CSRC Newsletter - May 2017

VolUME 15, NUMBER 8

Director’s Message

Last Friday I had the opportunity to moderate a panel as part of a daylong commemoration at UCLA, “Sa-I-Gu: The Los Angeles Uprisings 25 Years Later.” The panelists included a range of activists—some also scholars, writers, and artists—who reflected on where we are today in taking up the central challenge of twenty-five years ago: “Can we all get along?” That question still haunts Los Angeles and our nation, but it would be a mistake to take it as one directed solely at individuals, as if our societal ills can be reduced to personal responsibility or an attitude adjustment. We must also attend to the structural inequities at work. These require a collective solution. In doing so, we need to analyze the data—scientifically validated facts—as keynote speaker and UC Berkeley professor Taeku Lee noted. But it strikes me that rational thought is only one tool in what is essentially a political and cultural process—which is to say, a messy process defined by a mixture of agendas, constituencies, and ways of seeing the world. We also need art—or, as politics has been described, the art of the possible. And that requires that we appreciate the absurdities around and within us. A while back I was at a small restaurant in Koreatown enjoying a bowl of sul lung tang, or ox-bone soup. It is a simple dish tied to an ancestral sense of the Korean nation. Simmered over the course of a day or more, the soup extracts the quintessential taste and nutrition of the ox bone. As I was eating, I noticed that one of the women busing tables looked very Oaxacan, and I was surprised at this, that Koreans and Oaxacans share physical features . . . until I noticed that the cooks in the kitchen were speaking fluent Spanish. They were Mexican, perhaps also Oaxacan, like the woman tending the tables. This is our world. We help construct each other’s sense of home, cultural identity, and belonging, but the ways in which we help each other are not always seen. We live in a society that proclaims equality, liberty, and justice, and yet in fundamental ways, our society is not structured toward those ends for all.
 
Chon A. Noriega
Director and Professor
 

News

New scholarship fund 
The CSRC is pleased to announce The Lupe Anguiano Leadership Scholarship Fund to support undergraduate and graduate students at UCLA who will be the next generation of leaders working toward the advancement of Mexican Americans in society. This scholarship fund is named after Lupe Anguiano, a Mexican American civil rights activist known for her exemplary work pertaining to women’s rights, the rights of the poor, and protecting the environment. She is renowned for developing a model for welfare reform in the 1970s that remains in place in several states. In addition to individual contributions, 50 percent of royalties received on all sales of the recently published book and e-book Uncompromised: The Lupe Anguiano Story, by Debora Wright, will be donated to the fund. To contribute, please address a check to the UCLA Foundation, write “Lupe Anguiano Leadership Scholarship” in the memo line, and mail to Rebecca Epstein, Communications and Academic Programs Officer, UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, 193 Haines Hall–Box 951544, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1544. For more information, or to donate online, contact repstein@chicano.ucla.edu. The Lupe Anguiano Papers, 1944-1970 are held at the CSRC Library.
 
Díaz screens documentary on Cuban hip hop
On April 12, the UCLA Department of Ethnomusicology hosted a screening of Cuban HipHop: Desde El Principio, a 2006 documentary directed by CSRC IAC visiting researcher Vanessa Díaz. The screening was followed by a Q&A with Díaz and the Cuban hip-hop duo Obsesión, who were visiting campus as UCLA Library artists-in-residence. On April 13, Díaz served as the translator for a public conversation with Obsesión on race, gender, and hip hop in Cuba. The discussion was moderated by Aisha Finch, associate professor of African American studies and gender studies at UCLA. The CSRC was a co-sponsor of these events.
 
Díaz receives fellowship
The CSRC congratulates CSRC IAC visiting researcher Vanessa Díaz for being awarded the Cesar Chávez Postdoctoral Fellowship at Dartmouth College for 2017-18.
 
