CSRC Newsletter - Winter Quarter 2022
Pictured: Jennifer Osorio, newly appointed director of UCLA Library Special Collections
Volume 20, Number 2
Director's Message
The first few months of 2022 have been a roller coaster. As I write this message, my thoughts are with the people of Ukraine and refugees from around the world. They include those who have arrived at the U.S. southern border and who are fleeing persecution and poverty. Violence, greed, and various forms of social exclusion must be addressed abroad and here in the USA.
As always, the work continues here at the CSRC, and it brings me hope. This January we launched the California Freedom Summer Participatory Action Project. Implemented in collaboration with the other three UCLA ethnic studies research centers, faculty at other UCs, and community college partners, the program will train over one hundred students to conduct non-partisan voter education, grassroots organizing, and research that supports youth voices in the democratic processes. The students involved in California Freedom Summer come from communities that have been deeply impacted by broken immigration systems, the COVID-19 pandemic, and racial injustices. Yet these students are full of dreams and energy, and they are determined to help their communities thrive. The goal of the program is to place these students in paid internships in their home communities so that they can enhance the democratic participation of their peers and increase research-based understanding of this diverse group of young Californians.
Our ability to engage in such an ambitious statewide project has been bolstered by the appointment of Eder Gaona-Macedo as the CSRC’s senior officer of community-engaged research. An alum of UCLA’s Chicana/o studies and political science departments, Eder brings to the position a wealth of experience in applying research to advance immigrant rights, racial justice, and education equity. I am glad he has joined us, as the CSRC plans new initiatives to develop ethnic studies coursework for high school students and related teacher training, as well as other research projects that prioritize the well-being and success of California’s majority Latinx youth population. Read more about Eder here.
In other major developments, the CSRC’s Faculty Advisory Committee has been busy implementing key aspects of the Chancellor's HSI Infrastructure Initiative, an effort to prepare for UCLA’s designation as a Hispanic Serving Institution. To qualify for HSI, a college or university’s full-time undergraduate enrollment must include at least 25 percent of students who are of Latinx origin. Thanks to these historic investments, the CSRC will announce plans for faculty hires, postdoctoral appointments, and research funding awards in the months to come.
I am grateful to Chon Noriega and Charlene Villaseñor Black for their ongoing work with the CSRC. Chon is planning the next phase of the A Ver: Revisioning Art History project, which will include major contributions from assistant professor Karina Alma, who will spotlight Central American artists. Charlene’s new and revelatory edited volume, The Artist as Eyewitness: Antonio Bernal Papers, 1884-2019, is now available for purchase, along with our beautiful A Ver monographs, through CSRC Press and its distributors.
I am looking forward to connecting with many of you as the CSRC continues programming and research that seeks to make a difference in the greater Los Angeles region, California, and beyond. You can read additional announcements and more about developments at the CSRC in our detailed newsletter here.
Veronica Terriquez
Director and Professor
OPPORTUNITIES
Latinx Studies Seed (LSS) Grants Program
As part of the UCLA HSI Infrastructure Initiative, the CSRC in collaboration with the Office of Research and Creative Activities (ORCA) is pleased to announce a call for proposals for the Latinx Studies Seed (LSS) Grants Program. These LSS Grants are designed to help launch and support research projects related to topics relevant to Latinx populations in the United States, including (but not limited to) comparative studies that attend to forces that shape the experiences of Latinx groups (including those of Mexican, Central American, Caribbean, and South American origin) and other historically marginalized populations. As such, proposals funded by this grant program may also have implications for Black, Indigenous, Asian American, Pacific Islander, immigrant, and refugee communities. This funding competition is open to scholars of any discipline. The PI must hold UCLA academic faculty or academic administrator appointments as of 7/1/2022 (individuals in the senate, lecturer, adjunct, other non-senate, and academic administrator series are all eligible). Visiting faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and individuals without UCLA appointments are not eligible to serve as the PI, although they may serve as co-PIs or team members. For more information visit: https://www3.research.ucla.edu/reo/internalfunding/lss
