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CSRC Newsletter - April 2021

VolumE 19, Number 8

Director’s Message

On March 18, the Asian American Studies Center (AASC) published a statement in collaboration with the Asian American Studies Department and the Center for the Study of Women decrying the fatal mass shooting at Asian-run massage parlors in Atlanta on March 16. The CSRC stands in solidarity with the AASC in its condemnation of anti-Asian violence and the call for transformative justice and change. The joint statement is available on the AASC website.
 
Chon A. Noriega
Director and Distinguished Professor
 

News

Julia Bogany, presente!
The CSRC mourns the passing of Julia Bogany, Tongva tribal elder, educator, and activist. Bogany was instrumental in guiding the research project Critical Mission Studies at California’s Crossroads, hosted at the CSRC and funded by the UC Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives program. Bogany can be seen in the first two-and-a-half minutes of this video giving the UCLA land acknowledgement to open the Critical Mission Studies conference "‘American’ Art and the Legacy of Conquest,” November 8–9, 2019. On March 31, the American Indian Studies Center (AISC) posted a statement on the AISC website honoring Bogany’s passing.
 
Black gives talks
In March, Charlene Villaseñor Black, professor of art history and CSRC associate director, gave the keynote address “Thinking about Migration through Latinx Art” at the Young Scholar Symposium hosted by the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Additionally, she presented the keynote address, “Decolonizing Art History with Mexico’s ‘Tenth Muse,’ Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz” at the Thirty-seventh Art History Graduate Symposium at Florida State University, Tallahassee, and the lecture “Casting a Critical Eye on Mission Studies” for students in FSU’s Cultural Heritage Management and Museum Studies Program. Black is a principal investigator on the CSRC research project Critical Mission Studies at California’s Crossroads.
 
Carrillo receives IUPLR-Mellon dissertation fellowship
Chicana/o and Central American studies graduate student Vicente Carrillo is the UCLA recipient of a 2021-22 dissertation-completion fellowship offered by the Inter-University Program for Latino Research (IUPLR) and the Mellon Foundation. Carrillo will be part of a national cohort of outstanding doctoral candidates from five universities. Fellowships include a stipend, mentorship, and participation in the IUPLR conference and summer institute. The CSRC is a founding member of the IUPLR, and it contributed to establishing this fellowship program for students who are writing dissertations focused on Chicana/o or Latina/o studies and utilizing humanities-based research methods.
 
Bustamante quoted on vaccine eligibility and equity
Arturo Vargas Bustamante, associate professor of policy and management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and CSRC faculty associate, was interviewed for the story “California to expand vaccine eligibility to all adults next month, starting with people over 50,” published in The Sacramento Bee on March 25. Read the story here.
 
Baca mural receives Monuments Project grant
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded one of the foundation’s first five grants in its Monuments Project initiative to the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), which artist Judy Baca co-founded and serves as artistic director. The three-year, $5 million grant will support the preservation and expansion of The Great Wall of Los Angeles, created by Baca with a team of community collaborators. The historic mural will be brought up to date with new imagery representing events from the 1960s to the present. Baca, professor emeritus in the Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies and the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance, is the subject of Judith F. Baca by Anna Indych-López, volume 11 in the award-winning A Ver: Revisioning Art History series from CSRC Press.
 
Museums acquire Baca works
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles’s Exposition Park, scheduled to open in 2022, has acquired muralist Judy Baca’s archive pertaining to the design and creation of The Great Wall of Los Angeles. The archive features more than 350 objects, including concept drawings, site plans, sketches, and notes and correspondence between the artist and community leaders, scholars, historians, and other collaborators. In 2019 the Smithsonian American Art Museum acquired Baca’s portable mural Uprising of the Mujeres (1979), which was displayed in the CSRC-organized exhibition Mapping Another L.A.: The Chicano Art Movement at the Fowler Museum in 2011-12.
 
