CSRC Newsletter - November 2006

The CSRC will have its annual Welcome Reception on Thursday, November 16, at 4:30 pm. We invite the campus and community to attend. Thomas Saenz, our keynote speaker, is counsel to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and he will be discussing mayoral and community involvement in Los Angeles schools. Last year the keynote address was given by Assembly Member Marco A. Firebaugh, 1997 alumni of the UCLA Law School and a staunch supporter of the CSRC. Marco died in March of this year, and we wish to remember the important contributions that he made throughout his life. Another major loss was the sudden passing in July of Professor Guillermo E. Hernández, Director Emeritus of the CSRC. The CSRC will be cohosting a memorial tribute for Professor Hernández the hour before the Welcome Reception. To keep his memory and spirit alive, the Hernández family and the CSRC have inaugurated a scholarship fund to support graduate and undergraduate students who are doing research in Chicano or Latino culture, literature, or music. Gifts can be made online at CSRC Giving. An exhibition on his life and academic works will be in the CSRC Library through the fall quarter; a selection of his writings is available online.

 

 

Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Professor of Chicana/o studies and English, read from her forthcoming historical novel, Calligraphy of the Witch, during a special Día de los Muertos/Day of the Dead event on Thursday, November 2, 2006, 4:00-5:30 pm, in 11348 Young Research Library.

 

This workshop is designed to promote a better understanding of the policy issues related to the education of Chicana/os from K-12 and community college through undergraduate and graduate school. The authors of Falling Through the Cracks: Critical Transitions in the Educational Pipeline (2006) will discuss the pipeline and the policies that work for Chicana/o students. CSRC Associate Director Daniel Solórzano will be the moderator, and the panel will include doctoral students Lindsay Perez Huber, Ofelia Huidor, Maria C. Malagon, and Gloria Sanchez. The readings for the workshop are Falling Through the Cracks and Leaks in the Chicana and Chicano Educational Pipeline, both of which are available online at our website. The workshop will be held on Wednesday, November 8, 6:00 pm, CSRC Library, 144 Haines Hall.

 

Vice Chancellor Claudia Mitchell-Kernan and Associate Dean Shirley Hune announce a reception in honor of the IAC's visiting scholars, postdoctoral, predoctoral, and graduate fellows, and research grant awardees for 2006–07. The program will offer an overview of the activities planned during the year to support and advance oral history theory, methodology, and research on campus. Horacio Roque Ramirez, CSRC Visiting Scholar for 2006-07 and Assistant Professor of Chicano Studies at University of California, Berkeley, will discuss his project "Re-Membering Bodies: Oral Histories, Public Memory, and LGBT/Queer Latina and Latino Sexualities." The reception will be held Wednesday, November 8, 4:00–6:00 pm, at the UCLA Faculty Center, Downstairs Lounge. For more information and to RSVP, see the website.

 

The UCLA Department of Anthropology, in association with the Culture, Power, and Social Change Colloquium, presents Maylei Blackwell in a lecture based on her essay “Engendering the 'Right to Have Rights': The Practice of Autonomy in the Age of Neoliberalism.” Dr. Blackwell's research examines how indigenous women activists, through their participation in the indigenous rights movement since the 1994 Zapatista uprising, have refigured the right of indigenous autonomy as a lived practice that is embedded in multiple spaces of their lives. Dr. Blackwell, who is Assistant Professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies at UCLA, will speak on Thursday, November 9, 4:00–6:00 pm, 352 Haines Hall.

 

This one-day conference will explore critical issues in archival research into Chicana/o and Latina/o queer histories. Presentations will consider the search for queer meaning in the "straight archive" as well as the implications for queer(ing) archival holdings. Conference participants include James Schultz, Yolanda Retter Vargas, Richard T. Rodriguez, Deborah R. Vargas, David Roman, C. Ondine Chavoya, Ellie D. Hernandez, Horacio N. Roque Ramirez, and Maylei Blackwell. This event is co-sponsored by the UCLA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Program ; the UCLA Department of Information Studies ; and the UCLA Center for the Study of Women. The conference will be held Wednesday, November 15, in the CSRC Library, 144 Haines Hall, 1:00–5:30 pm.

