CSRC Newsletter - December 2018

Volume 17, Number 3

Director’s Message

On November 3, our beloved colleague Leobardo Felipe Estrada passed away, surrounded by family and close friends. The Los Angeles Times published an obituary and an op-ed in tribute. Leo retired from UCLA this past spring after forty-one years on the faculty. In 1977 Leo was one of the first faculty members appointed at UCLA through a new chancellorial initiative that allocated “Institutional FTE” (faculty positions) to the university’s four ethnic studies research centers. This initiative continues to exceed all expectations, engendering faculty appointees who have excelled at research, teaching, mentoring, and service. And Leo was without a doubt its poster child. When someone passes away we acknowledge their ongoing presence by saying their name and then calling out on their behalf, “¡Presente!” In so doing, we not only carry them within us, we stand in their place, testifying that as long as we live, they live too. Rather than remember Leo in the past tense, below I share the remarks I made at his retirement party last June. He was there, and he is still here.

Leo is a data-driven scholar who puts research to practical use for the common good, from redrawing electoral maps for L.A. County to serving on the independent commission investigating the L.A.P.D. We all know that Leo is an exemplar of academic service, culminating in his role as chair of the Academic Senate for 2015-16. Statistically, you’ve either been on a committee with Leo or you’ve been evaluated by a committee chaired by Leo. I’ve had both experiences!

So, I’d like to offer a personal reflection. When I arrived at UCLA in 1992, I joined a department in which the other faculty had been there since the 1970s. And it would be almost twenty years before my department hired another junior faculty member. For my colleagues at that time, the only thing stranger than a new junior professor in their midst was trying to explain how the academic personnel process worked: merits, fourth-year review, tenure. Fortunately for me, Leo was one of the first people I met outside my department. Even more fortunately, his migratory path from office to car took him right past my school. I would often “run into him,” and we would chat. Inevitably I would voice some ignorance or anxiety about how the sausage got made at UCLA. Leo was always generous with his time, balanced in describing how academia worked, and very informed not only about policy but also about things really happened when people sat in a room deciding your fate. What moved me most was that he helped explain a process about which I knew very little (my parents were high-school graduates) and that he modeled for me how to think calmly through some of the challenges in store as I advanced in my career at UCLA. There is much to be said for not scaring the you-know-what out of a junior faculty member!

Leo has been a tireless mentor for countless students and junior faculty. I am grateful to have been one of them. And I pay tribute to him by doing my best to mentor in the generous and thoughtful way that he has done.  I know that I am by no means alone in doing so. Leo, thank you!

To see an online memorial to Estrada from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, click here: https://luskin.ucla.edu/leo-estrada-a-giant-on-many-fronts/

Director and Professor

News

CSRC in the News

Daily Bruin, November 30, 2018 (PDF)

Los Angeles Times, November 23, 2018 (PDF)

Los Angeles Times, November 22, 2018 (PDF)

Artbound, November 19, 2018 (PDF)

Los Angeles Times, November 8, 2018 (PDF)

UCLA Newsroom, November 6, 2018 (PDF)

All “In the News” articles are available in PDF format on the CSRC website.

Events

Join us in the CSRC Library to celebrate the donation of an oral history collection assembled by Mario T. García, professor in the UCSB Department of Chican@ Studies. The collection contains García’s interviews conducted with Chicano activist Rosalío Muñoz, who will be present to discuss how his life and politics are reflected in the recordings. Muñoz was the first Mexican American to be elected student body president at UCLA and served as co-chair of the Chicano Moratorium Committee. García will discuss how Muñoz’s oral history contributed to his 2015 book, The Chicano Generation: Testimonios of the Movement (UC Press). Carlos M. Haro, CSRC assistant director emeritus, will introduce the event. Books will be available for purchase, and a reception will follow the discussion.

The UCLA Center for the Study of International Migration (CSIM) presents an author-meets-critics session with Mario T. García that will focus on his newly released book, Father Luis Olivares, a Biography: Faith Politics and the Origins of the Sanctuary Movement in Los Angeles (UNC Press, 2018). García is professor of Chicano studies at UCSB. The critics will be Robert Chao Romero, associate professor of Chicana/o studies at UCLA, and Norma Chinchilla, professor of sociology at CSU Long Beach. This event is co-sponsored by the UCLA César E. Chávez Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies and the CSRC.

