CSRC Newsletter - February 2011

Volume 9, Number 6

Director's Message

The New Year brings many changes to the CSRC. Our library renovation will be completed later this month, and we will hold an open house in March. And we are in the process of redesigning our website, which we hope to launch in early summer. These changes update and expand our infrastructure, increasing access as well as allowing CSRC staff and scholars to continue and advance their important work. But there are other changes, too, which occasion both celebration and sadness. Luz Orozco, CSRC management services officer, retired on January 21 after twenty-two years of university service. Since September 2006 she had been responsible for CSRC finances, personnel, day-to-day operations, communications, and public programs. During that time, CSRC experienced exponential growth in external funding, programs, and collections. Luz played a critical role in helping meet the demands of such growth despite state budget cuts and limited staffing, and she helped establish new standards of excellence in center management. Luz once promised to leave the CSRC in much better shape than it was when she first arrived. She has done that and now undertakes a much-deserved jubilación. But she will be sorely missed as an invaluable member of the CSRC family.
 
Chon A. Noriega
Director and Professor
 

News

Father Boyle at CSRC
Eighty-five guests welcomed Father Gregory Boyle to the CSRC on Wednesday, January 26. Father Boyle discussed his new book, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion (Free Press, 2010) and signed copies. CSRC thanks the Bunche Center for African American Studies for providing the venue for this event.
 
Brito Exhibition
An exhibition of María Brito’s work, As of 24-03-07, opened at the Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum in Miami on January 26. Ms. Brito is a Cuban artist who works primarily in painting and sculpture, often combining them in installations and wall pieces. She is the subject of María Brito, by Juan Martínez, the fourth volume in the CSRC Press’s A Ver series. Her work will be on display through April 3.
 
Artist-in-Residence
Carmen Lomas Garza, who is featured in the fifth volume of the CSRC Press’s A Ver series, will be an artist-in-residence at the deYoung Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco in April. Ms. Lomas Garza is widely recognized for paintings and paper and metal cutouts that celebrate the everyday activities and traditions of her family and her South Texas Latino community. During her residency Ms. Lomas Garza will autograph copies of her books for children and Carmen Lomas Garza, by Constance Cortez.
 
Welcome, Cecilia Paola
Congratulations to Letisia Marquez, UCLA media relations representative, and her family on the birth of their daughter, Cecilia Paola. Cecilia, who is the couple’s third child, was born on January 24 and weighed 7 pounds, 8 ounces. We send them our best wishes!
 

CSRC in the News

An article by Maria Elena Ruiz, CSRC associate director and professor in the UCLA School of Nursing, appears in the winter issue of LA NAHN Connexion, the newsletter of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (LANAHN). “Health for All: L.A. and the U.S.-Mexico Border” touches on the health issues confronting those who live in this region.
 
CSRC research projects were mentioned in two recent articles. “Possible Rise in Anti-Hispanic Hate Crimes a Concern,” published in the Latin American Herald Tribune on January 10, notes the center’s ongoing research on hate speech in the media. The Frontera Collection Online Archive is discussed in “Arhoolie Records Founder Chris Strachwitz Celebrating 50 Years of Preserving American Roots Music,” which appeared on the Oakland Tribune website on January 30.
 
PDFs of all articles are available on the CSRC website.
 

Events

CAM Conference
Chon A. Noriega, CSRC director, will participate in “Powerful Practice in Challenging Times,” the California Association of Museums (CAM) conference on March 2–4 in Pasadena. Dr. Noriega will be part of the panel for “California Museums Facing the Future: Tactics for Engaging a Changing Demographic” on Thursday, March 3. He will discuss the implications of a changing demographic landscape with a burgeoning Latino majority and approaches for engaging an increasingly diverse population. For more information please visit the conference website.
 
Save the Date
“New Majorities, Shifting Priorities,” a conference presented by the UCLA Center for the Study of Women, will examine the challenges facing the fields of gender and sexuality studies, women's studies, LGBT studies, ethnic studies, and postcolonial studies. The CSRC is a co-host for the all-day event, which will be held in 314 Royce Hall on Saturday, March 4. More about the conference is available on the CSW website. RSVP by February 15..
 

CSRC Library and Archive

Renovation Update
Although the library will continue to be closed for renovation through most of February, the collections are accessible by appointment. For research assistance or to schedule an appointment, please contact Lizette Guerra, CSRC librarian, at lguerra@chicano.ucla.edu. The library is scheduled to reopen at the end of the month.
 
Collection News
The Dan Guerrero Research Collection: Dan Guerrero is an independent film, theater, and television producer and director who has produced live international arts and cultural events. The finding aid for this collection will be available by the end of April.
 
The Chon Noriega Video Collection: A finding aid for this important set of films and videos is currently in development. The extensive collection emphasizes the portrayal of Latinos and Mexican Americans in mass media. In addition to being the director of the CSRC, Dr. Noriega has been a professor in the UCLA Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media since 1992. He is the author of Shot in America: Television, the State, and the Rise of Chicano Cinema (Minnesota, 2000) and the editor of nine books dealing with Latino media, performance, and visual art.
 
The Chelsey Hague Garment Workers of Los Angeles Photograph Collection: This unique collection of about 250 images of garment workers in contemporary Los Angeles is being added to the UCLA Digital Library. It will be an invaluable resource for researchers investigating the current state of this vanishing form of labor in Southern California.
 

CSRC Press

“Last Chance” Sale
Books published by the CSRC Press have a new distributor: University of Washington Press, which will handle marketing and fulfillment for all books other than those in the A Ver series. Before we box up our stock and ship it north, the Press is offering a 40 percent discount on these books — including our latest publication, The Latino Theatre Initiative/Center Theatre Group Papers — but only for two weeks. The sale ends February 14. The A Ver series will continue to be distributed by the University of Minnesota Press, and CSRC will continue to process subscriptions to Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies and orders for DVDs in the Chicano Cinema and Media Art Series.
 

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