 

Judith F. Baca, Professor of Chicana/o Studies & WAC, will present a talk titled “Sites of Public Memory: New Murals for the 21st Century” on Wednesday, November 15, 4:00–5:30 pm, in 11348 Young Research Library.

 

Professor Guillermo E. Hernández Memorial

Guillermo E. Hernández, UCLA Professor of Spanish and Director Emeritus of the CRSC, passed away on July 16 in Mexico City. Victim of a heart attack, Hernández spent his last days in his native Mexico, alongside his summer-session Spanish students. This event is co-sponsored by the UCLA Department of Spanish and Portuguese and the UCLA Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies. The memorial will be Thursday, November 16, 3:30–4:30 pm, in Haines Hall, Room A-18.

 

Keynote speaker Thomas Saenz, Counsel to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, will present a talk titled "Increased Mayoral and Community Involvement in L.A. Schools." Stop by to find out about upcoming programs and projects and to meet CSRC scholars and staff. This event honors Professor Guillermo E. Hernández and former Assembly Member Marco A. Firebaugh. Refreshments will be provided from Casablanca Restaurant; music will be by Los Hermanos Herrera. Join us on Thursday, November 16, 4:30–7:00 pm, in the CSRC Library, 144 Haines Hall. For more information, please contact the front office.

 

The University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States (UC MEXUS) grant and fellowship program directors will offer a workshop to provide information about UC MEXUS funding opportunities for 2007. The workshop will include a brief description of current UC MEXUS competitions, including grant writing suggestions, with plenty of time for individual questions. Faculty and students are welcome. This event, which will be held on Thursday, November 30, 12:00–1:00 pm, in the California Room, UCLA Faculty Center, is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided. For further information, please contact Dr. Wendy DeBoer of UC MEXUS at 951.827.7339 or visit the institute's website.

 

Jose Luis Valenzuela, Professor in the UCLA Theater Department, will direct the Latino Theater Company in La Virgen de Guadalupe, Dios Inantzin (The Miracle of the Four Apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe). The show will be held Thursday, December 7, and Friday, December 8, 7:30 pm, at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 West Temple St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. Free admission. For more information, please call 213-489-0994 or visit the theater's website.

 

For more than three decades, SHG has been a national model for community-based art making and art-based community making. Through its innovative printmaking and other programs, Self Help has empowered local artists and reached out to the world beyond East Los Angeles with the vibrancy of Chicano/Latino art. In the new CSRC book on the organization, historian Kristen Guzmán (a recent UCLA Ph.D. graduate and now an assistant professor of history at Santa Ana College) draws on archival sources and on interviews with artists to compose a historical essay that tells the story of this remarkable organization. The guide to the archives was created and contributed by the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives (CEMA) at the University of California, Santa Barbara, led by Salvador Güereña. The book's editor is Colin Gunckel, a doctoral student and CSRC graduate research associate. In addition to the historical essay, the book includes a finding aid to the CEMA archives and a note on strategic partnerships between the public university and community-based arts. To read more about the book, see our website.

 

To read all issues of Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, from 1970 through 2006, please go to the journal hosting site. If your library subscribes, and you are accessing the site through your university network, you should be able to read articles right away. If not, this may mean that your library has yet to turn on its access. Why not email your librarian and ask him or her to do so? All subscribers will continue to get a print copy of the journal.

 

To buy any CSRC products, please go to our new CSRC Store ! All friends of the center have a one-time 40 percent discount on all books, DVDs, and t-shirts. Just browse the products, add them to your shopping cart, enter the discount code “launchdeal,” and pay with your credit card.