In 2019, the UCLA Institute of American Cultures (IAC) and its four ethnic studies centers—American Indian Studies Center, Asian American Studies Center, Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, and the CSRC—will celebrate five decades of producing ground-breaking research about the changing social and cultural realities in America. The yearlong celebration will open with a film festival on Friday, February 1, featuring features, documentaries, and shorts made by UCLA alumni. These thought-provoking and entertaining films tackle cultural and social-justice issues. Q&A sessions with the films’ writers, directors, and producers will follow. In addition to the screenings, attendees are invited to enjoy ethnic food, entertainment, and a chance to mingle with filmmakers. Free to the public. For the program schedule and to RSVP, see the listing on Eventbrite.

All CSRC events are free and do not require an RSVP unless otherwise noted. Programs are subject to change. For the most current information, visit the Events page on the CSRC website.

CSRC Library

On November 9, over one hundred fifth-grade students from Crown Preparatory Academy in mid-city Los Angeles visited the CSRC Library. CSRC librarian Xaviera Flores provided them with an overview of how the library serves students and researchers of all ages. Thank you to the Afrikan Student Union at UCLA, which organized the visit.

The Chicago chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America has donated a poster heralding an International Worker’s Day march in East Los Angeles on May 3, 1975, from Atlantic Avenue Park to Salazar Park. The item will be added to the CSRC Poster Collection, which chronicles the history of Chicano theater, artist collectives, and social activism.

Laura Isabel Serna, associate professor of cinema and media studies at USC, recently visited the CSRC with her father to review and help process the Josefa Serna Papers, a collection of photographs and papers that belonged to Serna’s grandmother. In the process of identifying the images, Serna and her father discovered materials belonging to a close family friend. The CSRC will work with the Sernas to establish a second collection comprising these items.

Nikki Darling, a writer, artist, and performer, visited the CSRC last month to examine her own Nikki Darling Papers. Darling recently published her first novel, Fade Into You (Feminist Press, 2018). The CSRC will host Darling for a book talk and exhibition of her papers in early 2019.

Family, Community, Country: The Nell and Phil Soto Story celebrates the lives and careers of Nell and Phil Soto. Both were pioneering Latino politicians who served in the California legislature and their local city councils and school districts. The Sotos promoted public health policies, green spaces and parks for children, protecting the environment and air quality, equal housing, and head-start education. Nell (1926–2009) and Phil (1926–1997) were also parents, raising six children, and active church members. The exhibition draws from the recently donated Nell and Phil Soto Papers and will be on view in the library and vitrine through the fall quarter. The exhibition is free to the public and viewable during library hours, Monday–Friday, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

Sonidos de la Frontera: Music across Borders and Time, currently on view at the UCLA Music Library, highlights the Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American Recordings, the world’s largest repository of commercially produced Mexican and Mexican American musical recordings. The exhibition provides a gateway to the collection by using a fraction of the music in combination with material from more than a dozen of the CSRC’s archival collections to present significant moments in Mexican and Mexican American music history. Curated chiefly by CSRC archives specialist Doug Johnson, in collaboration with CSRC librarian Xaviera Flores and music inquiry and research librarian Matthew Vest, the exhibition includes photographs, posters, clippings, pamphlets, flyers, songbooks, and audio recordings in a variety of formats. CSRC collections represented in the exhibition include the Humberto Cané Papers, the Pedro J. Gonzalez Papers, and the Anthony Beltramo Collection. The exhibition, which is a collaboration between the Music and CSRC Libraries, will be on view outside the Music Library Reading Room at the Schoenberg Music Building for approximately one year. The Music Library is open seven days a week during regular session. For hours, click here. An online version of Sonidos de la Frontera: Music across Borders and Time, featuring images of artifacts and links to recordings, is now available as a UCLA Library Research Guide. The recordings in the Frontera Collection are available to the public through the University of California’s Digital Library Program.

• Pop América, 1965–1975, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas, through January 13, 2019.
• Laid Bare in the Landscape, Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada, through January 27, 2019.
• Testament of the Spirit: Paintings by Eduardo Carrillo, Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, California, through January 27, 2019.
• INK: Stories on Skin, Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, California, through February 3, 2019.
• ROYBAL: A Multi-Racial Catalyst for Democracy, Boyle Heights Museum, Los Angeles, California, through February 9, 2019.
• La Raza, Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles, California, through February 10, 2019.
• Regeneración: Three Generations of Revolutionary Ideology, Vincent Price Art Museum, Monterey Park, California, through February 16, 2019.
• Judithe Hernández: A Dream Is the Shadow of Something Real, Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, California, through February 19, 2019.
• ¡Ya Basta! The East L.A. Walkouts and the Power of Protest, LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, Los Angeles, California, through February 25, 2019.

