CSRC Newsletter - October 2018

Volume 17, Number 1

Director’s Message

As we start a new academic year, the CSRC welcomes new students and faculty to UCLA. We look forward to working together in advancing research that makes a difference. Next year the CSRC will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. I was reminded recently of the personal dimension of this history when I visited the UCLA Faculty Center for a start-of-the-year faculty meeting. There in the main room was Gronk’s The Mug, which has graced the walls for nearly twenty-five years. The artist donated the painting in the aftermath of the spring 1993 hunger strike by students protesting the university’s decision to close the Chicano Studies Program.
 
While anyone who visits the Faculty Center can see this painting, little has been published about the work. One thing is clear: Gronk loves coffee. If you follow him on Facebook you’re likely to see photos of his own coffee mug, sometimes next to a new drawing, other times standing guard over an artistically displayed meal. His diaries, sketchbooks, and paintings are filled with images of coffee cups and mugs. His fascination with this image has an autobiographical element, one that is shared with other modern artists. When Gronk was a young struggling artist in East L.A., he and fellow artists would pool their money for a meal of coffee and donuts.
 
But what is this work about? The Mug shows a coffee mug painted in red, orange, and yellow, set against a background of blue, green, and indigo brush strokes. Paint from the cup drips onto a violet and black figure below, speckling the figure’s torso. The figure is rendered in a generic cartoon style with three-fingered hands. The painting is playful and open-ended: one can see something new with each viewing. One might guess that this painting has to do with the individual experience of structuring one's workday around coffee as both stimulant and occasion for social interaction. We’ve all been there. Or maybe it gestures to the social history of coffee, a history deeply rooted in colonialism. But Gronk is not narrating a story or conveying a message. In fact, his use of the seven colors of the visible spectrum—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet—is a knowing wink to the meeting ground of science, art, and everyday life. Sir Isaac Newton is the one who divided the visible spectrum into seven colors, choosing that number not because it is inherent to visible light (it is not), but because the number seven resonated with the number of musical notes, the number of then known planets in the solar system, and the number of days in the week. For Newton, the arts, the universe, and our earthly existence were all connected. So they are, too, for Gronk. But Gronk is also making a point about paintings: whatever we think they may mean, they are also always about paint.
 
But there is another side to Gronk’s art, one that explains the nature of his gift to the university. Gronk’s work reflects a lifelong commitment to social justice and human rights. This includes early paintings such as the diptych painting The Truth about the Terror in Chile (1973) as well as Black and White Mural (1973), a mural at the Estrada Courts housing project that was created in collaboration with Willie Herrón III. Black and White Mural, one of the most recognized murals coming out of the Chicano civil-rights movement, weaves together scenes from Marcel Carné’s film Les enfants du paradis (Children of Paradise, 1945), shot in Nazi-occupied Paris, with paintings of news images from civil rights protests in East Los Angeles. In the 1980s, Gronk also did a series of satirical paintings on how economic policy and media culture were glorifying the wealthy and undermining the social contract and national economy. After the 1992 Los Angeles riots, he did an ambitious series of black-on-black paintings documenting the streets and homes of South Central. Gronk’s donation of the painting to the UCLA Faculty Center is an extension of these commitments.
 
In 2011, I met with Dr. Irving Zabin, who, as board chair of the Faculty Center, had accepted Gronk’s gift. Zabin had recently retired after sixty-one years of service in the UCLA Medical School. We sat beside The Mug as he expressed considerable enthusiasm for the work and how much it meant for UCLA. In fact, he felt that UCLA owed Gronk a formal expression of gratitude. While that has yet to happen, Zabin and his wife had a chance meeting with Gronk at the Faculty Center two years earlier. “We had a pleasant talk with him,” Zabin said, “and I personally thanked him for his donation.”
 
You can learn more about Gronk’s work by viewing his papers at the CSRC Library, reading Max Benavidez’s book, and watching him in action at the Fowler Museum.
 
Chon A. Noriega
Director and Professor
 

News

Armenta joins UCLA and CSRC
The CSRC welcomes Amada Armenta, assistant professor of urban planning, to UCLA. Armenta received her PhD in sociology from UCLA, and her research focuses on race and ethnicity, immigration, and crime and justice. She is also a new CSRC faculty associate and member of the CSRC Faculty Advisory Committee. We welcome her to the CSRC community and look forward to working with her.
 
Heskett retires from UCLA
Connie Garcia Heskett, CSRC management services officer, retired from the university on September 29. Heskett joined the CSRC in 2011 and was employed at UCLA for a total of twenty-one years. Heskett, who received a BA in English from UCLA, managed the CSRC’s day-to-day operations. She was instrumental in helping the CSRC obtain and administer grants from major foundations, including the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts, and the Getty Foundation. We will miss her, we thank her, and we wish her the very best. Business correspondence should now be directed to Darling Sianez, business analyst, at darlings@chicano.ucla.edu.
 
