CSRC Newsletter - November 2012

 

Vote!

 

 

More than 250 people attended this year’s Latina/o Education Summit, setting a record for the annual conference. The summit, the seventh in the series, was held on Friday, October 5. Special guest speaker Gilbert Cedillo, state assemblymember, presented Chon A. Noriega, CSRC director, with a commendation acknowledging and supporting the mission of the Latina/o Education Summit series. All speaker presentations were video-recorded and will be posted on CSRC YouTube in the near future. Photos of the event are posted on the CSRC Facebook page. Visit the CSRC website to view the full program. Research reports and policy briefs produced for the summit series are available in PDF format on the CSRC Press’s website.

 

The CSRC was honored to welcome civil and worker’s rights activist Dolores Huerta to the library on October 3 to celebrate the exhibition Dichos: The David Damian Figueroa Collection. Huerta, a friend of the center and of donor David Damian Figueroa, spoke briefly about the value of art to the Chicano worker’s rights movement and to society as a whole. Her comments were video-recorded and the video is now viewable on CSRC YouTube.

 

UCLA students held a rally October 29 in response to a recent editorial in the Daily Bruin that questioned whether underrepresented minority students were admitted to the campus in violation of California’s ban on preferential treatment. Chon A. Noriega, CSRC director, Alex Ortega, CSRC associate director, and Charlene Villaseñor-Black, CSRC Faculty Advisory Committee chair, were among the faculty who signed and submitted a declaration of support for the rally, which was printed in the Daily Bruin on October 30. Their response calls the editorial “misleading and irresponsible” and points out that an independent analysis of the holistic admissions review process at UCLA found no signs of race-based reader bias. More information is available here.

 

Art historian Sally Mincher was recently awarded her doctorate at the University of Essex (U.K.) based on her dissertation, “The Chicano Art Movement in American Art History: Post-1970s Evolutions in the Los Angeles Context.” Mincher conducted a large portion of her research at the CSRC.

 

An article by Marissa Lopez, CSRC associate director and assistant professor of English and Chicana/o studies at UCLA, appears in the latest issue of Journal of American Studies. In “¿Soy Emo, y Qué? Sad Kids, Punkera Dykes, and the Latin@ Public Sphere” Lopez explores how certain highly self-conscious and very public performances of affect in music and literature speak to the intersections of race and gender in twenty-first-century Latin@ and Latin American youth culture. The article, which was published online in August, uses the violent attacks on “emo” youth in Mexican and Latin American metropoles in early 2008 as its launch point. Lopez is currently planning a half-day conference at the CSRC in Spring 2013 on the same topic.

 

Maria Elena Ruiz, who served as CSRC associate director for 2010–12, has published her study “Latino Elders Reframing Familismo: Implications for Health and Caregiving Support” in the summer 2012 issue of Journal of Cultural Diversity. The article presents a summation of the research she performed while working at the CSRC. The abstract is available here.

 

David Alfaro Siqueiros’s América Tropical was unveiled to the public on October 9 after the completion of a major conservation project. The unveiling occurred eighty years after the mural was first completed and promptly whitewashed due to its provocative content. Siqueiros painted the mural on an exterior wall of the Italian Hall, located on Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles. América Tropical is the only surviving public mural by Siqueiros in the United States that is still at its original site. The conservation was a joint effort by the City of Los Angeles and the Getty Conservation Institute. L.A. Xicano artists Judy Baca, Barbara Carrasco, Luis Garza, and John Valadez participated in the related public programming.

 

After a six-month campaign to prevent the dismantling of The Story of Our Struggle (1974), an eighteen-panel mural by artists Don Juan (aka Johnny D. González), David Botello, and Robert Arenivar, a solution was reached by a coalition formed to save the mural and the owner of the building, a charter school development organization. The First Street Store will be razed to make room for a new school, but the mural will be preserved in a freestanding mural wall. Titled “Plaza la Primera,” the structure, conceived by González, will preserve the architectural integrity of the historic work and keep it in the East L.A. neighborhood for which it was intended. The Story of Our Struggle was featured in the L.A. Xicano exhibition Mapping Another L.A.: The Chicano Art Movement at the Fowler Museum.

