CSRC Newsletter - December 2010

Volume 9, Number 4

Director's Message

As we near the end of 2010, I would like to thank the many people who have contributed to the CSRC—our staff, students, and faculty, and our many individual supporters and community partners. Last year, the CSRC’s fortieth anniversary year, proved to be our most successful and eventful ever, largely thanks to your support. Five of our books received international awards in the areas of arts and reference. We advanced major grant-funded initiatives on healthcare access, economic security, hate speech, and archival preservation, among other areas. And we were awarded a major grant by the Getty Foundation to curate four exhibitions in the unprecedented citywide Pacific Standard Time initiative that will take place at Los Angeles museums in Fall 2011.
 
Indeed, the next year promises to be as productive as the last, if not more so, as we continue many of these efforts and take on new challenges and prepare for the next decade. Early in the new year we will complete the renovation of our library and updating of our IT infrastructure, increasing access to our resources both in situ and online. The CSRC will continue its archival efforts to expand the historical record, and it will also spearhead the conservation of perhaps the first Chicano mural in Los Angeles, The Birth of Our Art. This work—a powerful example of L.A.’s hidden cultural heritage—will play a prominent role in our Pacific Standard Time exhibition at the Fowler Museum at UCLA.
 
Without a place in history, we will necessarily falter in our efforts to describe the present and imagine the future. ¡Adelante!
 
Chon A. Noriega
Director and Professor
 

News

Roberto Sifuentes
CSRC mourns the loss of Roberto Sifuentes, who lost his battle with cancer in early November, passing away at the age of 77. Professor Sifuentes, a member of the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at CSU Northridge for thirty-five years, was a graduate student in the UCLA Department of Spanish in the 1960s and 1970s. An active participant in the Chicano Movement, he contributed to the establishment of the CSRC, Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, and UCLA’s High Potential Program (the predecessor of the Academic Advancement Program). A tribute page is available on Facebook.
 
Campus Closure
The CSRC will be closed from Saturday, December 18, through Sunday, January 2, resuming regular hours on Monday, January 3.
 
Latino Art Now! Documentary
Roberto Oregel, UCLA alumnus and director of the CSRC documentary Casa Libre/Freedom House, has posted a short documentary on the third Latino Art Now! conference, which was held November 10–13 at Plaza de la Raza, Los Angeles. The CSRC was a co-organizer of the conference.
 
Book Features CSRC Associates
Alex Moreno Areyan signed copies of his Mexican Americans in Los Angeles at the CSRC Open House on November 3. Featured in the book are Carlos Haro, CSRC fellow and former CSRC assistant director, and several CSRC associated faculty: David Hayes-Bautista, professor of medicine; Reynaldo Macias, professor of Chicana and Chicano studies; and Juan Gómez-Quiñones, professor of history. An article about the event appeared in the Daily Bruin on November 5.
 
Exhibition in Egypt
Citizen, Participant, an exhibition curated by Pilar Tompkins Rivas, CSRC arts project coordinator, opened on November 6 at Darb 1718 Contemporary Art and Culture Center, Cairo, Egypt. The exhibition represents current strategies for artistic production and public intervention in the United States and Latin America. Sandra de la Loza, CSRC visiting scholar, is one of the seven featured artists, who are from North and South America and the Caribbean. More information is available on the Darb 1718 website.
 

CSRC in the News

Chon A. Noriega was quoted in a New York Times article about the fiftieth anniversary of Arhoolie Records and the pioneering efforts of founder and owner Chris Strachwitz; the article appeared on November 28. Nearly 50,000 78 rpm and 45 rpm recordings from the Arhoolie’s Frontera Collection are available online through the UCLA Digital Library, a collaborative project involving the CSRC, the Arhoolie Foundation, Los Tigres del Norte Foundation, and the UCLA Library. A video about the collection and the archive is available on UCLA’s Youtube site.
 
An article by Alvaro Huerta, CSRC visiting scholar and PhD candidate in city and regional planning at UC Berkeley, appeared in the Los Angeles Business Journal on November 1. In “Hard Work, Tough Lessons,” Mr. Huerta reflects on the hardships he experienced as a young day laborer.
 
A story by Reuters news service on November 4 noted the CSRC’s participation in the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time initiative. The CSRC is developing L.A. Xicano, a set of four exhibitions on Chicano art and artists that will be shown concurrently at the Fowler Museum at UCLA, LACMA, and the Autry National Center. L.A. Xicano opens in October 2011. More than sixty cultural institutions are contributing to Pacific Standard Time, which will document the Los Angeles art scene between 1945 and 1980.
 
Sylvia Mendez, a civil rights activist of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent, is among the Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients recently announced by the White House. In 1946, as an eight-year-old, Ms. Mendez was one of the plaintiffs in Mendez v. Westminster, the landmark desegregation case that ended de jure segregation in California. The Mendez case was a precursor of later court cases, including Brown v. Board of Education. Ms. Mendez spoke at a one-day symposium about the Mendez case hosted by the CSRC in 2004; details about the symposium are available on the CSRC website.
 
Chon A. Noriega’s essay about the early work of the Chicano art group Asco, “Your Art Disgusts Me,” appears in East of Borneo, a new collaborative online journal of contemporary art.
 
