in communities of color. While open to scholars with interests in any geographical area, applicants with an interest in the study of Los Angeles or its region are encouraged to apply. This appointment resides completely in the Department of Urban Planning, but the appointee will be a Faculty Associate in the CSRC. To apply, visit https://recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF04877. Applications will be accepted through October 15, 2019.

CSRC director

The CSRC is searching for its next director! The CSRC director will provide leadership in scholarly research and publications on the US Chicano/Latino experience; develop interdisciplinary research programs and community partnership in Chicano/Latino studies; advance the CSRC’s and Institute for American Culture’s social justice efforts; administer budgetary and personnel processes; and lead CSRC fundraising efforts, including engaging in development activities as well as obtaining and managing extramural grants and/or contracts, gifts and donations, and endowment funds. Ability to speak, read, and write Spanish is preferred. To apply, visit https://recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF04722. Applications will be accepted through November 1, 2019.