Tucker named special liaison for faculty development
M. Belinda Tucker, professor emerita of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences and the inaugural vice provost of the Institute of American Cultures, has been appointed special liaison for faculty development. In this newly created position, Tucker will assist faculty who need guidance on a wide variety of academic matters related to faculty welfare and advancement, including harassment and mistreatment. Tucker will advise the Academic Personnel Office (APO) on programming and policies and assist in the development and implementation of initiatives that will serve UCLA faculty and faculty diversity.
 
CSRC and LPPI publish study on Smithsonian Institution and Latino representation
A new report issued by the CSRC, in collaboration with the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative (LPPI), concludes that efforts by the Smithsonian Institution to increase Latino representation within the Smithsonian’s workforce, collections, exhibitions, and programming have been inadequate. The study, which was announced last June, analyzed the Smithsonian’s progress toward implementing ten recommendations designed to increase Latino representation, which were made in 1994 by the Smithsonian’s Task Force on Latino Issues and published in a report titled Willful Neglect: The Smithsonian Institution and U.S. Latinos. The task force found that at that time Latinos made up only 2.7 percent of the Smithsonian's workforce and that no Latinos held positions in senior management or executive leadership. The CSRC-LPPI study used a mixed-methods framework to analyze Latino representation at the Smithsonian over the past twenty-four years. The first report of findings, Invisible No More: An Evaluation of the Smithsonian Institution and Latino Representation, was released September 10. An update using data provided by the Smithsonian was published September 25. For media coverage, see In the News (below).
 
CSRC Press publications win International Latino Book Awards
On September 8, Latino Literacy Now announced winners in the twentieth annual International Latino Book Awards. The following titles from CSRC Press received recognition: Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell won second place for Best LGBTQ Themed Book and honorable mention for Best Latino Focused Book Design and Best Latina Themed Book; Judith F. Baca won first place for best Latino Focused Book Design and second place for Best Arts Book and Best Latina Themed Book; Home—So Different, So Appealing won first place for Best Cover Design and Best Cover Photo, second place for Best Latino Focused Book Design and Best Interior Design, and honorable mention for Best Use of Photos Inside the Book; and The Chicano Studies Reader: An Anthology of Aztlán, 1970–2015 won first place for Best Academic Themed Book. These and all CSRC Press books are available for individual purchase and course adoption. For more information, contact csrcinfo@chicano.ucla.edu or call (310) 825-2363.
 
Noriega receives L.A. Impact Award
At a luncheon on September 6, CSRC director Chon A. Noriega received a 2018 L.A. Impact Award from the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC). Noriega was honored with an award for Outstanding Service and Commitment to the Latino Community. In response, Noriega stated, “I am fortunate to have had mentors involved in the Chicano Movement who inspired me to pursue research that makes a difference. Today, anything I do at the university must have an outcome that impacts the community. But it must work both ways. I see the community as an equal partner, one that brings its own insights and achievements that can advance higher education. I'm honored and deeply moved to be recognized by the National Hispanic Media Coalition, since they've always been my role model for how a small group of people can effectively push for needed change.” Also honored at the ceremony were local journalists Claudia Botero, Juan Fernandez, and Vera Jimenez and the telenovela web series Sin Vergüenza. To learn more about the event and honorees, click here
 
Noriega contributes commentary to film release
The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez was recently restored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and released this summer for the first time for home viewing. Available from the Criterion Collection in DVD and Blu-Ray, the new release includes interviews with CSRC director Chon A. Noriega and members of the cast and crew. For more information, visit the Criterion Collection here.
 
Black presents at LSA
Charlene Villaseñor Black, professor of art history and Chicana/o studies, CSRC associate director, and editor of Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, published by CSRC Press, participated on the panel “Publishing in Latinx Studies” at the Latina/o Studies Association conference, July 11–15, in Washington, D.C. Black was joined by five other editors of journals that publish Latino studies research.
 
Black conducts artist’s talk
On September 29, Charlene Villaseñor Black moderated a public artist’s talk with portrait photographer J. Michael Walker. Walker began his nude portrait project Bodies Mapping Time in 2009, guided by the idea, as stated on the artist’s website, that “life events are recorded on a woman’s skin … the storied evidence of her progress through life.” The project now comprises portraits of over eighty women, twenty-one to ninety years of age. The exhibition is on view through October 14 at The Situation Room, 2313 Norwalk Ave., Los Angeles, 90041.
 
Black named conference chair
Charlene Villaseñor Black has been named chair of the 2019 annual conference of the College Art Association. The conference will take place February 13–16 in New York City. For more information, visit the CAA website conference page.
 
Abrego wins article award
The CSRC congratulates Leisy Abrego, associate professor of Chicana/o studies and member of the CSRC Faculty Advisory Committee, on winning the 2018 Latin American Studies Association’s Outstanding Article Award. The article, “On Silences: Salvadoran Refugees Then and Now,” was published in Latino Studies, volume 15, issue 1 (April 2017) and can be downloaded here.
 