Cárdenas presents Chicana/o education research
In March, CSRC visiting scholar Elizabeth González Cárdenas presented two papers, “I Wanted to Learn More! Learning and Living Chicana/o Studies Curriculum” and “Some Profes Truly Cared about Us: Femtor and Mentor Practices and Its Impact on Chicana and Chicano Students in Higher Education,” at the National Association for Chicana Chicano Studies (NACCS) in Irvine. In April, she presented the paper “Mi Voz No Tenia Valor: Tormentor Practices and Their Impact on Chicana and Chicano Students in Chicana/o Studies” at the Pacific Sociological Association conference in Portland, Oregon. Cárdenas received her PhD in education from UCLA.
 
Butts selected for Emerging Curators program
Emily Butts, curatorial assistant for the upcoming CSRC-organized exhibition Home—So Different, So Appealing, has been selected to curate an exhibition at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) as part of its Emerging Curators Program. Butts’s proposed group exhibition, Names Printed in Black, was selected from forty-eight applications. The exhibition will explore “the impact that memory has on the physical and psychological body, using loss and trauma as a framework to understand individual and collective rememberings.” Among the artists to be included are Carmen Argote, Adriana Corral, Carlos Motta, Lisa Soto, and Samira Yamin. Names Printed in Black is scheduled to open in January 2018. Butts made her curatorial debut with Selections from Star Montana: Tear Drops & Three Dots at the CSRC in fall 2016. A video of Butts in conversation with Montana can be found here.
 
CSRC IAC visiting researcher announced for 2017-18
The CSRC is pleased to announce Bernadine Hernández, assistant professor of English Language and Literature at the University of New Mexico, as the CSRC’s UCLA Institute of American Cultures visiting researcher for 2017-18. Hernández will be in residence to complete her book project “Sexing Empire: Producing Nationhood, Sexual Economies, and Racialized Gender and Sexuality in the Nineteenth-Century Literary Borderlands and Archive,” which links the utility of Mexican and Mexican American females living and laboring on the borderlands to the process of racialization and the emergence of capitalism in the U.S.
 

CSRC in the News

“15 Female Artists Who’ve Shaped the L.A. Art Scene”
LA Weekly recently named the top fifteen female artists who have shaped the L.A. art scene. On the list are artists who have been included in CSRC-organized exhibitions and are represented in CSRC collections: Judith Baca, Laura Aguilar, Judithe Hernández, Patssi Valdez, Linda Vallejo, and Barbara Carrasco.
LA Weekly, April 3, 2017 (PDF)
 
“I: Witness: An Uplifting Look at Chicano History in Los Angeles”
Part of About...Productions’s Chicano Legacy Project, “I: Witness” is a student-written play based on interviews with Chicano elders. The goal of the production, presented April 7–8 at the Plaza de la Raza's Margo Albert Theatre, was to enrich the public’s knowledge of the Chicano movement. The CSRC was a co-sponsor.
People’s World, April 12, 2017 (PDF)
 
“Afro-Cuban Rap Legends Obsesion Talk Race, Gender and Hip-Hop at UCLA”
OC Weekly mentioned CSRC IAC visiting researcher Vanessa Díaz in an article about UCLA artists-in-residence Obsesión. The CSRC co-sponsored the Cuban hip-hop group’s residency, which included a panel discussion and a screening of Diaz’s documentary on the musical duo.
OC Weekly, April 14, 2017 (PDF)
 
All “In the News” articles are available in PDF format on the CSRC website.
 

Events

Latin American/Latino Art Symposium to preview Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA
Friday, May 5, 9:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Institute of Fine Arts, New York University—The James B. Duke House, 1 East 78th St., New York, NY 10075
In collaboration with the Getty and the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, Frieze will hold a symposium in New York to address topics featured in the Getty Foundation’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative, which comprises exhibitions and public programs that explore Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with Los Angeles. The first panel, “Discussing Latin American and Latino Art,” with CSRC director Chon A. Noriega, Argentinian artist Guillermo Kuitca, and Deborah Cullen, director and chief curator of the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University, will focus on Home—So Different, So Appealing, one of three exhibitions organized by the CSRC for Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA. Home opens June 11 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. For more information and to purchase tickets to the symposium, click here.
 
