CSRC Newsletter - May 2016

The Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC) is deeply committed to research that makes a difference. This month some of that hard work has received important recognition. Kudos to CSRC’s Charlene Villaseñor Black and Vilma Ortiz for receiving top honors for their unrelenting commitment to undergraduate education, campus diversity, and public service. Several CSRC friends who have advanced our archival program in significant ways have been recognized for their contributions to documentary film (Virginia Espino), the arts and sciences (Monica Lozano), and the visual arts (Gronk and Ramiro Gomez). See the stories below for more detail. Please join me in congratulating these recipients and in helping CSRC advance its mission as we move toward our fiftieth anniversary in 2019-20.

 

Chon A. Noriega

Director and Professor

 

 

Ortiz receives Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award

The CSRC congratulates Vilma Ortiz, professor of sociology and chair of the CSRC Faculty Advisory Committee, on her receipt of a 2015-16 UCLA Faculty Student Development Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Award presented by the Academic Senate’s Committee on Diversity and Equal Opportunity (CODEO). As stated in the official announcement, “Her never-ending commitment to Latina/o sociology, students and faculty of color, and scholarship on Latina/os has been integral in transforming the UCLA community.” Ortiz currently teaches the only Latina/o undergraduate class in sociology and is a co-instructor in the Freshman Undergraduate Interracial Dynamic Cluster courses.

 

Villaseñor Black receives Gold Shield prize

The CSRC congratulates art history professor, CSRC associate director, and Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies editor Charlene Villaseñor Black on her receipt of the 2015-16 UCLA Gold Shield Faculty Prize. The award recognizes “a mid-career faculty who has demonstrated extraordinary accomplishment in undergraduate teaching, research, and public service within the university.” The honor includes an unrestricted cash prize of $30,000 to go toward research. The winner alternates each year between North Campus and South Campus.

 

No Más Bebés receives Barnouw Award

The CSRC is pleased to share the news that No Más Bebés (Renee Tajima-Peña and Virginia Espino, producers; Renee Tajima-Peña, director), has received the 2016 Organization of American Historians Erik Barnouw Award for outstanding television programming or documentary film concerned with American history. No Más Bebés tells the story of Madrigal v. Quilligan, a lawsuit brought against the Los Angeles County–USC Medical Center in 1975 for nonconsensual sterilization of delivery patients who were primarily Latina. As part of her original research, Espino consulted the Carlos Vélez-Ibáñez Sterilization Papers at the CSRC. In addition, some interviews for the film were conducted in the CSRC Library. A research grant from the CSRC supported various aspects of the project.

 

Lozano elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has announced the election of 213 new members, including scholars, scientists, writers, and artists. Monica Lozano, chair of the board of U.S. Hispanic Media and publisher and CEO of La Opinión, was among those elected in public affairs, business, and administration. Lozano recently donated to the CSRC the La Opinión files, which include over one hundred boxes of photographs dating back to the 1980s. More information about the AAAS, including the names of all newly elected members, can be found here.

 

New Book on Artist Ramiro Gomez Cites CSRC

In Domestic Scenes: The Art of Ramiro Gomez (Abrams, 2016), a new monograph on the celebrated Los Angeles artist, author Lawrence Weschler discusses Gomez’s solo show at the CSRC Library in 2013 as the artist’s “breakthrough” exhibition. A video of Gomez speaking at the exhibition’s opening reception can be viewed on CSRC YouTube. An event featuring Weschler in conversation with Gomez will take place at the UCLA Hammer Museum on Thursday, May 5, at 7:30 p.m. More information can be found here.

 

Gronk’s work for theater on display

Selected materials from the Gronk Papers at the CSRC will be displayed in Gronk’s Theater of Paint, on view May 29 through September 4 at the Craft and Folk Art Museum. The exhibition will explore the artist’s extensive work in set design over the past forty years, from his work with Asco to recent opera productions. Featuring an interactive theater set, Gronk’s Theater of Paint will show how the artist combines his love of improvisation and low-budget B-movie aesthetics with operatic gestures and forms.

 

Gronk at MOCA

Gronk, a monograph on the artist written by Max Benavidez and published by the CSRC Press, is available for purchase at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA and for browsing in the museum’s reading room during the run of the exhibition Don’t Look Back: The 1990s at MOCA. The book is the first volume in the CSRC’s A Ver: Revisioning Art History series. Artwork by Gronk, a founding member of the art group Asco, is featured in the show. Don’t Look Back closes on July 11.

 

CSRC at Latino Art Now!