 

Roberto Chavez, whose paintings were featured in the L.A. Xicano exhibition Art Along the Hyphen: The Mexican-American Generation, is the subject of Roberto Chavez: Paintings and Drawings, an exhibition opening November 14 at the Robert F. Agrella Art Gallery at Santa Rosa Junior College. Chavez's first-person essay “Why Paint?,” originally published in the Spring 2011 issue of Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, has been reprinted in the exhibition catalog edited by Robert Ross (Hit & Run Press, 2012), as have Chavez’s remarks at the opening of Art Along the Hyphen (see In the News). After the Agrella Art Gallery showing closes on December 13, Roberto Chavez: Paintings and Drawings will travel to the Wiegand Gallery at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California, where it will be on display from January 23 through February 23, 2013.

 

On November 7 Jesus Treviño, whose documentary Yo Soy Chicano is considered one of the seminal artistic texts of the Chicano Movement, will screen the film for students in “Chicano Studies 10A,” taught by Robert Chao Romero. This year marks the fortieth anniversary of the film’s release. The CSRC is co-sponsoring Treviño’s appearance.

 

The CSRC has gone Hollywood. The CSRC Library was a set location for The Odd Life of Timothy Green (directed by Peter Hedges), released past summer. And, if you look closely, Cloud Atlas (directed by Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, and Lana Wachowski) uses as set dressing the Spring 1973 issue of Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies.

 

The CSRC has received the generous donation of two artworks from Leonard Marks: Carlos Almaraz’s Mystery in the Park (1989) and Frank Romero’s Family Car with Dog (1992). Marks is a physician and faculty member in the Department of Urology at UCLA and a longtime collector of Chicano and Latino art. These important pieces will be on display in the CSRC front office and conference room starting later this month. The artists were members of the Chicano art collective Los Four, and their work was featured in the L.A. Xicano exhibitions. We are very grateful for Dr. Marks’s support.

 

“Community Submission: Alleged Racial ‘Mismatch’ Not a Reality”

Opinion piece rebutting an article and opinion column published in the Daily Bruin about the legality of the freshman admission process. CSRC director Chon A. Noriega, CSRC associate director Alex Ortega, and CSRC Faculty Advisory Committee chair Charlene Villaseñor-Black are among the signees.

Daily Bruin, October 30, 2012 (PDF)

 

“Mediascape Q&A: Chon Noriega”

CSRC director Chon Noriega is interviewed by Matthias Stork, an M.A. student in the UCLA Cinema and Media Studies program, for the UCLA Mediascape blog.

Mediascape, October 30, 2012 (PDF)

 

“TV Giant Don Francisco Celebrates 50 Years of ‘Sábado Gigante’“

CSRC director Chon A. Noriega is quoted in this story about the long-running variety TV show Sábado Gigante.

Los Angeles Times, October 27, 2012 (PDF)

 

“Rush Limbaugh: American Hero”

A critique of radio personality Rush Limbaugh’s inflammatory on-air statements cites a study from the CSRC Hate Speech in the Media project.

Madison County Courier, October 26, 2012 (PDF)

 

“Diverse Panel Considers the 2012 Vote”

Darnell Hunt, director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA, provides a preview of the panel discussion “Inside Out: Social Justice, Activism, and the 2012 Vote” held at the CSRC Library. (PDF)

 

“Will the Rebirth of ‘América Tropical’ Inspire a Mural Renaissance in L.A.?”

CSRC director Chon A. Noriega is quoted in this story about the unveiling of the recently conserved David Alfaro Siqueiros mural América Tropical eighty years after it was painted.

