CSRC Newsletter - Fall 2025

 

The end of this tumultuous calendar year offers us the opportunity to reflect on the vision guiding the Chicano Studies Research Center and the meaningful work we have advanced together through collaborative efforts. Since assuming leadership, I have drawn on the foundational Chicano studies scholarship alongside the innovative work emerging in Latinx studies today. These longstanding and evolving frameworks remind us that rigorous research must incorporate the experiences of students, educators, and communities whose perspectives have not been adequately reflected in academia. 

 

I also maintain the conviction that ethnic studies is essential across all fields—from the humanities to health, engineering, law, business, and the physical sciences. For example, understanding the histories, challenges, and accomplishments of US-based communities with ties to Mexico and other countries in Latin America is vital for advancing effective public policy, humane immigration practices, quality health care, and economic opportunity; mitigating the harms of climate change; and promoting thoughtful oversight of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence. A society grounded in this knowledge is better equipped to address pressing challenges and imagine better solutions.

 

 

With much thanks to supportive campus leaders and a dedicated staff, we have safeguarded our operations in the face of crisis, strengthening our multidisciplinary scholarly network at UCLA and beyond. The CSRC remains a generative space for mentorship, collaboration, and research. Under the leadership of Professor Osvaldo Gutierrez, the CSRC’s faculty director of STEM initiatives, we have deepened our engagement in STEM fields. 

 

Through the Latina Futures 2050 Lab, we have continued to support talented scholars and community partners, enabling us to address a spectrum of issues—including the Latina wage gap across California counties, the displacement of Latina farmworkers, intergenerational mobility, queer and trans Latina experiences, immigrant rights, and disability justice. In November we partnered with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) to welcome nearly 150 college students from across the state with the shared goal of supporting their leadership development. Currently, we are collaborating with Visual AIDS, ONE Archives, and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), to present “Last Address Tribute: Los Angeles.”  Taking place on December 20, this bus tour will honor late individuals whose community-based work and activism are critical to our knowledge and understanding of the AIDS epidemic. During stops in East Los Angeles and at MOCA and ONE Archives, tributes will be given for art photographer Laura Aguilar (1959–2018), poet Gil Cuadros (1962–1996), artist and filmmaker Ray Navarro (1964–1990), and former CSRC librarian Yolanda Retter (1947–2007).

 

Meanwhile, the CSRC Library continues its critical role as a premier archival repository. Two students supported by the Gandara Undergraduate Internship Program are digitizing, cataloging, and curating materials for an upcoming Latina Futures digital library project. On December 6, CSRC librarian and archivist Xaviera Flores discussed the CSRC Library’s graphic art collections at “Historias Radicales: Latinx Identity and History in Southern California,” a conference held in conjunction with Radical Histories: Chicano Prints from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, an exhibition at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. The current CSRC Library exhibition, ¡Somos Súperpoderosxs! Latines in Comics, which is drawn from the library’s Latinx Comics and Visual Literature Collection, has been extended through March 2026.

 

The CSRC Press remains a leading source of scholarship that shapes academic and public discourse. Amalia Mesa-Bains: Rituals of Memory, Migration, and Cultural Space, the latest volume in the A Ver: Revisioning Art History series, earned a gold medal for Best Arts Book from the International Latino Book Awards this fall, adding to the many recognitions received by CSRC Press. We would like to thank Charlene Villaseñor Black, who was recently named Loevner Fellow and Tutor in History of Art at Worcester College, Oxford University, for her ten years of visionary leadership of Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, the flagship journal in the field. Under her direction, the journal continued to rise in national prominence and became a copublication of CSRC Press and University of California Press. We are thrilled to announce that Joshua Javier Guzmán, associate professor of gender studies at UCLA, will be Aztlán’s new editor in chief starting in January 2026.

 

 

The CSRC’s multidisciplinary approach to research and programming is affirmed every time I meet with UCLA students and prospective applicants who are part of our California Freedom Summer Participatory Action Research Project. They include students like Leticia Alicon, a UCLA transfer student from Los Angeles Trade Technical College, who is conducting research on labor rights; Judy Bravo from College of the Sequoias, who is active in the nonprofit FemSTEM and aspires to become an engineer for social good; Kelly Melendez, a visual artist from Bakersfield; Angelo Medrano, a student in Salinas who is deeply committed to studying the history of the United Farm Workers (UFW); and Enrique Morales, a high school student leader from Lompoc, who recently completed his college applications with plans to study statistics. These students recognize the importance of understanding their communities’ histories, and they are pursuing their academic goals with a clear commitment to broader community uplift. At UCLA, they can connect with CSRC-affiliated faculty who not only support their individual success but also share their dedication to the community. The CSRC stands with advocates and community members who are continuing to fight for greater access, including those who are at the forefront of defending legislation such as AB540 and the California Dream Act which provide in-state tuition and state financial aid for all who qualify.

 

 

If 2025 taught us anything, it is not to take anything for granted. As we move into 2026, I remain focused on strengthening our scholarly community and expanding pathways for research and opportunity. A key component of this work will be fundraising, especially as the national political landscape increasingly requires us to be self-reliant. I welcome your partnership in ensuring the longevity and vitality of the CSRC as it enters its fifty-seventh year.

 

I wish you and your loved ones a restorative winter break and renewed strength in the new year. As we look toward 2026, we recognize the important work before us, particularly as our nation’s institutions—including higher education—navigate a period of uncertainty. In this moment, our deepening partnerships strengthen our ability to pursue truth, advance knowledge, and serve our communities. I am profoundly grateful to all of you who continue to support our vital work.

 

¡Felices Fiestas!

 

In late 2024 and early 2025, Veronica Terriquez, CSRC director, and Albert Camarillo, professor of history, emeritus, at Stanford University, led a survey that explored the status of ethnic studies instruction in education degree programs offered at California’s universities. The research was conducted in response to Assembly Bill 101, which was signed into law in 2021 and makes the completion of a one-semester ethnic studies course a graduation requirement for all California high school students, starting with the class of 2030. Respondents to the survey were from administrators of education degree programs at thirty-four institutions across the state, including University of California and California State University campuses as well as private institutions. The study reveals that three out of four of the schools surveyed offer ethnic studies preparation for future K-12 educators. It also shows, however, that current ethnic studies instruction is not comparable across institutions and that no additional state funding exists for this work. The report, Advancing Ethnic Studies in California High Schools: A Survey of Teacher Preparation Programs, was published this fall and is available as a PDF on the CSRC website. The survey was conducted through a collaboration between Stanford University's Institute for Advancing Just Societies, Stanford University’s Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, UCLA's Institute of American Cultures ethnic studies research centers (American Indian Studies Center, Asian American Studies Center, Chicano Studies Research Center, Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies), and UCLA’s Center X in the School of Education and Information Studies.