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CSRC Newsletter - March 2018

Volume 16, Number 7

Director’s Message

This month, the CSRC is proud to present a major two-day event on the fiftieth anniversary of the East L.A. walkouts (see Events, below). The walkouts are a defining feature of the Chicano civil rights movement, and they speak to the ongoing struggle for educational access and equity regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, or nationality. We must appreciate the historical contributions of the students in 1968 that protested for equity in the face of intransigent public schools, law enforcement, and government. There are vital lessons to be learned from their example. As a society we can and must do better, not only as a matter of social justice but also because our future depends on the education and opportunities that we provide our youth. In California these youths are predominantly Latina/o: 51.4 percent statewide, 61.6 percent in Los Angeles County, and 72.3 percent among students in the Los Angeles Unified School District. It’s a cliché to say that today’s youth are tomorrow’s leaders. But that misses the point. As the walkouts made clear in 1968, and as we are seeing today in response to mass shootings at public schools, students can bring about needed change when adults have failed to do their job.

Chon A. Noriega
Director and Professor
 

News

CSRC at CAA
The College Art Association’s annual conference took place February 21–24 at the L.A. Convention Center and included significant participation by CSRC-affiliated scholars and curators. CSRC associate director Charlene Villaseñor Black co-chaired two panels with Elisa Mandell, associate professor of art at Cal State Fullerton, dedicated to the impact and “afterlife” of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA. Among the panelists were CSRC director Chon A. Noriega, who presented the paper “From Maps to Home: On the Research Center as Museum”; Vincent Price Art Museum director and Home co-curator Pilar Tompkins Rivas, who presented “Assessing the Impact of PST: LA/LA on Institutional Culture in Southern California Museums”; curator and former CSRC visiting scholar Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, who presented “Beyond Racism: Latin American and Latinx Art in Exhibition”; and longtime CSRC friend Armando Durón, who presented “Parallax Views: Analyzing PST: LA/LA without Pom Poms.” Black was also a discussant for the panel “Visualizing Genocide: Retelling Native American Survival through Art” and was the lead presenter for the roundtable discussion “Teaching and Writing the Art Histories of Latin American Los Angeles,” which was organized by the Art Historians of Southern California (AHSC), an affiliate of CAA. Her talk was titled “Decolonizing Art History: Institutional Challenges and the Histories of Latinx and Latin American Art.” Karen Mary Davalos, CSRC Press author and professor of Chicano and Latino studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, presented the paper “Chicana/o Remix: Rethinking Art Histories and Endgames” during the roundtable.
 

Also at CAA, artist and UCLA professor Judy Baca was honored with a 2018 CAA Distinguished Artist Award. Anna Indych-López, professor of art history at CUNY Graduate Center, interviewed Baca for the Distinguished Artist Interview series. Indych-López is the author of the newly released Judith F. Baca, volume 11 in the A Ver: Revisioning Art History series published by CSRC Press

Black named editor of new journal

Charlene Villaseñor Black has been named the founding editor in chief of Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture, a new quarterly peer-reviewed journal to be published by University of California Press. The journal will focus on Latin American and Latinx visual culture from all time periods (ancient, colonial, modern, and contemporary) from Mexico, Central America, South America, the Caribbean, and the United States, as well as communities in diaspora. LALVC will consider all aspects of visual expression, including art history, material culture, architecture, film and media, architecture, museum studies, pop culture, fashion, public art, and activism. The first issue is scheduled for publication in January 2019. Submissions are being accepted at lalvcsubmissions@ucpress.edu. Author guidelines can be found here. Other inquiries should be directed to the editorial staff at LALVCeditor@ucpress.edu. Black is also editor of the CSRC’s Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies.

2018-19 IUPLR-Mellon dissertation fellows announced

Chicana/o studies graduate student Rafael R. Solórzano and sociology graduate student Rocío R. García have been named the UCLA recipients of 2018-19 dissertation-completion fellowships offered by the Inter-University Program for Latino Research (IUPLR) and the Mellon Foundation. Solórzano and García will be part of a national cohort of outstanding doctoral students from five universities. Fellowships include a stipend, mentorship, and participation in the IUPLR conference and summer institute. The CSRC is a founding member of the IUPLR and contributed to establishing this fellowship program for students who are writing dissertations focused on Chicana/o or Latina/o studies and utilizing humanities-based research methods. The program has been renewed for a second five-year period.