ArtInfo, October 10, 2012 (PDF)

 

“Some Remarks About My Work”

At the October 2011 opening of the L.A. Xicano exhibition Art Along the Hyphen: The Mexican-American Generation at the Autry National Center, artist Roberto Chavez discussed his work and career. His address has been published in the catalog Roberto Chavez: Paintings and Drawings (Hit & Run Press, 2012). (PDF)

 

“He’s Just Feeding the Conversation”

The Los Angeles Times profiles CSRC director Chon A. Noriega.

Los Angeles Times, October 6, 2012 (PDF)

 

“A Day in the Life of Chon Noriega”

The UCLA Newsroom highlights the October 6 profile of Chon A. Noriega in the Los Angeles Times.

UCLA Headlines, October 8, 2012 (PDF)

 

“Romney’s October Surprise”

CSRC director Chon A. Noriega’s first blog post for The Huffington Post.

The Huffington Post, October 1, 2012 (PDF)

 

 

 

Come to the CSRC on Thursday, November 1, for a community altar and Day of the Dead celebration. Bring a photo, ofrenda, poem, or palabras to commemorate ancestors and loved ones. We will be honoring the memory of Tatiana de la Tierra (1961–2012), Latina lesbian activist, poet, and CSRC friend and donor. The program will feature East Los Angeles poets Olga García Echeverría and Melissa Whitley. Face painting will begin at 2:30 p.m. on the CSRC patio; the program starts at 4:00 p.m. in the library. Sugar skulls will be for sale ($2.00–$10.00) as a fundraiser to send students to the next MALCS Summer Institute. The event is co-sponsored by MALCS de UCLA and the CSRC.

 

Celia Lacayo, graduate student in ethnic studies at UC Berkeley, will discuss her dissertation, “Latino Racialization: White Attitudes and Policy Preferences,” when she performs a practice session for a job talk in the CSRC conference room, 179 Haines Hall, on Friday, November 2, at 2:00 p.m. Students and faculty are invited to attend.

 

It’s that time again—time for the CSRC’s annual open house! This year the festivities will include the opening of the latest library exhibition, Alex Donis: Floating World (see CSRC Library). Stop by the CSRC Library on Tuesday, November 13, 4:00–6:00 p.m., to see the exhibition and to meet the artist and CSRC staff and scholars. Then, enjoy food and live music by Chicano Batman on the patio. Award-winning CSRC Press publications will be on sale at discounted prices, and authors will be signing their books.

 

On Wednesday, November 14, 3:00–5:00 p.m. in the CSRC Library, Tales of Masked Men (2012), a documentary about the mysterious world of Mexican wrestling, will screen. The film explores the history of lucha libre and why this eighty-year-old phenomenon has endured. Director, producer, and UCLA alum Carlos Avila will be present for a Q&A following the screening. This event is co-sponsored by the UCLA Center for Mexican Studies at the Latin American Institute and the CSRC.

 

The Institute of American Cultures will hold its annual Fall Forum and Reception on Monday, December 3, 3:30–6:00 p.m. in the UCLA Faculty Center, California Room. The event will honor the 2012–13 IAC visiting scholars, predoctoral and graduate fellows, and research grant awardees. Representatives from each of the four UCLA ethnic studies centers will participate in the program.

 

 

One hundred fifty students in David Yoo’s introductory class on the Asian American Movement visited the CSRC on October 17. The students toured each of the UCLA ethnic studies centers to learn about the centers’ histories and their ongoing contributions to UCLA and the larger community. Center representatives discussed how the centers can serve as a resource for students’ educational experiences.

 

CSRC librarian Lizette Guerra was recently appointed to the post of historian for Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS). Her three-year term started in October. Guerra regards this service as an honor and a privilege. She will oversee the preservation of and access to MALCS’s history. MALCS is a national organization for Chicana, Latina, and Native American women and trans and gender non-conforming people. MALCS’s records from 1980 to 2005 are housed at the CSRC; a finding aid is available through the Online Archive of California.