Deadline to apply: March 23, 2022
Call for Proposals: Chicana Lesbians: Re-Engaging the Iconic Text “The Girls Our Mothers Warned Us About,” a Special Issue of the Journal of Lesbian Studies
This special issue of the Journal of Lesbian Studies, guest-edited by Stacy I. Macias and Liliana C. González, celebrates the thirty-year anniversary of Chicana Lesbians: The Girls Our Mothers Warned Us About, edited by Carla Trujillo. Essays will consider the book’s relevance in light of the establishment of comparative ethnic studies, women of color feminist thought, and queer and trans politics as robust sites of inquiry and activism. Contributors are invited to consider the intertextual, transhistorical, and geographic border breaking conversations that the anthology catalyzed in relation to cultural politics, pleasure, bodies, being, and community. For additional details, see the full CFP. Deadline for abstracts: March 15, 2022. Deadline for full manuscripts: June 15, 2022
NEWS
L.A. City Council declares Juan Gómez-Quiñones Day
On January 27, the Los Angeles City Council passed a resolution declaring January 28, 2022, as Día del Profesor Juan Gómez-Quiñones in Los Angeles. Gómez-Quiñones, celebrated UCLA Chicana/o history scholar, educator, poet, and activist, and co-founder of the CSRC and Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, passed away on November 11, 2020. He was born on January 28, 1940. The resolution was drafted by Álvaro Huerta, associate professor in urban and regional planning and ethnic and women’s studies at Cal Poly Pomona and former CSRC visiting scholar. A recording of the resolution presentation by city councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León is available on YouTube.
López appointed graduate division associate dean
Marissa López, professor of English and Chicana/o and Central American studies and former acting director of the CSRC, has been appointed an associate dean in UCLA’s graduate division. In this role, López will provide leadership in advancing diversity in the university’s graduate and postdoctoral programs and will work closely with the division’s Diversity, Inclusion, and Admissions (DIA) unit on student outreach, pipeline programs, and admissions recruitment. López also serves on the CSRC’s Faculty Advisory Committee and is the chair of the CSRC’s Library Support Committee.
Osorio named special collections director
Jennifer Osorio, head of international and area studies and librarian for Latin America and Caribbean studies, Spanish/Portuguese, and ethnic studies for UCLA Library, has been appointed director of UCLA Library Special Collections. In this role, Osorio will oversee collections and collaborate with faculty, donors, and the community. She will create more equity and transparency in the department by guiding inclusive description, reducing access barriers, and developing a sustainable approach to collection building, management, and outreach. Osorio is a member of the CSRC Faculty Advisory Committee. A feature story on Osorio’s appointment was published in the UCLA Newsroom.
Ruiz chairs conference panel
Stevie Ruiz, associate professor of environmental justice, critical race theory, and Chicana/o studies at California State University, Northridge, and the Institute of American Cultures (IAC) visiting scholar at the CSRC for 2021–22, will chair the panel “The Politics of Farming in a Global Asia: Resituating Contemporary Agrarian Social Movements” at the Association for Asian Studies conference in Honolulu, March 24–27.
De Hinojosa publishes article
Alana de Hinojosa, doctoral candidate in the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies and a CSRC IUPLR/UIC-Mellon dissertation fellow in 2020-21, published the article "El Río Grande as Pedagogy: The Unruly, Unresolved Terrians of the Chamizal Land Dispute" in the December 2021 issue of American Quarterly. De Hinojosa received a CSRC Institute of American Cultures research grant in 2017-18 that supported this project.
Fernandez exhibition and catalog receive grant support
Christina Fernandez: Multiple Exposures, opening this fall at the California Museum of Photography at UC Riverside, has been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. For more information, see In the News, below. The exhibition is curated by Joanna Szupinska, senior curator at the California Museum of Photography at UC Riverside. Chon A. Noriega, former CSRC director, is serving as curatorial advisor. In addition, the exhibition catalog recently received support from Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo and Furthermore Grants in Publishing, a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund. The catalog, edited by CSRC assistant director Rebecca Epstein, will be published by CSRC Press.
¡Agustín Gurza, presente!