 

A variety of products with our con safos logo can be purchased at Cafepress, an online marketplace that allows organizations to create unique print-on-demand products. We earn a portion of the proceeds, so check it out!

If you are interested in buying our books, click here.

If you are interested in buying our DVDs, click here.

If you are interested in subscribing to our journal, email your postal address to press@chicano.ucla.edu

Information about all our publications is available at the CSRC Press website.

 

The Ricardo Muñoz Papers is a collection of approximately 70 linear feet of papers and photos, films, and LP records that represent portions of Mr. Muñoz's career as a lawyer and judge in Los Angeles. The collection also contains many items representing his family's contribution as writers and intellectuals. Legal scholars as well as students of Mexican-American history should find this collection fascinating and informative.

 

The Plaza de La Raza Papers consist of nearly 200 linear feet of documents related to this important community arts organization. Based in historic Lincoln Park, Plaza de la Raza has been the only multidisciplinary cultural arts center serving Latinos in Los Angeles for over three decades. Plaza de la Raza provides year-round programs in art education and promotes the heritage of all cultures. The CSRC is proud to be the archive for this culturally and historically valuable collection.

 

The CSRC Archive mourns the passing of our dear friend, colleague, and archival researcher Lorena Parlee, who died in August of this year. Lorena was a historian, filmmaker, and devoted trade unionist. At one time, she was the press secretary for Cesar Chávez, the founder and president of the United Farm Workers of America. Later, she taught Mexican and Chicano History at San Diego State College. She subsequently founded Sol Films, a 70mm large-format production company, as well as Reel View Productions, an archival and stock film research company. She co-produced Break of Dawn, a documentary on Pedro González, whose papers are held at the CSRC. Parlee identified many of the photographs and contextualized documents in the CSRC González collection. Before her death, Ms. Parlee was editing a feature film based on the life of Cesar Chávez. (Source: Jane Margaret Laight.)

 

La Quarta Raiz: The Chinese Presence in Mexico features photographs by Leonard Melchor, UCLA alumnus and lecturer at East Los Angeles College. The exhibition includes a DVD and CD with additional images, which can be viewed in the CSRC Library. The exhibition runs from October 24 through November 24 in the CSRC Library, 144 Haines Hall.

 

The Mexican Operation: The Mafia, Mexican Immigrants, and Racism in a 1950s Border Town is a fictionalized account of the clandestine immigration operations at the U.S.-Mexican border. The account was written by Lee Silva, who along with his father taxied many undocumented immigrants across the border. The book is written from an unusual perspective: that of a non-Latino who was a first-hand witness to and a participant in the complex dynamics of exploitation at the border. For more information, see the book's website.

 

Horacio Roque Ramirez, Assistant Professor, Chicano Studies Department, University of California, Santa Barbara

David Hernandez, UC President's Postdoctoral Fellow, UC Berkeley, Ph.D. June 2005 in Comparative Ethnic Studies

 

Irene Vásquez, Associate Professor and Chair, Chicana/o Studies Department, California State University, Dominguez Hills

C. Ondine Chavoya, Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art and Latina/o Studies, Williams College, MA

Richard T. Rodríguez, Assistant Professor, English and Latina/Latino Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Martha Rivas, Ph.D. Graduate Student, UCLA Department of Education

UCCLR Latino Policy studies (SCR-43) Graduate Associates

Rita Kohli, Ph.D. Graduate Student, Social Science and Comparative Education

Roberto Emilio Montenegro, Ph.D. Graduate Student, Department of Sociology

Vanessa Jeanette Ochoa, Ph.D. Graduate Student, Department of Education

Lindsay Perez Huber, Ph.D. Graduate Student, Department of Education

Miguel Zavala, Ph.D. Graduate student, Department of Education

There are eleven IAC projects, including five faculty grants and six small grants for graduate students.