Hernández to publish essay

Bernadine Hernández, assistant professor of English at the University of New Mexico and this year’s CSRC IAC visiting scholar, will publish her essay “Dying to Be Beautiful: (Re) Membering the Women of Juárez, the Commodification of Death, and the Non-Universal Standards of Beauty” in WSQ (Women’s Studies Quarterly), in a themed issue dedicated to interdisciplinary explorations of beauty. The issue will be published May 8.

PMCA holds crowdfunding campaign for Chicano History mural

The Pasadena Museum of California Art (PMCA) is raising funds to display the mural Chicano History as part of its current exhibition Testament of the Spirit: Paintings by Eduardo Carrillo. Chicano History was created in 1970 by artists Eduardo Carrillo, Ramses Noriega, Sergio Hernandez, and Sol Solache and installed at the CSRC shortly after the center’s founding in 1969. The museum is holding a crowdsourcing campaign to cover the costs of transporting, installing, and insuring the mural. To donate, click here. The exhibition closes June 3.

New documentary on Oscar Acosta features CSRC collection images

The Rise and Fall of the Brown Buffalo, a new documentary by writer, director, and producer Phillip Rodriguez, tells the story of Oscar Zeta Acosta, the Chicano lawyer, author, and activist. Acosta inspired the character of Dr. Gonzo in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, written by Acosta’s friend Hunter S. Thompson. Rodriguez drew extensively from images in the CSRC’s La Raza Photograph Collection for the film, which premieres Friday, March 23, on PBS. Two free community screenings will be offered in advance of the televised premiere: March 9, 6:30 p.m., LA Plaza De Culturas y Artes, 501 N. Main Street (click here to register); and March 14, 6:30 p.m., West Hollywood Library, 625 N. San Vicente Boulevard (click here to register). Both screenings will include special guests and discussion.

Rohrer publishes book

Seraina Rohrer, director of the Solothurn Film Festival and former CSRC visiting scholar, has published the book La India María: Mexploitation and the Films of María Elena Velasco (University of Texas Press, 2017). While in residence at the CSRC, Rohrer conducted significant research on comedienne Velasco and her films.

Gómez publishes second edition of Manifest Destinies

Laura E. Gómez, professor of law, sociology and Chicana/o studies at UCLA and former CSRC Faculty Advisory Committee member, has published the second edition of her groundbreaking book Manifest Destinies: The Making of the Mexican American Race (NYU Press, 2018). In celebration, the School of Law will host Gómez for a book talk, signing, and reception on March 6 at 6:30 p.m. in room 1314. Gómez will be introduced by Devon Carbado, associate vice chancellor of BruinX for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and the Honorable Harry Pregerson Professor of Law. Books (normally $26) will be on sale at a discounted rate: $10 for current students with ID, and $20 for all others. To RSVP, click here.

Umemoto named AASC director

The CSRC welcomes back to UCLA Karen Umemoto, newly appointed and inaugural holder of the Helen and Morgan Chu Endowed Director’s Chair of the Asian American Studies Center. A Bruin, Umemoto received a master’s degree in Asian American studies from UCLA and a doctorate in urban studies from MIT. Since 1996 she has served on the faculty of the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. We welcome her to the Institute of American Cultures, home of UCLA’s four ethnic studies research centers.

CSRC in the News

“On Pacifics, Standards, and the Times”
The exhibition La Raza, now on view at the Autry Museum of the American West and organized in collaboration with the CSRC, was featured in an editorial discussing the strengths of the Pacific Standard Time: LA/ LA initiative. 

Los Angeles Review of Books, February 23, 2018 (PDF)

“Datebook: The Minimalism of Tony Delap, Ceramics by Dora De Larios and the Internet According to Petra Cortright”
La Raza, on view at the Autry Museum of the American West and organized in collaboration with the CSRC, was featured in a roundup of exhibitions in Los Angeles. 
Los Angeles Times, February 23, 2018 (PDF)
 
“Datebook: Plays on Gender and Sport, a Pioneering Romanian Conceptualist, New Abstraction”
La Raza was featured in a roundup of exhibitions currently on view across Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Times, February 16, 2018 (PDF)
 
“Q&A with Xaviera Flores and Doug Johnson, Co-Creators of the ’Las Causas’ Zine Exhibit”
In an interview for the UCLA Library Powell Blog, CSRC librarian Xaviera Flores and CSRC archives specialist Doug Johnson discuss the exhibition they organized, Las Causas: Zines from the Chicano Studies Research Center Archive, which is on view in the Powell Library Rotunda through March 24. 

