CSRC Wins NEH Grant for Archival Project Focusing on Mexican Americans in Los Angeles, 1960-70s

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded a $200,000 grant to the CSRC to help the center arrange, describe, and digitize seven archival collections of newspapers, magazines, personal papers, correspondence, photographs, and other materials as part of a three-year project titled “Providing Access to Mexican American Social History in Los Angeles, 1960s and 1970s.” The seven collections are La Raza Newspaper and Magazine Records, Sal Castro Papers, Moctesuma Esparza Papers, Luis Garza Papers, Rosalio Muñoz Papers, David Sanchez Papers, and Esteban Torres Papers.

The grant is the largest of eleven made to institutions in Southern California.  Nationwide, the NEH distributed a total of $22.8 million to 232 humanities projects in this second round of awards for the current fiscal year.

The three-year project, “Providing Access to Mexican American Social History in Los Angeles, 1960s and 1970s,” will be directed by Chon A. Noriega, director of the center and a professor of film and television at UCLA. The seven collections total approximately 506 linear feet of materials and include nearly 25,000 photographic negatives. 

The official NEH release is attached.

Image: "Marcha de la Reconquista: Calexico to Sacramento" (May – August 7, 1971). Photo by Pedro Arias.  La Raza Newspaper and Magazine Records.