CSRC Newsletter - June 2004

Last month, Chicano studies lost a major figure in the development of the field. Gloria Anzaldúa passed away on May 15, 2004, from diabetes-related complications. She was sixty-one years old. Anzaldúa's Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987) opened up the field in the same way as Americo Paredes's "With a Pistol in His Hand": A Border Ballad and its Hero (1958). The differences that her work so eloquently articulated and interwove – gender, sexuality, language, class, and race – helped redefine Chicano studies, feminist studies, and lesbian/queer studies. But it also had a significant impact on other fields, not to mention interdisciplinary research and multigenre writing. In this way, Anzaldúa influenced a new generation of students, scholars, writers, and activists. Her work stands as a testament to the most important contribution of our field: that crossing borders is not about leaving one place for another, but about embracing both and more as part of an inclusionary way of life. She will be missed, but her legacy lives on.

 

 

Remaining on view until December 5, 2004, Corridos sin Fronteras: A New World Ballad Tradition is on exhibit at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, NM. This exhibition was produced by the CSRC and sponsored by the Smithsonian Museum in June of 1998. The center is offering many events focusing on the exhibition, including tours, lectures, and a conference. For more information, see the NHCC website .

 

Robert Hernandez, CSRC Research Assistant and first-year master's student in the film department, was recently awarded a 2004 Graduate Summer Research Mentorship. Robert will work closely with Director Chon Noriega in order to prepare a paper that will be ready for presentation by the end of the summer.

 

On Friday, May 21, the center held a conference on the significance of Mendez vs. Westminster School District , a seminal legal case that ended de jure segregation in California and set the stage for Brown vs. Board of Education . Over 150 people attended the symposium, which brought together former students of the Hoover School, experts on the legalities of the case, and a staged reading based on the pre-trial testimony.

 

Graduating senior Alma Flores , a double major in Spanish and Chicana/o Studies, has been chosen to receive the Department Service Award. The $300 prize, which is sponsored jointly by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and the CSRC, is awarded annually to the graduating Spanish or Portuguese major or minor with the best record of service to the Latino community. This year's winner has an impressive history of community service that includes working as a Jumpstart tutor/mentor at the 28 th Street Early Childhood Center; interning with the Institute of Popular Education in Southern California (IDEPSCA); and organizing with Conciencia Libre.

 

The CSRC and the Asian American Studies Center will present Dr. Greg Robinson , assistant professor of history at L'Université du Québec a Montréal. He will give his talk “The Limits of Interracial Coalitions: Mendez v. Westminster Reexamined” on Thursday, June 3, from 3-5 pm at Kinsey 169. For more information, call 310-825-2974.

 

Dr. Marielena Lara , associate professor in residence, pediatrics, will give her talk “Promoting Health in Latino Children & Youth: Critical Public Health Issues,” on Thursday, June 3 at noon in CHS 16-059. Dr. Lara is a candidate for the faculty position sponsored by the CSRC in Latino Health in the UCLA School of Public Health.

 

On June 7, 2004 , from 4-6pm at Royce 314, the Institute of American Cultures will hold its annual Postdoctoral Fellows Colloquium. This year the presenters include Michelle Rahej a, assistant professor, UCR, sponsored by the AISC; Regina Freer , assistant professor, Occidental College, sponsored by the Bunche Center; Lynn Fujiwara , assistant professor, University of Oregon, sponsored by the AASC; Karen Mary Davalos , associate professor, Loyola Marymount University, sponsored by the CSRC; and Anthony Macias , assistant professor, UCR, sponsored by the CSRC. Please RSVP by June 2 to Raul Ramirez.

 

Search engines are now up and running for three of our archived collections: the Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation exhibit; the Comisión Femenil de Los Angeles records; and the Paulina Sahagan Collection of TENAZ (Teatro Nacional de Aztlán). Other collections will soon be on-line. These collections can be found on the UCLA library website and on the CSRC Library website.

 

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 at UCLA Giving.

 

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

 

The CSRC hosted a planning meeting with ten scholars from the Los Angeles area on Thursday, May 27, to develop an outline for a new anthology (and perhaps the start of a regular series) entitled The Chicano Manual of Style . This project will examine the function of "style" within Chicano and Chicana cultural practices, politics, and social space. We will update you on our progress.

 

Interest has been high in the two new DVDs that the CSRC released last month on Chicano art of the 1970s and 1980s. The DVDs document two pivotal art exhibitions in Los Angeles (Los Four and Murals of Aztlán) and the early “conceptual dramas” directed by Harry Gamboa Jr. , a co-founder of ASCO. These works - with the originals archived in the CSRC Special Collections - have been restored and are being made available for the first time. For information on how to purchase these historic DVDs, see our media website or contact the CSRC press.

 

The CSRC Press is in the last stages of preparing an exciting new anthology for publication. We have selected twelve essays to demonstrate the range of personal writing in Chicano studies and how scholars see their identities shaping their scholarship. John Philip Santos has called I Am Aztlán:  The Personal Essay in Chicano Studies   “fascinating” and Genaro M. Padilla has called it “important.” To order a copy in advance now, email CSRC Press.

 

Artist Isis Rodriguez kindly lent her Virgen, LMA (1999) image to the CSRC for use on a black t-shirt to raise funds for the CSRC. These t-shirts are available in medium, large, and extra-large Baby T's for $15. To order, email the CSRC Press.

 

The spring issue of Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies has been sent to subscribers. If you are not a subscriber and want to be one, e-mail your postal address to the CSRC Press in order to receive a subscription package!

If you would like to receive electronic versions of the Latino Policy & Issues Brief or the CSRC Research Report, please email CSRC Briefs and Reports and include in the body of your message the line (and nothing but the line) SUBSCRIBE CHICANO [first name, last name] (don't enter the brackets, just your name)

 

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 email to Carlos M. Haro.

 

To learn more about us, visit our website or email us . To subscribe to this newsletter, e-mail CSRC Newsletter and include in the body of your message the line (and nothing but the line) SUBSCRIBE CHICANO [first name, last name] (don't enter the brackets, just your name).

Please note that most e-mails at the center recently switched from @csrc.ucla.edu to @chicano.ucla.edu. For instance, it is now press@chicano.ucla.edu. If you need someone's new e-mail, please e-mail the front office.