Diaz named to L.A. Redistricting Commission
The CSRC congratulates Sonja Diaz, founding director of the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative, a CSRC partner, on her appointment to the Los Angeles City Council Redistricting Commission. In this position Diaz will assist with redrawing the boundaries for the city’s fifteen council districts, a process that takes place every ten years to account for changes in the city’s population.
 
Conversation with Ortiz available for viewing
On March 24, Light Cone, an experimental film distributor based in France, hosted the online event "Unmaking Cinema—A Conversation with Artist Raphael Montañez Ortiz." The panelists were Ortiz, artist, educator, and CSRC collections donor; Kevin M. Hatch, associate professor of art history at SUNY Binghamton; and Chon A. Noriega, CSRC director and professor of film and television at UCLA. A recording of the panel is available on Light Cone’s Vimeo channel. The event coincided with the online screening program Défaire le cinéma: Une rencontre avec Raphael Montañez Ortiz, organized by Light Cone. The program featured many of the films recently digitized through an effort led by the CSRC. These films are now available for rental through Light Cone. For more information, visit https://lightcone.org/en/filmmaker-682-raphael-montanez-ortiz.
 
Haro gives talk on 1968 Chicana/o student walkouts
On March 17, Carlos M. Haro, CSRC assistant director emeritus, presented the online talk “Remembering the March 1968 Chicana/o Student Walkouts: Seeking Educational Justice,” hosted by the Glendale Latino Association. A recording of the lecture can be viewed on the association’s YouTube channel.
 
Dean’s salon on ethnic studies available for viewing
On March 23, Darnell Hunt, dean of social sciences and former director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, hosted the Dean’s Salon panel “Ethnic Studies at UCLA: Scholarship for Social Justice.” Panelists were ethnic studies department professors and chairs Leisy Abrego (Chicana/o and Central American studies), Randall Akee (American Indian studies), Cheryl Keyes (African American studies), and Natalie Masuoka (Asian American studies). A recording of the discussion can be viewed on the UCLA College YouTube channel. 
 
Conversation with Álvarez Muñoz available for viewing 
On March 27, Art League Houston (ALH) hosted a conversation between artist Celia Álvarez Muñoz, recipient of the ALH 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award in the Visual Arts, and Benito Huerta, artist and professor of art and art history at the University of Texas Arlington. A recording of the event is available on the ALH YouTube channel. Álvarez Muñoz is the subject of Celia Álvarez Muñoz by Roberto Tejada, volume 3 in the A Ver: Revisioning Art History series from CSRC Press.
 
Águilas wins Best Documentary Short at SXSW
Águilas, a fourteen-minute documentary about Águilas del Desierto (Desert Eagles), a humanitarian search-and-rescue group that looks for migrants who have gone missing in the Arizona desert, received the award for Best Documentary Short at the SXSW Film Festival, held online March 16–20. The film is directed by Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, professor of film in the School of Theater, Film, and Television and CSRC Faculty Advisory Committee member, and Maite Zubiaurre, professor of European languages, transcultural studies, and Spanish and Portuguese. The making of Águilas was supported in part by an Institute of American Cultures research grant through the CSRC. A recorded discussion with the filmmakers hosted by SXSW is available on the SXSW YouTube channel.
 
Mazadiego publishes book
Elize Mazadiego, art historian and Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow at the University of Amsterdam, has published the book Dematerialization and the Social Materiality of Art: Experimental Forms in Argentina, 1955–1968 (Leiden & Boston: Brill/Rodopi, 2021). Mazadiego contributed an essay to The Oscar Castillo Papers and Photograph Collection, volume 5 in the Chicano Archives Series from CSRC Press.
 
Conversation with Rodríguez available for viewing
On October 30, 2020, artist Freddy Rodríguez was interviewed for the CALL/VoCA Talks series, which is produced by VoCA (Voices in Contemporary Art) in partnership with the Joan Mitchell Foundation's Creating a Living Legacy (CALL) initiative. Rodríguez spoke with writer and editor Yasmeen Siddiqui. A video of the conversation can be viewed on the VoCA Vimeo channel. Rodríguez is the subject of a forthcoming monograph in the A Ver: Revisioning Art History series from CSRC Press.
 
