CSRC Newsletter - January 2015

Volume 13, Number 4

Director’s Message

The end of each year brings with it a plethora of “Best of” lists and accolades of all kinds for all sorts. The CSRC received two singular honors in 2014 that attest to the impact, import, and value of our archiving and preservation work.
 
The first honor is really more an award by association, but the CSRC could not be happier for Hector Tobar, whose most recent book, Deep Down Dark (2014)—an interview-based account of the ordeal of the Chilean miners trapped underground for sixty-nine days in 2010—was named one of the notable 100 books of 2014 by The New York Times and is, as of this writing, number twelve on its bestseller list for hardcover nonfiction. It also made Publisher’s Weekly’s list of the top ten books of the year and was selected by Ann Patchett to be the inaugural book for Morning Edition Reads, a book club hosted by National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. In March 2014 Tobar donated his papers to the CSRC, a collection that includes manuscript drafts and research notes for Deep, Down, Dark as well as material pertaining to his other books and his long career as a journalist for the Los Angeles Times.
 
Tobar’s explorations of Latino life in the United States merit serious study in part for the models he offers for thinking through a transnational latinidad that maintains historic and communal specificity. His work has broad appeal because it builds bridges between communities that would otherwise live in isolation. As a writer Tobar accomplishes this formally, as one who crosses genres, but his writing also builds bridges between countries and across borders. This bridge-building quality, more than anything, renders him a uniquely important voice for the twenty-first century. The CSRC is proud to be preserving his papers, and we look forward to welcoming researchers to the CSRC Library to work on this important collection.
 
We are also proud to have recovered and preserved the work of Efraín Gutiérrez, whose films, like Tobar’s writing, built bridges—although in Gutiérrez’s case those bridges connected Chicanos with mainstream movie audiences in the 1970s. Please, Don’t Bury Me Alive!/¡Por Favor, No Me Entierren Vivo! (1976), written by Sabino Garza and directed by Gutiérrez, was the first Chicano-directed feature to play on the U.S. theater circuit. It would have been lost to audiences entirely were it not for the recovery efforts of CSRC director Chon A. Noriega, who helped to find, restore, and re-release the film in 2004. In 2014 Please, Don’t Bury Me Alive! was among the twenty-five films selected by the Library of Congress for the National Film Registry. Selection to the registry recognizes a film’s importance to America’s cinematic heritage and will ensure the film’s preservation for future generations.
 
Our late, great, and dearly beloved librarian Yolanda Retter-Vargas always used to say, “Everybody is a Lincoln,” a philosophy that underlies all of the CSRC’s collection and preservation efforts. Creating and maintaining the archives of our community is among the most important work we do, and we are deeply gratified to have that work recognized on a national level by such broad audiences. In this spirit we forge ahead into 2015. We look forward to seeing you at the library!
 
Marissa K. López
Interim Director and Associate Professor
 

News

Spotlight: CSRC partners with SubCine.com
The CSRC is pleased to announce a new partnership with SubCine.com, the premier online resource for independent Latino film and video. SubCine has built its reputation in the artistic community by distributing award-winning features, documentaries, and experimental films by a wide array of Latino filmmakers. The CSRC will now manage online sales for SubCine.com—and the site will now carry the CSRC Press’s Chicano Cinema and Media Art Series for purchase for exhibition and educational use. This series includes works by artists Laura Aguilar, Harry Gamboa Jr., Gronk, and Willie Varela, as well as features and documentaries. A special rate is available when purchasing the entire CSRC series. (Individuals may continue to purchase DVDs directly through the CSRC site.) Please support independent cinema!
 