CSRC Press

Give the gift of books! CSRC Press books are now 50 percent off (tax and shipping additional) through December 20. This offer includes the award-winning exhibition catalogs Home—So Different, So Appealing, Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell, and L.A. Xicano, as well as Judith F. Baca and all titles in the award-winning A Ver: Revisioning Art History series! Stop by 183 Haines Hall, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m.–5:00 p.m., or contact Darling Sianez at support@chicano.ucla.edu or 310-825-3428 to make your purchases. Browse all CSRC Press titles on our website. Please note: Subscriptions to Aztlán are not included in the sale.

OPPORTUNITIES

The UCLA Institute of American Cultures offers in-residence appointments to support research on African Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans, and Chicana/os. We especially encourage applications that advance our understanding of new social and cultural realities occasioned by the dramatic population shifts of recent decades, including greater heterogeneity within ethnic groups and increased interethnic contact.

The 2019-20 IAC Visiting Research Scholar will receive funding for one or more quarters and may receive up to $35,000 for three quarters (contingent upon rank, experience, and date of completion of their terminal degree). In the event that an award is for less than three quarters or a nine-month appointment, the funds will be prorated in accordance with the actual length of the award. The Visiting Research Scholar must have a home institution. Visiting Research Scholar funds will be paid through the successful candidate’s home institution, and she/he will be expected to continue her/his health insurance through that source. Award funding can be used to supplement sabbatical support for a total that does not exceed the candidate’s current institutional salary. Awardees may receive up to $4,000 in research support. The Bunche Center for African American Studies will not have a Visiting Research Scholar in 2019-20.

Eligibility: Applicants must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States and hold a Ph.D. from an accredited college or university (or, in the case of the arts, an appropriate terminal degree) in a relevant field at the time of appointment. UCLA faculty, staff, and currently enrolled students are not eligible to apply.

Deadline: Completed applications must be received by 11:59 p.m. on January 10, 2019. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed. Applicants will be notified in March. In the Upload Documents section of the application, please upload a blank document instead of a Course Description as this requirement is being waived.

Application: The application is available online at: https://sa.ucla.edu/IAC/VisitingScholar 

Click here for a preview of the application pages. 

For further information, please contact the coordinator of the appropriate UCLA Ethnic Studies Research Center.

The Inter-University Program for Latino Research (IUPLR) Mellon Fellowship supports doctoral students in the humanities who are writing dissertations in Latina/o studies. Doctoral students in the social sciences whose research uses humanities methods may also be considered. The fellowship facilitates completion of the dissertation and provides professional development, writing support, and mentoring from faculty members in Latino studies. The fellowship includes a $25,000 stipend, participation in an intensive summer institute in Chicago, and professionalization and writing workshops and programs.

Eligibility: Applicants are required to meet with the director of their center before they apply to assess eligibility and obtain a letter of recognition to submit with their application. Applicants must have advanced to candidacy (ABD status with defended proposal) and be completing a Latino studies dissertation in the humanities or in a humanities-adjacent discipline. Applicants should already have a significant portion of the dissertation drafted and anticipate defending their dissertation by the end of the fellowship year. Finally, applicants should be planning to pursue an academic career in teaching and/or research. 

During the fellowship year, students must be enrolled at their home institution. Fellows will be expected to forego other employment during the year. Selected fellows are required to attend the one-week IUPLR/Mellon Summer Institute in late summer 2019 in Chicago, attend and present at IUPLR conferences (in select years), and take part in a very structured writing program.

IUPLR will select fellows through six designated research centers:

• The Center for Mexican American Studies and the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at the University of Texas at Austin
• The Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Houston
• The Chicano Studies Research Center at UCLA*
• The Dominican Studies Institute at CUNY
• The Center for Puerto Rican Studies at CUNY
• The Latin American and Latino Studies Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago

Deadline: Submit the following materials by January 30, 2019 to the online portal: https://mfp.lals.uic.edu

• CV
• Cover letter that describes your dissertation, timeline to completion, and your professional goals
• Completed chapters compiled in a single PDF. Include as a cover page a one-page outline with chapter titles, brief chapter summaries, and the percentage of each chapter completed. If you do not have any writing completed, you may submit only the outline
• Two recommendation letters (one from the applicant’s dissertation chair and one from a Latina/o studies faculty member) sent to jlboles@uic.edu
• Letter of recognition from the Director of the IUPLR center or Fellowship Coordinator at the applicant’s home institution, to be sent to jlboles@uic.edu

*UCLA students: Please contact Rebecca Epstein, CSRC assistant director, at repstein@chicano.ucla.edu or (310) 206-9185.