Frontera Collection live show on YouTube
Don’t miss this month’s live shows from Frontera Collection ¡En Vivo!, featuring music from the Arhoolie Foundation’s Frontera Collection. Hosted and DJ’d by Juan Antonio Cuellar, the two two-hour bilingual programs will feature music from the collection. Tune in Thursdays April 1, 15, and 29, starting at 6:00 p.m. on YouTube. Complement your experience by exploring the Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American Music, which is hosted by the CSRC, the Arhoolie Foundation, and the UCLA Digital Library and features blog posts by music writer Agustín Gurza.
 

CSRC In the News

CSRC director Chon A. Noriega is quoted in this story on the documentary film Truly Texas Mexican by filmmaker and chef Adán Medrano.
San Antonio Magazine, March 26, 2021 (PDF)
 
Daniel Solórzano, professor of social science and comparative education and CSRC Faculty Advisory member, was interviewed for a story on the award-winning anthology The Chicana/o Education Pipeline: History, Institutional Critique, and Resistance, volume 5 in the Aztlán Anthology series from CSRC Press
Ampersand, March 24, 2021 (PDF)
 
A review of the touring exhibition Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell, organized by the Vincent Price Art Museum in collaboration with the CSRC. The exhibition is on view through May 9 at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in New York. 
The Brooklyn Rail, March 20, 2021 (PDF)
 
CSRC director Chon A. Noriega was quoted in this story about Latino-focused films that have been nominated this year by members of the US Congress for inclusion in the National Film Registry.
The Eastsider, March 16, 2021 (PDF)
 
A story announcing the participation of CSRC associate director Charlene Villasenor Black in the Young Scholars Symposium in March at the University of Notre Dame.
Institute for Latino Studies blog, March 9, 2021 (PDF)
 
All “In the News” articles are available in PDF format on the CSRC website.
 

CSRC Library

Additions acquired for Bustillos Cogswell collection
The CSRC has acquired additional materials for the Barbara Bustillos Cogswell Papers and Audiovisual Collection, which documents filmmaker Bustillos Cosgwell’s years of documenting mariachi, rock, blues, and jazz; lowrider and motorcycle culture; and other Latinx art and culture in the Southwest. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the materials are not yet processed or available for research. Once available, the CSRC will provide an announcement in the CSRC’s newsletter and social media.
 
Finding aid updated for Laura Aguilar Papers
The finding aid for the Laura Aguilar Papers has been updated. Born in 1959, Aguilar was a photographer whose work primarily centered on the Latina lesbian body including, often, her own. Her works have appeared in more than fifty exhibitions across the globe, and in 2017 the first comprehensive retrospective of her work, Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell, opened at the Vincent Price Art Museum in collaboration with the CSRC. The collection consists of clippings and articles about Aguilar's work, plus photographs and exhibition materials. There is also a small amount of correspondence. The finding aid can be viewed at the Online Archive of California.
 
Finding aid updated for Tatiana de la Tierra Papers
The finding aid for the Tatiana de la Tierra Papers has been updated. A lesbian activist, writer, and librarian, de la Tierra was born in Colombia in 1961 and immigrated with her family to Florida in 1969. In the 1990s she began publishing Este no tiene nombre, a bilingual zine with international distribution that featured a number of important Latina lesbian writers and artists. She later received master's degrees in creative writing and library science. De la Tierra died on July 31, 2012. The collection includes de la Tierra's large collection of Lesbian-themed zines from across Latin America. It also includes materials for the zines she published, such as submissions, drafts, and distribution information. She also maintained a set of subject files, largely arranged geographically. Finally, there is material on librarianship, mostly as it relates to Library of Congress subject headings. The finding aid can be viewed at the Online Archive of California.
 
Exhibitions with CSRC loans
The following exhibitions, opening this month or currently on view, include images and artworks from CSRC collections and publications:
 
Library and archive available remotely
In accordance with Chancellor Gene Block’s directive to suspend most on-campus operations, the CSRC Library and its archive are closed until further notice. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. During this time, CSRC Library staff will remain available via email, and we look forward to engaging with community members remotely. For assistance, please email librarian@chicano.ucla.edu.
 