The fifth biennial Latino Art Now! conference, held in Chicago  April 7–9, included several panels with presenters affiliated with the CSRC. Art history professor and CSRC associate director Charlene Villaseñor Black led a panel   showcasing new approaches to Chicana/o art being developed at UCLA, and included presentations by Rose Simons, Kaelyn Rodriguez, and Carissa Garcia, all graduate students in Chicana/o studies. Robb Hernández, assistant professor at UC Riverside and this year’s CSRC Institute of American Cultures visiting researcher, participated in a roundtable discussion with art historians, museums curators, and art design practitioners for an assessment of the present and future state of U.S. Latina/o art as a field of inquiry. Finally, CSRC director Chon A. Noriega moderated a plenary session on reframing U.S. Latina/o art. The panel included Colin Gunckel, assistant professor of screen arts and cultures, American culture, and Latina/o studies at the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor and associate editor of the CSRC’s A Ver book series, and Pilar Tompkins Rivas, coordinator of curatorial initiatives at LACMA and co-curator of the CSRC-organized exhibition Home, opening at LACMA in 2017.

 

Magaña appointed to Mexican American studies at U Arizona

The CSRC congratulates Maurice Magaña on his new appointment as assistant professor of Mexican American studies at the University of Arizona. He will begin his appointment this fall. Magaña was the CSRC Institute of American Cultures postdoctoral visiting researcher in 2013-14 and, most recently, a lecturer in the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies at UCLA. His research looks at the intersectionality of hip-hop, the Latino diaspora, and social movements.

 

Serrano publishes La Música

Álvaro Ochoa Serrano, professor of history at el Colegio de Michoacán and former CSRC visiting scholar, has published La música va a otra parte: Mariachi México-USA (El Colegio de Michoacán and El Colegio de Jalisco, 2015). Serrano conducted research for the book at UCLA and the CSRC in 2010-11 and 2012-13. The Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American Music, a joint project of the CSRC, the UCLA Digital Library Project, and the Arhoolie Foundation, was among the sources Serrano consulted.

 

Cinema and media studies students visit CSRC

On April 7 sixteen graduate students admitted to the cinema and media studies MA program visited the CSRC. Chon A. Noriega, CSRC director and cinema and media studies professor, introduced them to research resources and projects at the center and to publication opportunities that the CSRC Press regularly provides to graduate students.

 

New videos on CSRC YouTube

 

 

“‘A Promising Problem: The New Chicano/a History,’ edited by Carlos Kevin Blanton”

Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, published by CSRC Press, was mentioned in a book review for A Promising Problem: The New Chicano/a History.
Pasatiempo, April 8, 2016 (PDF)

 

“CSUN Professor’s Photographs to Become Part of National Portrait Gallery and Autry Museum Permanent Collections”

CSUN Today featured a story on photographs by professor and artist Harry Gamboa Jr. that were recently acquired by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and the Autry Museum of the American West. Gamboa and art collective ASCO, which he co-founded, were featured in the CSRC’s L.A. Xicano exhibition Mapping Another L.A.: The Chicano Art Movement at the Fowler Museum in 2011-12, which led to the acquisition of his work by these institutions.
CSUN Today, April 11, 2016 (PDF)

 

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

 

 

Faculty Overview: Meet the Curators of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA

Tuesday, May 3, 10:00 a.m.

Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, California 90024

College and university faculty are invited to an overview of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, a Getty Foundation initiative that comprises over fifty exhibitions exploring Latin American and Latino art. Openings begin on September 15, 2017, and the exhibitions continue through January 31, 2018. Curators from several participating Southern California museums and cultural institutions will discuss their exhibitions and programs, which are relevant to courses in art history, fine arts, film studies, gender studies, cultural studies, and more. Among the speakers will be CSRC’s Chon A. Noriega and Charlene Villaseñor Black; featured exhibitions include CSRC’s Home—So Different, So Appealing and the Vincent Price Art Museum’s Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell, for which the CSRC is a collaborator. A reception will follow the presentations. The event is free, but registration is required: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/meet-the-curators-of-pacific-standard-time-lala-tickets-22700683355

 

Talk: Dr. María Olvido Moreno Guzmán presents “Contemporary Mexican Featherwork: An Ancient Tradition”

Wednesday, May 4, 4:00 p.m.

6275 Bunche Hall

It is widely believed that contemporary amantecas (featherwork artists) continue to employ the materials and techniques that were used in Mexico in pre-Columbian and colonial times. Guzmán argues instead that the featherwork practiced by today’s artisans is a further evolution of a practice that was built on centuries of knowledge and improvement. The techniques applied by today’s amantecas have little to do with those of earlier periods. The event is organized by the UCLA Latin American Institute and cosponsored by the CSRC, the Getty, the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, and the UCLA Center for Mexican Studies.

