A Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration of John Rechy's 'City of Night': From the Street, to the Parade, to the Movements
Event Date:
Wednesday, October 23, 2013 -
4:00pm to 7:00pm
Event Location:
306 Royce Hall, UCLA
When City of Night was first published in 1963, it was hailed as a landmark novel in American literature and paved the way for what would become gay literature. No other writer had traversed the streets of major U.S. cities of night as did John Rechy with his Mexican American character. In 1963, most readers were not aware that El Paso native Rechy was born Juan Francisco Flores Rechy, a child of Mexican immigrants. Through the 1960s and 1970s, Rechy advocated on behalf of the Chicano Movement as a member of two marginalized groups. His autoethnographic essay “El Paso del Norte” from 1958 and City of Night anticipated many of the themes that would define Chicana/o literature into the twenty-first century. In 2013, we celebrate John Rechy, the Mexican American writer, the gay writer, and the L.A. writer.
Featuring:
John Rechy
Héctor Calderón, Professor of Spanish and Portuguese
David L. Ulin, Los Angeles Times Book Critic
John Densmore, The Doors
Seating is extremely limited; please arrive on time to secure your seat. This event is FREE.
A fiftieth anniversary edition of City of Night will be available for purchase at this event.
Co-sponsored by the UCLA César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. The CSRC would like to thank Professor Calderón for his role as faculty organizer of this event.
Watch the video of this event here.