Vilma Ortiz, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology

Project: Educational Mobility among Mexican Americans

Abel Valenzuela, Jr., Associate Professor, Department of Chicana/o Studies and Urban Planning

Project: Immigrant Workers and Disaster Relief: Day Labor in the Wake of Katrina

Kelly Lytle Hernandez, Assistant Professor, Department of History

Project: Mexican Immigration Archives

Maylei S. Blackwell, Assistant Professor, Department of Chicana/o Studies

Project: Indigenous Women's Organizing in the Migrant Stream: Digital Storytelling, Community Memory and Empowerment

Ruben Hernandez-Leon, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology

Multi-Ethnic Project: The Migration Industry in Comparative Perspective

Erin Fukiko Kimura, Ph.D. Graduate Student, Department of Education, Higher Education and Organizational Change

Project: The Process of Coming Up: How Chicana/o Studies became an Academic Department

Stacy Lene Macias, Ph.D. Graduate Student, Women's Studies

Project: Counter-Femininities: Cultural Circuits of Femme Ontology

Rita Alicia Buck Rico, Ph.D. Graduate Student, Department of Political Science

Project: Pan-Latino Identity and Coalition: Political Strategy or Contrived Grouping

Wendy Jennifer Rivera, Ph.D. Graduate Student, Department of Education and Psychological Studies

Project: Social Capital & Student-School Personnel Relationships

Lauryn Camille Salazar, Ph.D. Graduate Student, Department of Ethnomusicology

Project: The Academic Mariachi Movement of the West and Southwestern United States

Arely M. Zimmerman, Ph.D. Graduate Student, Department of Political Science

Project: Contesting Citizenship: Examining the Role of 'Extranational' Public Spheres and Alternative Conceptions of Membership in Latino Communities

Two faculty and five graduate students were awarded Latino Policy Studies grants.

Steven R. Lopez, Professor, Department of Psychology

Project: Socio-cultural Processes and Mexican American Families' Care-giving

Patricia M. McDonough, Associate Professor, Department of Education

Project: Understanding Latina/o College Choice: A Chain Migration Perspective

Rita Kohli, Ph.D. Graduate Student, Social Science and Comparative Education.

Project: Deconstructing Racial Perceptions: Internalized Racism and Preservice Teachers of Color

Roberto Emilio Montenegro, Ph.D. Graduate Student, Department of Sociology

Project: Parent Expectations, Spanish-Speaking Doctor-Parent Communications, and Inappropriate Antibiotic Prescribing for Pediatric Upper Respiratory Infections

Vanessa Jeanette Ochoa, Ph.D. Graduate Student, Department of Education

Project: What's OK at Foshay? A Case Study Analysis of an Academically Effective High School's Contribution to Latino Collegiate Access

Lindsay Perez Huber, Ph.D. Graduate Student, Department of Education

Project: Que Siquan Adelante: The Educational Goals and Aspirations of Latina/o AB 540 Students in California

Miguel Zavala, Ph.D. Doctoral Student, Department of Education

Project: Charting the Education and Labor Trajectories of Migrant Students in California: Citizenship, Racialization, and Access to Education

 

The IUPLR 2007 conference, “Siglio XXI: Economies of Class, Economies of Culture,” focuses on how expanding Latino communities in the United States are faced with class and cultural configurations that are not only challenges but also opportunities. Conference presentations will explore traditional and emergent economies of culture and class and should be based on substantial empirical, textual, or archival data. Papers may focus on issues of health, language use, politics, immigration, literature and the arts, history, and popular culture, among others. The conference will be held April 12–14, 2007, in Austin, Texas. For more information, please see the conference website.

 

CSU Northridge has two assistant professor positions in Chicano/a studies available. Review of applications will begin December 1, 2006. For more information, see the CSUN job website.

 

The CSRC website publishes a list of UCLA graduate students currently doing Chicana/o-related research. To be added to the CSRC Affiliated Students list, email the press with your information.

 

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.