UCLA Library Powell Blog, February 13, 2018 (PDF)

“Here’s the ’Made in L.A. 2018’ Artist List”
Artists Carmen Argote and Daniel Joseph Martinez, whose work was featured in the CSRC-organized exhibition Home—So Different, So Appealing, will be among the Los Angeles-based artists whose work will appear in the 2018 edition of the Made in L.A. biennial at the Hammer Museum. Martinez was also featured in the CSRC’s installation program at the 2018 LA Art Show.

ARTnews, February 13, 2018 (PDF)

“Artists, Curators Respond to Christoph Büchel’s Border Wall Project”
CSRC director Chon A. Noriega was quoted in a response to an open letter signed by a number of art professionals calling for a boycott of Swiss artist Christoph Büchel’s proposal to preserve border wall prototypes built in Southern California. 
ARTnews, February 07, 2018 (PDF)
 
“2018 Gravlee Lecture explores ‘Destructivism and Hollywood’s First Archive’”
The Department of Communication Studies at Colorado State University announced that CSRC director Chon A. Noriega would be this year’s Gravlee Lecturer.

CSU Communications Studies blog, January 18, 2018 (PDF)

“History Revisited: The East L.A. Walkouts of 1968”
The exhibition La Raza at the Autry Museum, organized in collaboration with the CSRC, was discussed in an article commemorating the East Los Angeles student walkouts of 1968.
California State University Los Angeles Magazine, January 17, 2018 (PDF)
 

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

Events

"Seeking Educational Justice: The 1968 Chicana/o Student Walkouts Made History”
Saturday, March 10, 9:00 a.m.–7:00 p.m. (conference and exhibition tour)
Sunday, March 11, Noon–4:30 p.m. (film screenings)
Fowler Museum at UCLA, Lenart Auditorium

To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Eastside walkouts, the CSRC will hold a two-day event with panels, lectures, film screenings, and an exhibition. On Saturday, March 10, a speakers’ program will feature walkout participants and scholars; it will conclude with a tour of an exhibition at the CSRC Library of related materials from archival collections. On Sunday, March 11, the 1995 PBS documentary episode “Taking Back the Schools” and the 2005 HBO film Walkout! will be screened. Producers Susan Racho and Moctesuma Esparza, respectively, will introduce their films. A Q&A will follow the screenings. This event is organized by the CSRC and co-sponsored by the Fowler Museum at UCLA, the Institute of American Cultures, the Division of Social Sciences, the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, the Latino Politics and Policy Initiative at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, and the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies. These events are free but registration is required. To register, please go to the EventBrite pages for both the Saturday and Sunday events. Walk-ins will be accommodated twenty minutes after each day’s program begins, seats permitting.

Evangeline, the Queen of Make-Believe
Thursday, March 29–Sunday, April 8
Plaza de La Raza, 3540 North Mission Road, Los Angeles, CA 90031
To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the 1968 Eastside student walkouts, About . . . Productions presents the Evangeline Initiative, a series of youth-oriented programs that include a restaging of the critically acclaimed production Evangeline, the Queen of Make-Believe. It will be the first Eastside staging of this musical about an Eastside high school graduate who is a devoted daughter by day and a West Hollywood go-go dancer by night. The show will run March 29 through April 8 at Plaza de la Raza in Lincoln Heights.   Evangeline incorporates a Grammy Award–winning songbook by Louie Pérez and David Hidalgo of Los Lobos. Gaby Moreno, a Guatemalan-born L.A.-based singer-songwriter, will perform in the title role. For tickets, click here. On March 31, a free intergenerational panel and community forum, “The Legacy of the 1968 Student Walkouts: How Far Have We Come?,” will be held at 4:00 p.m. (between afternoon and evening performances). The Evangeline Initiative is co-sponsored by the CSRC.
 