CSRC Press

Aztlán, the premier journal of Chicana/o studies, is inviting new submissions. Aztlán publishes scholarship relevant to Chicana/o studies from all disciplines and interdisciplinary research as well. We welcome submissions in English and Spanish. We are seeking submissions for all three areas of the journal:
 
Essays
Our essays are research-based and come from a wide variety of disciplines—literature, sociology, history, political science, the arts, linguistics, gender studies, ethnic studies, and many other fields—but they always engage the Chicana/o experience. All essays are peer reviewed and are frequently revised to meet the journal’s standards for quality research. Essays typically run about 10,000–12,000 words in length.
 
Dossiers
The dossier section provides a forum for multiple and shorter engagements with a specific theme that examines an aspect of Chicana/o studies; this might be an object of study, theoretical or disciplinary questions, a methodology, or one scholar’s work. The dossier section, while still of a scholarly nature, is designed to be exploratory, provocative, or experimental in approach. Aztlán's dossiers are developed in conjunction with a guest curator—a scholar who wishes to create a dossier theme and can help manage dossier development. Please note that Aztlán does not typically publish standalone dossier essays. Contact Heather Birdsall at hbirdsall@chicano.ucla.edu to explore this opportunity.
 
Book Reviews
If you are interested in writing a book review for us, we will gladly consider suggested titles, or we can recommend a book that matches your field of interest. To inquire about reviews, contact our book review coordinator at revieweditor@chicano.ucla.edu.
 
To submit: All submissions should be sent to our submission inbox at submissions@chicano.ucla.edu. For complete information about Aztlán and our submission guidelines, please visit the CSRC website. Please direct queries to Heather Birdsall, assistant editor, at hbirdsall@chicano.ucla.edu. 
 
Aztlán available for download
All back issues of Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, as well as individual essays, are available for download at IngentaConnect. Print and digital subscriptions are also available through this platform. To explore all issues from the past fifty years, and purchase or subscribe, click here.
 

OPPORTUNITIES

Getty Marrow Multicultural Undergraduate Internships
This year the CSRC will host two paid summer internships structured around current and ongoing CSRC projects. In addition to contributing to the CSRC’s mission to provide information resources on Chicano history and culture, the interns will gain career-relevant experience. To apply for either internship, please send a resume, cover letter, and two professional or educational references to the contacts noted below. For more details about the Getty Marrow MUI program, visit the Getty website.
 
Eligibility
Students must:
  • Be of a group underrepresented in museums and visual arts organizations, including, but not limited to, individuals of African American, Asian, Latino/Hispanic, Native American, or Pacific Islander descent;
  • Be currently enrolled undergraduates (bachelor's degree program, associate's degree program, or a vocational or technical program below the baccalaureate level). Students must have completed at least one semester or two quarters of college by June 2021. Students who graduated after April 1, 2021, are also eligible. (Students who are enrolled in a second BA or BS program are not eligible.)
  • Reside or attend college in Los Angeles County; and
  • Be a United States citizen or permanent resident (non-citizen authorized to live and work in the United States on a permanent basis; also known as a "green card" holder). Students with DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival) status valid through the internship period are also eligible.
Due to the extraordinary circumstances of COVID-19, students who graduated after April 1, 2020, will also be eligible to apply for summer 2021.

Terms
The internships are full-time (40 hours/week) positions, each with a stipend of $6,000, for a consecutive ten-week work period between June and August 2021.
 