First Chicano movie inducted into National Film Registry
As noted in the Director’s Message, Please, Don’t Bury Me Alive!/¡Por Favor, No Me Entierren Vivo! (1976), a bilingual film directed by Efraín Gutiérrez, has been selected by the Library of Congress for inclusion in the National Film Registry. Each year the Library of Congress adds twenty-five films to this collection. Selection recognizes a film’s “cultural, historic, or aesthetic significance” for America’s cinematic heritage and helps ensure its preservation for future generations. Gutiérrez’s film, which was written by Sabino Garza and was the first Chicano-directed feature to play on the U.S. theater circuit, joins five other films made by Latino directors: El Norte (Gregory Nava, 1983), El Mariachi (Robert Rodriguez, 1993) I Am Joaquin (Luis Valdez, 1969), The Revenge of Pancho Villa (Edmundo Padilla and Félix Padilla, 1936), and Stand and Deliver (Ramón Menéndez, 1988). With the addition of this year’s selections, the registry contains 650 films, including Hollywood classics, documentaries, silent films, and independent and experimental motion pictures. (See CSRC in the News, below, for media coverage pertaining to the Library of Congress announcement, including the official media release.)
 
In 1996 CSRC director Chon Noriega recovered the last remaining print of Please, Don’t Bury Me Alive!/¡Por Favor, No Me Entierren Vivo!, and in collaboration with the filmmaker and the UCLA Film and Television Archive, he had this landmark work restored. It is now available on DVD as part of the CSRC Press’s Chicano Cinema and Media Art Series. Institutions must purchase the DVD through SubCine.com. Individuals may purchase it for private use only for $25 (tax and shipping included) through the CSRC. Contact Darling Sianez, press support, at support@chicano.ucla.edu.
 
New graduate student journal launched
The first issue of Regeneración Tlacuilolli: UCLA Raza Studies Journal is now online and may be downloaded for free through eScholarship. The journal is edited and managed by graduate students in various disciplines at UCLA and other campuses across the United States. Regeneración Tlacuilolli is sponsored by the CSRC, and we congratulate all of the students involved with its launch.
 
Villaseñor-Black promoted to full professor
The CSRC congratulates Charlene Villaseñor-Black on her promotion to full professor! Villaseñor-Black has a joint appointment in the Art History and Chicana and Chicano Studies Departments. She is the author of books and essays on Ibero-American art from the colonial, early modern, and contemporary periods. She is also the editor of an anthology of essays by the late pioneering art historian Shifra Goldman, to be released later this year by CSRC Press. Villaseñor-Black has served as chair of the CSRC Faculty Advisory Committee since 2009-2010.
 
“Bad Woman” wins award
The CSRC congratulates Alicia Gaspar de Alba on her receipt of the 2015 Book Award from the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) for [Un]framing the “Bad Woman”: Sor Juana, Malinche, Coyolxauhqui, and Other Rebels with a Cause (University of Texas Press, 2014). Gaspar de Alba is chair of the UCLA LGBT Studies Program, professor of Chicana and Chicano studies, English, and gender studies, and former CSRC associate director. To celebrate her work, the CSRC will host Gaspar de Alba for a book talk and signing on Wednesday, January 28. (See Events, below.)
 
Great Wall memorabilia acquired by Smithsonian
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History recently acquired items from Judith F. Baca, artist and professor in the Chicana and Chicano Studies and World Arts and Cultures Departments at UCLA, and co-founder of UCLA’s Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), located in Venice, California. The acquisition includes two paintbrushes and a pair of overalls that Baca wore during the 2011 restoration of The Great Wall of Los Angeles, the landmark community mural created in the 1970s through her leadership. The mural depicts Los Angeles’s multi-ethnic history from prehistoric times through the late 1950s. Drawings, paintings, and photographs from the production of the massive mural, which is painted on the wall lining the L.A. River’s Tujunga Flood Control Channel, were featured in Mapping Another L.A.: The Chicano Art Movement, the CSRC’s L.A. Xicano exhibition at the Fowler Museum at UCLA. For more information on the acquisition, visit the UCLA Newsroom.
 
New videos on CSRC YouTube
 
  • An interview with filmmaker Efraín Gutiérrez conducted at the CSRC (2006) (video)

An extended, exclusive interview with the director of Please, Don’t Bury Me Alive!/¡Por Favor, No Me Entierren Vivo! conducted in anticipation of the release of the film on DVD as part of the CSRC Press’s Chicano Cinema and Media Art Series.