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

New library exhibition: The 1968 Walkouts: Selections from UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Collections

This exhibition of photographs, newspapers, and ephemera pertaining to the historic Eastside student walkouts of 1968 draws from six CSRC archival collections: Sal Castro Papers, La Raza Newspaper and Magazine Records, La Raza Photograph Collection, Chicano Newspaper Collection, Oscar Castillo Papers, and Oscar Castillo Photograph Collection. The exhibition is divided into four thematic components: photographs by Devra Weber of the walkouts at Roosevelt High School; the East Los Angeles 13; the sit-in at the LAUSD boardroom; and the struggle to reinstate Sal Castro as an LAUSD educator. The exhibition, which opens Saturday, March 10, as part of the CSRC’s weekend-long program commemorating the walkouts (see Events, above), will be installed in the CSRC library, vitrines, conference room, and hallways. It will remain on view through June 15. The exhibition is curated by Carlos Manuel Haro and Bryant Partida, with assistance from Johnny Ramirez and support from the Tamar Diana Wilson Fund.

Zines exhibition in final month

The exhibition Las Causas: Zines from the Chicano Studies Research Center Archive is on view in the Powell Library Rotunda through March 24. The exhibition was curated by CSRC archives specialist Doug Johnson and showcases small handcrafted booklets created in 2005 and 2016 by undergraduates in Chicana/o Studies 10A and 10B, “Introduction to Chicana/o Studies.” The booklets reflect students’ creative engagement with various aspects of Chicana/o culture. The exhibition also includes zines created and collected by Tatiana de la Tierra, a Colombia-born activist and writer whose collection of papers is housed at the CSRC. Las Causas is on view during Powell Library hours. To read an interview with Johnson and CSRC librarian Xaviera Flores about the exhibition, see In the News, above.

Esteban Torres Papers processed

Processing of the Esteban Torres Papers has been completed. Torres represented southeastern Los Angeles County in the U.S. House of Representatives for eight terms, from 1983 to 1999. Before that he worked in the Carter administration, first as the U.S. ambassador to UNESCO and then as the special assistant to the president for Hispanic affairs. Materials in the collection evidence the prodigious research Torres undertook, especially in regard to legislation concerning the environment, labor issues, consumer protection, and defense. The collection also contains administrative files, correspondence with constituents and colleagues, photographs, and campaign materials. His work as an activist and labor organizer prior to his congressional service is also represented. The finding aid for the Esteban Torres Papers will be available soon on the Online Archive of California, after which the collection will be available for research.

Flores leads tour of La Raza exhibition

On February 15, CSRC librarian Xaviera Flores led a tour of the La Raza exhibition at the Autry Museum of the American West for the Los Angeles Archivists Collective. Flores discussed the behind-the-scenes work of the CSRC La Raza Digitization Project team, which prepared images for the curators and for display. She also discussed the essential role archivists play in museum exhibitions and digital preservation.

To schedule a tour of the CSRC Library, contact CSRC librarian Xaviera Flores at xflores@chicano.ucla.edu or fill out the form on the CSRC Library Services page.
 

CSRC Press

New issue of Aztlán
The spring 2018 issue of Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies will reach subscribers later this month. Essays in this issue explore how Emiliano Zapata has been depicted in Chicana/o murals throughout California; how the Latina visual and vocal body is racialized in the hit television program Modern Family; how the language of Carlos Morton’s plays reveals his rediscovery of his mestizo roots; and how inequality is embodied in Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez’s The Dirty Girls Social Club and Helena María Viramontes’s Their Dogs Came with Them. The editor’s commentary, the dossier, and the artist’s communiqué focus on art and exhibitions in the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative. The commentary recounts a final performance-tour of Home—So Different, So Appealing led by artist Carmelita Tropicana and filmmaker Ela Troyano. The dossier, curated by Colin Gunckel, explores four PST: LA/LA exhibitions. Three of them (Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell, La Raza, and Home—So Different, So Appealing) were produced by or in collaboration with the CSRC. Christina Fernandez’s installation María’s Great Expedition, which was part of the Home exhibition, is reproduced in the communiqué, and Fernandez’s work is also featured on the cover. Subscribe today!
 

Opportunities

Smithsonian Latino Museum Studies Program

The Latino Museum Studies Program (LMSP) provides a national forum for graduate students to share, explore, and discuss the representation and interpretation of Latino cultures in the context of the American experience. It provides a unique opportunity to meet and engage with Smithsonian professionals, scholars from renowned universities, and leaders in the museum field. The 2018 program will run July 9 through August 17. Participation is free and includes lodging, round-trip travel to Washington, D.C., and a modest stipend. For more information and to apply, visit http://latino.si.edu/Education/LMSP. Deadline to apply: March 16.