Concepción Valadez, CSRC faculty associate and associate professor of education, was quoted in the November 19 issue of La Opinión. The article, “Falla Servicio de Traducción,” discusses a report by the California state auditor that revealed that local government agencies are failing to translate materials for the non-English speakers in their communities.
 
PDFs of all articles are available on the CSRC website.
 

Events

Presentation by Save Ethnic Studies
UCLA’S Graduate School of Education and Information Studies (GSE&IS) is hosting a presentation by Save Ethnic Studies, an organization of educators, students, and community members that was formed to protect ethnic studies courses in Arizona following the passage of Arizona House Bill 2281. Among the presenters will be Augustine Romero, director of student equity for the Tucson Unified School District;  Laurence Tan, an educator from Watts Youth Collective; and students of Mr. Tan. The presentation will focus on ongoing legal efforts to challenge the legislation. The event will be held on Friday, December 3, 2:00–5:00 p.m., in UCLA’s Ackerman Grand Ballroom. The CSRC is co-sponsoring the event. For more information on Save Ethnic Studies, visit the organization’s website.
 
IAC Fall Forum
The Institute of American Cultures will hold its Fall Forum on Monday, December 6, 4:30–7: 00 p.m., at the UCLA Faculty Center’s California Room. The event will feature short interviews with visiting faculty at the ethnic studies research centers, including CSRC visiting scholars Jennifer Rose Najera (UC Riverside) and Deborah Vargas (UC Irvine). Dr. Najera and Dr. Vargas will be interviewed by Maria Elena Ruiz, CSRC associate director, and Javier Iribarren, CSRC assistant director. A reception, with music by the UCLA Alumni Jazz Quartet, will follow.
 
LSFA Posada 2010
The Latino Staff and Faculty Association will host its annual Posada on Wednesday, December 15, 11:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m., on the Campbell Hall Patio. The proceeds raised by the Posada will be used to fund scholarships for Latino students. The CSRC and LSFA have collaborated in the past on similar fundraising events for Latino students. Please e-mail cperez@chicano.ucla.edu for more information.
 
MLA Presentation
Chon A. Noriega will present a paper on Chicano autobiography in digital culture as part of the Presidential Forum at the Modern Language Association’s annual convention in Los Angeles on Friday, January 7. The session is titled “Lives and Archives: Finding, Framing, and Circulating Narrated Lives Now.” More information is available on the MLA website.
 

CSRC Library and Archive

Library Renovation
CSRC Library staff have been concentrating their preparations for the upcoming renovation of the facility. For years the library has been not only a space for research and study but also the CSRC’s assembly room and theater. We’re bringing the library into the twenty-first century in order to enhance CSRC’s event programming, but there is still a lot of heavy lifting to come! We look forward to sharing an updated facility with our community of friends and supporters in the new year.
 
Almost-Free Furniture!
In preparation for the renovation of the CSRC Library, the CSRC is selling tables, chairs, and filing cabinets at extremely low prices. For information, please contact Lizette Guerra at lguerra@chicano.ucla.edu.
 
Magazine Donation
We would like to thank Michael Hudson-Medina for his generous donation of issues of Low Rider, Q-Vo, Teen Angel, and Hispanic Business from the 1970s and 1980s. They will help fill gaps in the library’s existing collection of these periodicals, which are useful resources for scholars interested in Chicano youth, popular culture, language, and gender studies.
 
Archival Preservation Workshop
Lizette Guerra, CSRC librarian, and Tracy Grimm, archivist at the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame, presented a workshop titled “Who Are We? Preserving Legacy and Memory: Preservation and Access Workshop for Artists and Arts Organizations.” The workshop was part of Latino Art Now!, a national conference held at Plaza de la Raza, Los Angeles, in November. Forty-five people attended the event, including artists, scholars, community members, and information professionals charged with the preservation of arts materials. Those interested in receiving more information about the workshop should contact Lizette Guerra at lguerra@chicano.ucla.edu or Tracy Grimm at tgrimm@nd.edu.
 
Anguiano Collection
Lupe Anguiano, an activist for green policy and women’s rights, has added a new series of papers to her archival collection at the CSRC Library. This series relates to her crusading work for the environment. We thank Lupe for her work and her continuing donations to the archive.
 
New CSRC Event Videos
The video for the 2010 CSRC Open House is now available on iTunesU. The video features Rachel F. Moran, dean of the UCLA Law School. Also available is a talk by Robert Romero Chao, assistant professor of Chicana/o studies, on his new book, The Chinese in Mexico. For access to these and other videos of CSRC lectures and conferences, visit the CSRC’s homepage and click the “Event Video” link.
 

CSRC Press

Holiday Gifts
CSRC Press publications make excellent holiday gifts! Consider a DVD from the Chicano Cinema and Media Art Series, a subscription to Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, or one of our award-winning books. Our latest release is Carmen Lomas Garza, volume 5 in the A Ver: Revisioning Art History series. Each A Ver title explores the life and work of a groundbreaking Latina/o artist, and each features full-color illustrations, an exhibition history, and an extensive bibliography. Ordering is easy: visit the CSRC’s online store or, for the A Ver series, the University of Minnesota Press.
 

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