 
  • Book talk: Living the Dream: New Immigration Policies and the Lives of Undocumented Latino Youth (November 13, 2014) (video)
This book by three professors of political science—Maria Chávez, Jessica L. Lavariega Monforti, and Melissa R. Michaelson—is the first to examine the lives of DREAMers in the wake of Obama’s deferred action policy (DACA). It relays real-life stories of more than 100 DREAMers from four states.
 
  • Book talk: Lowriting: Shots, Rides, and Stories from the Chicano Soul (November 18, 2014) (video)
Take a trip down memory lane and explore Chicana/o communities as writers, storytellers, and photographers share their contributions to a historic anthology about the cars, music, and history that have shaped Chicana/o history in Los Angeles and beyond.
 

CSRC in the News

“At 81, Ceramic Artist Dora De Larios Still Creates for New Audiences”
A profile of Dora De Larios, an artist whose work was featured in the L.A. Xicano exhibition Art Along the Hyphen: The Mexican-American Generation at the Autry National Center. The article mentions the L.A. Xicano exhibition.
Los Angeles Times, January 2, 2015 (PDF)
 
“The First Chicano Movie Is Added to the National Film Registry”
A Martinez spoke with CSRC director Chon A. Noriega and filmmaker Efraín Gutiérrez about the induction of Please, Don’t Bury Me Alive! into the National Film Registry. Listen to the segment here.
Take Two, KPCC 89.3 FM, December 23, 2014
 
Numerous media outlets covered the announcement of the registry list for 2015. Stories that paid special attention to Gutiérrez’s film were:
 
“First Chicano Film is Added to National Film Registry,” VOXXI, January 5, 2015 (PDF)
“‘Saving Private Ryan,’ ‘Ferris Beuller’ and More Added to National Film Registry,” Deadline Hollywood, December 17, 2014 (PDF)
”’Ferris Bueller,’ ‘Big Lebowski,’ ‘Rio Bravo’ Enter National Film Registry,” The Hollywood Reporter, December 17, 2014 (PDF)
 “S.A. Filmmaker Gutierrez’s ‘Please, Don’t Bury Me Alive!’ Inducted into National Film Registry,” San Antonio Express-News, December 17, 2014 (PDF)
“‘Lebowski,’ ‘Beuller,’ Added to Film Registry,” USA Today, December 17, 2014 (PDF)
“‘Big Lebowski,’ ‘Willy Wonka’ Among National Film Registry’s 25 Selections,” Variety, December 17, 2014 (PDF)
“Library of Congress Adds ‘Big Lebowski,’ 24 Others to National Film Registry,” The Washington Post, December 17, 2014 (PDF)
 
For general coverage, visit the CSRC website News section here.
 
Media Releases:
“Cinematic Treasures Named to National Film Registry,” Library of Congress News Release, December 17, 2014 (PDF)
“First Chicano Feature Made in U.S. Added to National Film Registry: UCLA Played Key Role in Film’s Recovery and Preservation,” CSRC Media Release, December 18, 2014 (PDF)
 
“2015 Is Starting to Look Like the Whitest Oscars in Years”
Findings from Not Quite a Breakthrough: The Oscars and Actors of Color, 2002–2012, CSRC Latino Policy and Issues Brief No. 27 (2012), were cited in a story predicting few nominations of people of color in the acting categories at the 2015 Academy Awards.
Fusion, December 11, 2014 (PDF)
 
“Bookshelf: Cuban Art, Architecture, Music, Cooking, and More”
Luis Cruz Azaceta, authored by Alejandro Anreus and published by CSRC Press, was named by Cuban Art News as one of its top ten books for holiday gifts.
Cuban Art News, December 9, 2014 (PDF)
 
“Object Lesson: Roberto Chavez’s Dusty Shelf of Famous Men”
A story on muralist and painter Robert Chavez and Roberto Chavez and the False University, a retrospective of his work at the Vincent Price Art Museum. Author Carolina Miranda credits the L.A. Xicano exhibition Art Along the Hyphen: The Mexican-American Generation  with helping to bring Chavez’s work back into local view.
Los Angeles Times, December 5, 2014 (PDF)
 
“El Barrio Artwork Opens Students’ Eyes to East Harlem Stories”
CSRC director Chon A. Noriega and Revelaciones, an exhibition he curated at Cornell University in 1993, are mentioned in this story about Visualizing El Barrio, a student-curated exhibition at the university’s Latino Studies Program office in December 2014.
Cornell Chronicle, December 4, 2014 (PDF)
 
All “In the News” articles are available in PDF format on the CSRC website.
 