 

Talk: Omar Valerio-Jiménez presents “Owning History: Mexican American Activists and the U.S.-Mexican War”

Thursday, May 5, 3:30–5:00 p.m.

CSRC Library—144 Haines Hall

The U.S.-Mexican War (1846-48) created the first generation of Mexican Americans when tens of thousands of residents in northern Mexico became U.S. citizens upon the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo. Although the war and its outcome is central in Mexican history, few Americans understand its importance. Valerio-Jiménez, who is an associate professor in the Department of History at the University of Texas at San Antonio, explores how Mexican Americans transmitted their memories of the war and how these memories have influenced Mexican American identity. The first five people to RSVP to avargas@chicano.ucla.edu will receive free parking.

 

Screening: El Penacho de Moctezuma: Plumaria del México Antiguo,

followed by Q&A with Dr. María Olvido Moreno Guzmán

Friday, May 6, 2:00 p.m.

314 Royce Hall

This multi-award-winning documentary tells the story of the iconic Aztec headdress that is associated with Montezuma. Now in an Austrian museum, its return was first formally requested by the Mexican government in 1991. Guzmán was part of the research team that concluded that the ancient penacho is too fragile to be transported back to Mexico. The film describes the techniques used to create the headdress, reveals the results of the scientific research, and discusses the myths that have arisen around it. The event is organized by the UCLA Latin American Institute and cosponsored by the CSRC, the UCLA Latin American Institute, the Getty, the Cotsen Institute of Archeology at UCLA, and the UCLA Center for Mexican Studies.

 

Institute of American Cultures (IAC) Spring Social
Wednesday, May 11, 6:00–8:30 p.m.
UCLA Faculty Center
Join us for an evening of dialogue, drinks, and hors d’oeuvres. Representatives from UCLA’s four ethnic studies research centers will talk about current community initiatives: American Indian Studies Center, “Mapping Indigenous LA”; Asian American Studies Center, “The Color of Wealth in Los Angeles”; Chicano Studies Research Center, “Home—So Different, So Appealing,” an exhibition at LACMA; and Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, “The Hollywood Diversity Report.”  To RSVP, please email iac@support.ucla.edu or call 310.206.6639. Complimentary parking will be provided. Parking information will be forwarded upon receipt of your RSVP.

 

Symposium: “Dialogues in the Present Tense: Latino and Latin American Art through the Lens of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA”

Monday, May 16, 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

The Getty Center

The Getty Foundation and Getty Research Institute present a day-long conversation on the relationship among three categories of art: Chicana/o, U.S. Latino, and Latin American. Curators of four upcoming Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA exhibitions will discuss their projects and how they are connected to these categories and their related fields of inquiry. The curators will also serve as moderators for panel discussions that will explore the influential exhibitions, publications, and colloquia that have challenged the insularity of these fields. Panelists will address the contributions of curators, artists, art historians, and critics who have expanded the definitions of Latino, Latin American, Chicana/o art since the 1970s and propose curatorial and critical approaches for the future. This event is open to the public. Admission is free; a ticket is required. To RSVP, please visit: http://www.getty.edu/foundation/initiatives/current/pst_lala/events.html

 

 

Talk: Ana Niria Albo Díaz presents “The Latino Studies Program at Casa de las Américas: A Unique Vision/El Programa de Estudios sobre Latinos de la Casa de las Américas: Una visión particular”

Wednesday, May 18, 3:00–5:00 p.m.

CSRC Library—144 Haines Hall

The Programa de Estudios Sobre Latinos en los Estados Unidos was founded under the auspices of Casa de las Américas, Cuba’s leading institute for cultural and literacy studies, in order to address questions related to studying the Latino population. Ana Niria Albo Díaz, assistant director of the program, will discuss the program’s efforts to foster a critical dialogue about U.S. Latino culture. Refreshments will be served following the talk. This event is cosponsored by the CSRC, the Latin American Institute, the Department of Ethnomusicology, and the UCLA Latino Arts Center.

 

Screening: Zoot Suit with Q&A with director Luis Valdez

Thursday, May 19, 7:30 p.m.

Fowler Museum at UCLA, Lenart Auditorium

Zoot Suit is a play and a film by Chicano director, producer, and writer Luis Valdez, a close friend of the late artist José Montoya. Zoot Suit is based on actual events from the 1940s: the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial and the Zoot Suit Riots. To commemorate the thirty-fifth anniversary of the film, the Fowler and CSRC will present a special screening, with an introduction by Luis Valdez and a Q&A session moderated by CSRC director Chon A. Noriega. This event is presented in conjunction with the exhibition José Montoya’s Abundant Harvest: Works on Paper/Works on Life, on view at the Fowler Museum through July 17, 2016. The screening is free and open to the public. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

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.