It is with profound sadness that we share the news of the passing of our dear friend and colleague Agustín Gurza. He died Saturday, January 8, after suffering a heart attack. Gurza was the CSRC’s resident expert on the Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American Recordings, and he wrote an award-winning book for CSRC Press and a regular blog about this remarkable archive. We will miss his knowledge, passion, and how he expressed in writing his sincere love for this music. Most of all we will miss Gurza himself—a kind, dedicated, and inspiring member of the CSRC family. Our heartfelt condolences go out to all his loved ones. The Los Angeles Times obituary is listed below, under In the News.
¡Esteban Torres, presente!
Esteban E. Torres, former US Congressman, labor organizer, activist, and artist, passed away on January 26 at the age of ninety-one. The CSRC holds the Esteban E. Torres Papers, and in 2020 it hosted an event in which Torres was honored with the UCLA Medal. Chon Noriega, former CSRC director, penned a tribute to Torres that has been posted on the CSRC website. An obituary that includes a photo from the Esteban E. Torres Papers is mentioned below, under In the News.
¡Carmen Herrera, presente!
On February 12, Carmen Herrera, Cuban American painter and sculptor, died at the age of 106. Her career took off in the early 2000s, when she was in her eighties. Her work was surveyed in a thirty-year retrospective at the Whitney Museum in 2016, and she was working on several major projects at the time of her death. In 2020, the CSRC Press published an oral history with Herrera, who was interviewed by Julia P. Herzberg, art historian and independent curator. A free, downloadable PDF is available on the CSRC website.
CSRC Winter 2022 events on replay
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“Willful Defiance: The Movement to Dismantle the School-to-Prison Pipeline—Book Talk and Presentations by Community Leaders” (February 16) (VIDEO)
The CSRC welcomed Mark R. Warren, professor of public policy and public affairs at University of Massachusetts, Boston, and author of Willful Defiance: The Movement to Dismantle the School-to-Prison Pipeline (Oxford University Press, 2021). Warren’s presentation was followed by reflections from community leaders who are working toward more just and inclusive schools. Panelists are Maisie Chin, executive director of CADRE; Geoffrey Winder, executive director of Genders and Sexualities Alliance Network; and Mauro Bautista, principal of Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez High School in Los Angeles. Eder Gaona-Macedo, CSRC senior officer of community-engaged research, introduced the event. Organized by the CSRC and cosponsored by UCLA Center X and USC Equity Research Institute.
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“Celebrating Bruin Filmmakers: A Conversation with Recent National Film Registry Inductees” (January 18, 2022) (VIDEO)
To celebrate the presence of UCLA Bruins on the 2021 list of National Film Registry inductees, May Hong HaDuong, director of the UCLA Film and Television Archive, and Chon Noriega, distinguished UCLA professor of film, television and digital media and former director of the CSRC, hosted a virtual conversation with filmmakers and UCLA alumni Moctesuma Esparza, Sylvia Morales, and Gregory Nava, as well as Renee Tajima-Peña, UCLA professor of Asian American studies. Cosponsored by the CSRC.
All CSRC events are free to the public. For the most current information, visit the Events page on the CSRC website.
LIBRARY
Flores provides library instruction
On March 1, CSRC librarian Xaviera Flores provided research instruction to 490 students enrolled in CCAS 10B, “Introductions to Chicana/Chicano Studies: Social Structures and Contemporary Conditions,” taught by Chris Zepeda-Millán, associate professor of public policy and Chicana/o and Central American studies. The class lectures that week focused on archival research and uncovering the power and politics of those whose stories get told.
El Nopal Press Records addition received
CSRC has received additional materials for the El Nopal Press Records. The contents of one box were donated by El Nopal founder and master printmaker Francesco X. Siqueiros. The materials are a complement to Siqueiros’s personal papers, which are also archived at the CSRC, and they include correspondence and business files related to the administration and activities of the press.
Exhibitions with CSRC loans
The following exhibitions currently on view include images and artworks from CSRC collections and publications.