Events

Exhibition reception: Make ’Em All Mexican: Works by Linda Vallejo
Wednesday, January 21, 4:006:00 p.m.; speakers at 4:30 p.m.
CSRC Library—144 Haines Hall
Meet the artist and join us for a reception celebrating our new CSRC Library exhibition. Make ’Em All Mexican: Works by Linda Vallejo features works from Vallejo’s acclaimed Make ’Em All Mexican series, plus excerpts from critical essays, publications that feature the series, and objects from the CSRC’s portfolio on the artist in its collections. The Make ’Em All Mexican series uses humor and irony to question whether race, color, and class define our status in the world. The exhibition will be on view January 12 through March 20 during regular library hours. Charlene Villaseñor-Black, professor of art history and Chicana and Chicano studies, is the faculty curator of the reception event. (For more information on the exhibition, see CSRC Library, below.)
 
Book talk: Alicia Gaspar de Alba presents [Un]Framing the “Bad Woman”: Sor Juana, Malinche, Coyolxauhqui, and Other Rebels with a Cause
Wednesday, January 28, 3:005:00 p.m.
CSRC Library—144 Haines Hall
In this new collection of essays, Alicia Gaspar de Alba, professor of English, gender studies, and Chicana and Chicano studies at UCLA, focuses on the brown female bodies that have inspired her scholarly and creative writings. Drawing from the disciplines of art, literature, history, politics, popular culture, and feminist theory, she shows that the women of the book’s title—including the murdered women of Juárez and Chicana lesbian feminists—have been framed as “bad women” by patriarchal social and political discourses. Gaspar de Alba argues that, in fact, by refusing to cooperate with male-centric and heteronormative expectations, these women were rebels who challenged norms of gender, class, and race. Books will be available for purchase at the event.
 
All CSRC events are free unless otherwise noted. Programs are subject to change. For the most current information, visit the Events page on the CSRC website.
 

CSRC Library

Library receives grant for La Raza collection
The CSRC is proud to announce that it has received an award from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) for the cataloging of photographs in the CSRC Library’s La Raza Newspaper and Magazine Records collection. The award, granted as part of the CLIR’s Digitizing Hidden Special Collections and Archives program, will enable the cataloging of 24,698 photographic negatives documenting the Mexican-descent community of Los Angeles between 1967 and 1977. These images represent an unprecedented, decade-long photographic project that involved eighteen photographers associated with La Raza, a bilingual community-based publication issued as a tabloid newspaper from 1967 to 1970 and a magazine from 1970 to 1977. Since La Raza could print only a small portion of its photographs, the CSRC’s collection constitutes a rare and broad visual record of the community during this period. The CSRC is working with the surviving photographers and with community scholars to make this visual history accessible. For more information contact the CSRC librarian, Lizette Guerra, at lguerra@chicano.ucla.edu.
 
New library exhibition: Make ’Em All Mexican: Works by Linda Vallejo
The work of Los Angeles artist Linda Vallejo will be featured in a new exhibition at the CSRC Library that will include works from Vallejo’s acclaimed Make ’Em All Mexican series, plus excerpts from critical essays, publications that feature the series, and objects from the CSRC’s portfolio of the artist in its collections. The Make ’Em All Mexican series uses humor and irony to question whether race, color, and class define our status in the world. The artist states, “It has taken my entire artistic career to fuse an image that defines my multicultural experience of the world and my place in it. Like most of my contemporaries I was taught the finer points of the Western classics, art and architecture, but later found myself living and creating in a milieu where symbols of beauty and culture were manifest in a decidedly alternate circumstance.” The fall 2014 issue of Aztlán features an essay by the artist as well as works from the Make ’Em All Mexican series; an excerpt from the essay can be read here. Make ’Em All Mexican will be on display from January 12 through March 20 in the CSRC Library and vitrine. The exhibition is free and open to the public during regular library hours, Monday–Friday, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. An opening reception will take place Wednesday, January 21, 4:00–6:00 p.m. (see Events, above).
 