 

Opening on November 13 at the CSRC Library is Alex Donis: Floating World.  Curated by the artist, this exhibition of works on paper examines and redefines the boundaries set within religion, politics, race, and sexuality. Los Angeles-based Donis has worked extensively in a variety of media, including painting, installation, and video. Donis’s art is influenced by a tri-cultural (pop, Latino, and queer) experience. The exhibition runs through January 21, 2013. A reception will be held Tuesday, November 13, as part of the CSRC’s annual open house (see Events).

 

The CSRC has acquired an additional sixty linear feet of material for the Patricia Correia Gallery Collection. Included are organizational papers and correspondence between Correia and various artists, as well as several pieces of ephemera that document the gallery’s history. Correia placed a special emphasis on Chicana/o artists, and this collection is essential for researchers, artists, academics, and community members seeking to learn more about the Chicano Art Movement.

 

Ramona Cortés Garza, executive director of state relations in the Department of Government and Community Relations at UCLA, has donated a framed poster for CARA: Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation, a groundbreaking exhibition held at the UCLA Wight Gallery in 1990. ”I hate to part with a bit of history that I was a part of,” she writes, “but best for the framed poster to be in a public space where it will be displayed and appreciated.” The CSRC holds the CARA Papers, a collection that includes correspondence, slides, photos, manuscripts, and administrative documents related to the exhibition. A finding aid is available through the Online Archive of California.

 

In the October 2012 newsletter, we marked the passing of CSRC friend and donor Tatiana de la Tierra. Recently her family donated an additional ten linear feet of papers to the already processed Tatiana de la Tierra Papers.

 

The CSRC is currently working on several large archival collections. Still in process are the Grace Montañez Davis Papers, the Ricardo Muñoz Papers, and the Raphael Ortiz Papers. The Davis and Ortiz collections are expected to be available to researchers by January 2013. The extensive Muñoz collection is on track to be completed by fall 2013. All will have online finding aids.

 

The library has just received the Josefa L. Serna Photograph Collection, which comprises approximately five linear feet of family photos whose dates range from the 1920s to the turn of the century.

 

Now available for viewing on CSRC YouTube are presentations made at the opening of Dichos: The David Damian Figueroa Collection, an exhibition at the CSRC Library in September and October. David Damian Figueroa, Dolores Huerta, and Chon A. Noriega provide comments about the art and objects displayed and the importance of personal collections for Chicano/Latino history.

 

Researchers who wish to consult CSRC collections may contact the librarian, Lizette Guerra, at lguerra@chicano.ucla.edu.

 

 

UCLA professor Robert Chao Romero looks at some of the cutting-edge legal strategies and social science research that scholars and policy makers are currently employing to boost the academic achievement of Chicano/Latino students and to increase the number of Chicano/Latino college graduates. The report, Law, Social Policy, and the Latina/o Education Pipeline (CSRC Research Report No. 15), was prepared for the CSRC’s annual Latina/o Education Summit last month. It is available as a downloadable PDF from the CSRC Press website.

 

In Rafael Ferrer, Deborah Cullen considers the creative evolution of the Puerto Rican-born artist, who is widely known for his postminimalist environments created in the 1960s and 1970s. Cullen traces Ferrer’s trajectory, beginning with his early experiments in Surrealism and continuing to the small-scale collages, chalkboard drawings, and paper-bag faces that represent his latest work. She explores the links that tie these works together, including Ferrer’s concern with current events and personal memory, his deep understanding of art history, and his restless, probing curiosity. Rafael Ferrer, volume 7 in the CSRC Press’s award-winning A Ver: Revisioning Art History series, is now available from the distributor, University of Minnesota Press. Copies are also available for purchase at the CSRC. Contact Darling Sianez at support@chicano.ucla.edu.