- Online
Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Washington, DC
Google Arts and Culture
- In person
LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, Los Angeles, CA, through June 19, 2022
El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY, April 14–September 11, 2022
For more information about the library and its services, email librarian@chicano.ucla.edu. Researchers may visit our research guide at https://guides.library.ucla.edu/csrc/. UCLA students may also seek reference assistance on the UCLA Slack Channel using #csrc-library-reference-help.
PRESS
New release! The Artist as Eyewitness: Antonio Bernal Papers, 1884-2019
Antonio Bernal is often identified as a muralist—his 1968 mural in Del Rey, California, has been cited as the first Chicano mural—yet his career has been wide-ranging. He has been a union organizer and an iconoclastic educator; an actor and author; and an artist of paintings and collage as well as murals. All have been shaped by his unwavering political viewpoint and commitment to truth telling. The Artist as Eyewitness is the first survey of Bernal’s life and work. Edited by Charlene Villaseñor Black, the book contains essays that discuss his career, his two murals, and his novel, Breaking the Silence, and it features nearly eighty illustrations, including eight color plates. Research for the book was supported by the Antonio Bernal Papers, a special collection at the CSRC. The Artist as Eyewitness, volume 8 in the CSRC’s Chicano Archives series, may be ordered from University of Washington Press, the CSRC’s distributor for this series.
New on CSRC Post: “Josefa Serna’s Spiritual Collection”
In the latest contribution to the CSRC’s blog, CSRC Post, Nicole Ucedo, CSRC research and archive assistant, writes about her discoveries while processing the Josefa L. Serna Papers. The collection is part of the CSRC's NEH-funded project “Religion, Spirituality, and Faith in Mexican American Social History, 1940s–Present.” The collection reflects Serna’s connection to her religion and includes church documents, photographs, and devotional objects. Ucedo notes that “the objects in the Serna collection provide not only a deeply personal portrayal of one woman’s life but also insights into the lives of many Chicanxs living in Eastside neighborhoods in the 1930s through the turn of the century.”
CSRC IN THE NEWS
All “In the News” articles are available in PDF format on the CSRC website.
A story in Healthcare Innovation announced Robert "Bob" Otto Valdez, a health services researcher with previous experience at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has been named director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). From 1985 through 1999, Valdez was a professor of health services at the UCLA School of Public Health and during that period served as associate director of the CSRC.
Healthcare Innovation, February 23, 2022 (PDF)
An obituary for the Hon. Esteban E. Torres, former US Congressman representing California, included a photo from the CSRC. The CSRC holds the Esteban E. Torres Papers in its archive.
Pasadena Star News, January 26, 2022 (PDF)
An obituary for CSRC staff member Agustín Gurza, writer and editor of the blog for the Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American Recordings. Chon Noriega, former CSRC director, was quoted in the story.
Los Angeles Times, January 14, 2022 (PDF)
UC Riverside News reported UCR ARTS received a $50,000 Grants for Arts Projects award to support the forthcoming exhibition Christina Fernandez: Multiple Exposures at the California Museum of Photography at UC Riverside. Chon Noriega, former CSRC director, is serving as curatorial advisor for the exhibition. The exhibition catalog will be published by CSRC Press in fall 2022.
UC Riverside News, January 11, 2022 (PDF)
A feature in ARTnews included discussion of the traveling exhibition Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell, organized by the CSRC in partnership with the Vincent Price Art Museum, and numerous Latinx artists who have been featured in CSRC exhibitions and publications.
ARTnews, December 30, 2021 (PDF)
UCLA Newsroom summarized key achievements within the UCLA community during 2021, including the announcement that UCLA will build infrastructure to support achieving the designation of Hispanic Serving Institution by 2025. The story notes that the CSRC will play a key role in these efforts to support future Latinx Bruins. The roundup also included stories on the CSRC-led research project Critical Mission Studies, which focuses on the racial history of California’s missions during Spanish colonization and beyond, and Archiving the Age of Mass Incarceration, a collaborative project of UCLA’s four ethnic studies research centers.
UCLA Newsroom, December 16, 2021 (PDF)
To subscribe to the CSRC Newsletter, visit https://www.chicano.ucla.edu/subscribe
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.