To learn more about CSRC collections and projects, please email your queries to the CSRC librarian, Lizette Guerra, at lguerra@chicano.ucla.edu.
 

CSRC Press

Aztlán and Anzaldúa
An essay by Karrmen Crey, assistant editor of Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, was published on the Mujeres Talk blog on December 3, 2014. Crey, who handles submissions for the journal, discusses the prolific references to Gloria Anzaldúa and her scholarship in the essays that have appeared in Aztlán over the past decade and how these references reveal the changing contours of Chicana/o studies. A PDF of the essay is available here.
 
New home for Aztlán
Aztlán’s online home is moving from MetaPress to ingentaconnect in the next few months. Subscribers will enjoy ingentaconnect’s state-of-the-art functionality, including RSS feeds for new issues, easy citation export, interlinking between articles, and social bookmarking. And, as always, subscribers have full access to every issue of Aztlán, from Spring 1970 through the present. If you are a current subscriber—individual or institutional—you will receive an email alert from the CSRC within the next several weeks that will provide information about when Aztlán’s new hosting site will go live and how to access the journal through the ingentaconnect research platform.
 
Call for submissions – Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies
Aztlán, the premier journal of Chicana/o studies, is inviting new submissions! Aztlán publishes scholarship from many disciplines relevant to Chicana/o studies, and welcomes submissions in both English and Spanish. We are seeking submissions for all three areas of the journal:
 
Essays
Our essays come form a wide variety of disciplines-literature, sociology, history, political science, the arts, linguistics, gender studies, ethnic studies, and many other fields - but always engage the Chicano experience. All essays are peer reviewed and frequently revised to meet the journal's standards for quality research. Essays typically run about 10,000–12,000 words in length.
 
Dossiers
Our dossiers are about half the length of the essays and are less academically rigorous. Generally our dossiers cohere around a specific subject or theme. Aztlán will consider working with a scholar as a guest curator who wishes to create a dossier theme for an issue and helps to manage dossier development. Please contact Karrmen Crey at kcrey@chicano.ucla.edu to explore this opportunity.
 
Book Reviews
If you are interested in writing a book review for us, we gladly consider suggested titles or we can recommend a book for you that matches your field of interest. Please be sure to contact our book review coordinator, Daniel Zweifach, directly at revieweditor@chicano.ucla.edu to inquire about reviews.
 
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 Karrmen Crey, assistant editor, at kcrey@chicano.ucla.edu. We look forward to your submissions!
 

Opportunities

IAC Visiting Researcher/Scholar and Graduate/Predoctoral Fellowships for 2015-16
The Institute of American Cultures (IAC) makes funds available annually through its Visiting Researcher/Scholar and fellowship programs. These awards have resulted in the publication of hundreds of books, monographs, and articles as well as the completion of many dissertations, master’s theses, and MFA film projects. They have contributed significantly to the fund of new knowledge about America’s underrepresented populations.
 
IAC Visiting Researcher/Scholar and Graduate/Predoctoral Fellowships are competitive awards that support scholarships on African Americans, American Indian, Asian Americans, and Chicanas/os. The acceptance of a fellowship carries with it a commitment to contribute to the research activities of the sponsoring ethnic studies research center and, in some cases, to teach a ten-week seminar based on the fellow’s research.
 
Online applications are now available. Applications are due February 9, 2015 (revision to previous deadline). For more information including a link to the applications, visit the following pages on the IAC site:
 
Visiting Researcher and Visiting Scholar Program in Ethnic Studies: http://www.iac.ucla.edu/fellowships_visitingscholar.html
 
Graduate and Predoctoral Fellowship in Ethnic Studies: http://www.iac.ucla.edu/fellowships_graduate.html
 
***
45 for 45!
The 2014-15 academic year marks the forty-fifth anniversary of the CSRC. If you value our work, please consider giving a tax-deductible donation of $45. To give $45 for our 45th, click here. Any amount is welcome. Thank you for your support.
 
 
Cover image: Daniel C. Pérez, Untitled, acrylic and ink on paper