Getty Marrow Preservation and Research Internship
This internship will focus on the role research and preservation play in access, outreach, and user engagement in the digital realm. The internship will introduce the intern to archival principles and theory (10%), processing of art archives and cultural heritage collections (20%), digital preservation and access (40%), research and description for art objects (20%), and other museum activities that the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center performs daily to manage and provide access to their art collections (10%). The intern will be working specifically on a project to create an online portal for the CSRC’s art and artist collections, which includes over thirty collections whose subjects range from artists like Gronk and Cyclona to art organizations like Self-Help Graphics and Mexican Museum of San Francisco. Using software and online platforms that the CSRC uses to manage collections and provide access, the intern will create a landing site with artist information and collection overviews, highlight select artwork from the collections, and potentially curate an online exhibition focusing on the research conducted for the project. The CSRC will provide all the training for these duties. The intern will be meeting with the supervisor 2–3 times a week for 30–60 minutes via Zoom (depending on training and troubleshooting to accomplish tasks). There will also be regular communication via Slack and daily correspondence via email as needed. If work can be conducted onsite at UCLA during the internship, the meetings will take place in person at a safe distance with masks and other PPE required. Duties may also include but are not limited to:
  • Learning archival principles and theory within a museum setting and museum studies principles and theory within an archive setting.
  • Researching provenance and writing descriptions for art objects, plus artist statements and historical notes.
  • Learning best practices for digital preservation for cultural objects (FADGI).
  • Learning basic preservation and conservation skills for physical and digital objects.
  • Learning about the software we use to manage, describe, and provide access to collections
  • Gaining insight into the administration of CSRC’s museum services, such as object registry and tracking workflow for museum projects, preparing artwork for museum loans and pickup, and sales acquisitions (in theory and, if onsite, in practice)
To apply for the Preservation and Research Internship, please send a resume, cover letter, and the contact information for two professional or educational references to Xaviera Flores, CSRC Archivist and Librarian, at floresx@ucla.edu. Application deadline: Friday, April 30, 11:59 p.m. PDT.
 
Getty Marrow Academic Programs and Publications Internship
This internship will be focused on supporting the promotion, execution, and documentation of Immersive Distancing: Carmen Argote and Zeynep Abes, the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center’s exhibition at the L.A. Art Show (LAAS), July 29–August 1, 2021, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Since 2017, the CSRC has partnered with LACMA in co-presenting curated exhibitions at the L.A. Art Show as part of the fair’s DIVERSEartLA initiative. This year’s exhibition will examine recent media art produced during the COVID-19 pandemic by L.A.-based artists Carmen Argote (Mexico, b. 1981) and Zeynep Abes (Turkey, b. 1993). Duties of the Getty Marrow Academic Programs and Publications Intern will include helping with the creation of physical and digital promotional materials for the CSRC exhibition, including a press release, flyers, social media posts, and editorial contributions on the CSRC’s blog, CSRC Post. Additional responsibilities may include ordering supplies for the exhibition installation, documenting all press coverage, assisting with the filming of a dialogue between the artists and exhibition curator Chon A. Noriega, and transcribing the interview(s) for publication. The intern will interact directly with the artists during the internship period and also serve as a docent during the run of the show. If the L.A. Art Show moves to an online format, the intern’s responsibilities will be entirely remote and support the development of the CSRC’s online presentation and promotion of the exhibition. The intern’s capstone project will be a short essay for the CSRC Post that discusses the artworks and their presentation and the public’s engagement with them, incorporating documentation and links to collateral materials such as press coverage and online programming. Interest and/or experience in communications, journalism, and marketing, and print and digital publishing, is preferred.
 
To apply for the Academic Programs and Publications Internship, please send a resume, cover letter, and the contact information for two professional or educational references to Rebecca Epstein, CSRC Assistant Director, at repstein@chicano.ucla.edu. Application deadline: Friday, April 30, 11:59 p.m. PDT.
 
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CSRC available remotely
In accordance with Chancellor Gene Block’s directive to suspend most on-campus operations, the CSRC is closed until further notice. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. During this time, CSRC staff will remain available via email (http://www.chicano.ucla.edu/about/staff) and at csrcinfo@chicano.ucla.edu.
 
The UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center acknowledges the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (the Los Angeles basin and So. Channel Islands). As a land grant institution, we pay our respects to the Honuukvetam (Ancestors), ‘Ahiihirom (Elders) and ‘Eyoohiinkem (our relatives/relations) past, present and emerging.