The Latin Wave: Exploring Myth, Illusion & Cultural Appropriation
Sunday, May 7—Sunday, May 21
San Gabriel Mission Playhouse
320 S. Mission Dr., San Gabriel, CA 91776
The CSRC is pleased to co-sponsor this series of events “examining the treatment of Latino culture from Hollywood’s beginnings and beyond.” Co-produced by the Mission Playhouse and About…Productions, events include theater, dance, live music, exhibits, movies, and a symposium. Laura Isabel Serna, associate professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and former CSRC visiting scholar, will be among the speakers at the symposium on May 21. For more information, including ticket prices and the complete schedule, click here.
 
IUPLR Sixth Biennial Siglo XXI Conference: Mapping Latino Research
Thursday, May 18—Friday, May 19
University of Texas at San Antonio
The Inter-University Program for Latino Research, in co-sponsorship with the University of Texas at San Antonio’s Mexico Center, will host the sixth biennial Siglo XXI Conference. This year’s conference will focus on research that provides strategies for addressing the inequities that Latino communities face in U.S. society. The CSRC is a founding member of the IUPLR. For more information on conference events, please visit the IUPLR website. To register, click here.
 
Book talk: David Bacon presents In the Fields of the North/En los Campos del Norte
Tuesday, May 23, 1:00–3:00 p.m.
CSRC Library—144 Haines Hall
David Bacon is a photojournalist, author, political activist, and union organizer. In his new book of photographs, In the Fields of the North/En los Campos del Norte, he documents the experiences of migrant farmworkers in California. Bacon traveled with workers during the harvest season as they made their way from the Mexican border to Washington state. His photos from the journey are accompanied by the workers’ narratives, and the result is a portrait of contemporary migrant life that emphasizes their contributions to California’s agricultural industry while documenting not only the extreme hardships that they endure but also the family and community structures that sustain them and the activism that empowers them. This event is co-sponsored by the UCLA Latin American Institute, the UCLA Center for Mexican Studies, the UCLA Labor Center, the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, and 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

Flores gives library tours and instruction
In April, CSRC librarian and archivist Xaviera Flores welcomed several groups of high school students to the CSRC Library. Flores also gave a tour to students from the South Gate Educational Center at East Los Angeles College, who were particularly interested in the center’s history. On April 26, Flores hosted freshmen enrolled in GE CLST 20 CW, “Perspectives on Chicana/o Education.” Because these students were already familiar with some of the library’s resources, instruction was customized to students’ research projects and focused on how to perform secondary-source research. 
 
Flores a peer reviewer at SCA
Flores was invited to the Society of California Archivists annual meeting in Pasadena to assess proposed amendments to current national archival standards. This year’s conference, held April 27-29, focused on digital asset management and digital preservation.
 
To schedule a tour of the CSRC Library, contact CSRC librarian Xaviera Flores at xflores@chicano.ucla.edu.
 

CSRC Press

CSRC Press anthology featured at book fair
Altermundos: Latin@ Speculative Literature, Film, and Popular Culture, recently released by CSRC Press, was the subject of a panel discussion at the San Antonio Book Festival on April 8. “The New Frontier: Latin@ Speculative Fiction” was presented by authors Gregg Barrios, Cathryn Merla-Watson, Ben Olguín, John Phillip Santos, and Debora Vasquez. Edited by Merla-Watson and Olguín, Altermundos contains scholarly essays and short fiction by thirty-one authors. It is the first collection to engage Chicana/o and Latina/o speculative cultural production.
 

Opportunities

Call for papers: Fourth Bi-Annual Sal Castro Memorial Conference on the Emerging Historiography of the Chicano Movement
February 23-24, 2018
University of California, Santa Barbara
Faculty and graduate students working on historical projects concerning the Chicano movement are invited to submit a 500-word proposal and a short CV to Mario T. Garcia, professor of Chicano and Chicana studies, at garcia@history.ucsb.edu.
Submissions deadline: September 1, 2017.