 

 

La Raza Collection to be presented in SAA poster session

Evan Tucker, MLIS student and graduate student researcher at the CSRC, has been invited to present a poster featuring the La Raza Newspaper and Magazine Records collection (1967–1977) at the Society of American Archivists conference, July 31–August 6 in Atlanta. Titled “Signs of the Time: Using Images of Protest Signs from a Chicano Archive to Give Voice to a Historically Marginalized Community,” Tucker’s poster will explore the wide variety of messages written on the protest signs captured by La Raza’s photographers. The collection, which is being processed, contains roughly 20,000 images of important historic and political events in Los Angeles, including the East L.A. ”blowouts” and the Chicano Moratorium. For more information about the conference, click here.
 

Students research CSRC poster collection

On April 28 the CSRC welcomed students in the undergraduate cluster seminar “Art and Literature of the Chicano Movement” to explore the CSRC’s poster archives.  Students drew on works in the collection to develop presentations on insurgent consciousness and rasquachismo. Of particular interest to them were posters produced at Self Help Graphics & Art. The seminar is taught by Renee Hudson, doctoral candidate in the Department of English.

 

CSRC hosts textile preservation workshop

On April 29 Laleña Vellanoweth, costume and textile conservator and Andrew W. Mellon Conservation Education Fellow in the UCLA/Getty Graduate Program in Archaeological and Ethnographic Conservation, led a workshop on the proper housing and assessment of costume materials. Students in library science and conservation studies and conservators from local museums participated in this hands-on training event, which utilized costumes and uniforms in the CSRC’s collections.

 

Exhibition continues: Mexican surf and soccer leagues in West L.A.

On display in the CSRC Library and vitrine is the exhibition Mexican Surf and Turf: Mexicano Cultural Continuity in West Los Angeles through Surfing and Soccer, featuring photographs, trophies, ephemera, a video, and a surf board designed by surfing legend Jaime Perez. Curated by Leonard Melchor, CSRC visiting scholar and adjunct professor of history and Chicana/o studies at East Los Angeles College, the exhibition considers the role of surfing and soccer activities in the Mexican community of West Los Angeles and how they have fostered a vibrant transnational culture in this community from the early 1950s to the present. The exhibition is on view during regular library hours and will be on view through Spring Quarter.

 

 

Spring sale!

CSRC Press is offering a discount of fifty percent on books during the month of May. Titles include the few remaining copies of the second edition of the Chicano Studies Reader, which will be released in a new edition this summer; The Art of Healing Latinos, which has just been reprinted; and the award-winning exhibition catalog L.A. Xicano. In addition, select issues of Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies are available for the cost of shipping—or pick up a free copy in the CSRC Library. To place an order, contact support@chicano.ucla.edu or drop by 183 Haines Hall. The A Ver series is not included in this sale. 

 

Call for submissions: Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies

Aztlán, the premier journal of Chicana/o studies, is inviting new submissions! Aztlán publishes scholarship relevant to Chicana/o studies from all disciplines and interdisciplinary research as well. We welcome submissions in English and Spanish. We are seeking submissions for all three areas of the journal:

 

Essays

Our essays are research-based and come from a wide variety of disciplines—literature, sociology, history, political science, the arts, linguistics, gender studies, ethnic studies, and many other fields—but they always engage the Chicana/o experience. All essays are peer reviewed and are frequently revised to meet the journal’s standards for quality research. Essays typically run about 10,000–12,000 words in length.

 

Dossiers

The dossier section provides a forum for multiple and shorter engagements with a specific theme that examines an aspect of Chicana/o studies; this might be an object of study, theoretical or disciplinary questions, a methodology, or one scholar’s work. The dossier section, while still of a scholarly nature, is designed to be exploratory, provocative, or experimental in approach. Aztlán will consider working with a guest curator—a scholar who wishes to create a dossier theme and can help manage dossier development. Contact Heather Birdsall at hbirdsall@chicano.ucla.edu to explore this opportunity.

 

Book Reviews

If you are interested in writing a book review for us, we will gladly consider suggested titles, or we can recommend a book that matches your field of interest. To inquire about reviews, contact our book review coordinator, Daniel Zweifach, at revieweditor@chicano.ucla.edu.

 

To submit: All submissions should be sent to our submission inbox at submissions@chicano.ucla.edu. For complete information about Aztlán and our submission guidelines, please visit the CSRC website. Please direct queries to Heather Birdsall, assistant editor, at hbirdsall@chicano.ucla.edu. We look forward to receiving your submissions.