Azaceta exhibition in New York
Cuban-American painter Luis Cruz Azaceta, whose work was featured in last year’s CSRC-organized exhibition Home—So Different, So Appealing, is the focus of a solo show currently on view at the George Adams Gallery in New York City. Luis Cruz Azaceta, 1984–1989 closes November 3. Azaceta is the focus of an award-winning volume in the A Ver: Revisioning Art History series from CSRC Press.
 
De la Loza at Municipal Art Gallery
Artist and former CSRC visiting scholar Sandra de la Loza, whose work was featured in the CSRC’s L.A. Xicano exhibitions in 2011-12, will participate in the group exhibition Here at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, October 25–January 6, 2019. De la Loza, author of the CSRC Press publication The Pocho Research Society Field Guide to L.A., will present work pertaining to Los Angeles’s early transportation infrastructure and its role in the city’s history of race and class divisions. For more information, visit lamag.org.
 
Gómez publishes op-ed on Kavanaugh
Laura E. Gómez, professor of law, Chicana/o studies, and sociology, and former chair of the CSRC Faculty Advisory Committee, published an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times about the truthfulness of Brett Kavanaugh, nominee for the US Supreme Court. Gómez points to Kavanaugh’s sworn denials that he had any knowledge of sexual misconduct on the part of his mentor, Alex Kozinski, who retired from of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2017 after his misconduct was exposed. Gómez began a clerkship with another judge on the court shortly after Kavanaugh completed his clerkship with Kozinski. Read the op-ed, which was published on September 20, here.
 
Salagado publishes article
Casandra D. Salgado, doctoral candidate in sociology, published the article “Mexican American Identity: Regional Differentiation in New Mexico” in Sociology of Race and Ethnicity on September 11. Salgado received research grants from the CSRC and Institute of American Cultures to conduct the related study. The article may be accessed online here.  
 
Torres-Gil publishes book
Fernando Torres-Gil, distinguished professor of social welfare at the Luskin School of Public Affairs, director of the Luskin Center for Policy Research on Aging, and CSRC faculty associate, recently published The Politics of a Majority-Minority Nation: Aging, Diversity, and Immigration (Springer Publishing Company, 2018). Torres-Gil co-authored the publication with Jacqueline L. Angel, professor of sociology and public policy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin.
 
Vahac Mardirosian, presente!
On October 12, 5:30–8:00 p.m., LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes will hold an event honoring Vahac Mardirosian, who passed away this summer. The child of Armenian genocide survivors, Mardirosian grew up in post-revolutionary Mexico and came to the United States during World War II. A Baptist minister, he became a political activist and educational reformer during the Chicano movement and remained an ally to the Chicano community. Images from the CSRC’s La Raza Photograph Collection will be on view at the service. To RSVP email rsvp@lapca.org. For more information see the Facebook event listing here.
 
Leobardo Estrada Fellowship Fund established
Leobardo Estrada, professor of urban planning, retired in June 2017, concluding a career at UCLA that began in 1976. Estrada was a CSRC faculty associate and served on the CSRC Faculty Advisory Committee throughout his tenure. Upon his retirement, the Leobardo Estrada Fellowship Fund at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs was established to support graduate students in the Department of Urban Planning who are from cultural, racial, linguistic, geographic, and socioeconomic backgrounds that are underrepresented in graduate education. To make a donation to the fund click here.
 

CSRC in the News

“Datebook: Avant-garde graphic design, untold stories of California slavery and poetry in the sky”
The La Raza exhibition at the Autry Museum of the American West, which was organized in collaboration with the CSRC, was featured in a Los Angeles Times roundup of acclaimed exhibitions across Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Times, September 28, 2018 (PDF)
 
“The Veteranas of Chicana Youth Culture in Los Angeles”
The New York Times profiled artist Guadalupe Rosales and her archive of photos and ephemera chronicling Chicana and Chicano youth culture in Los Angeles in the 1980s and '90s. The article cites the CSRC as an early advisor to Rosales regarding her materials.
The New York Times, September 27, 2018 (PDF)
 
“‘The Smithsonian can do more and should do more,’ says advocate for a Latino museum”
A feature in The Washington Post discussed the findings presented in the report Invisible No More: The Smithsonian Institution and Latino Representation, researched and published by the CSRC in collaboration with the UCLA Latino Politics and Policy Institute at the Luskin School of Public Affairs. CSRC director Chon A. Noriega was quoted in the piece.
The Washington Post, September 25, 2018 (PDF)
Highlighted in UCLA News, September 26, 2018 (PDF)
 
“Eduardo Carrillo, a Painter Who Took Chicano Art Beyond Identity’s Borders”
Hyperallergic featured an article on the work of Eduardo Carrillo, which is currently on view at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. It contains material lent by the CSRC.
Hyperallergic, September 13, 2018 (PDF)
 
“On Saturday, Los Tigres del Norte Will Become the First Norteño Act to Play at the Hollywood Bowl”
CSRC director Chon A. Noriega was quoted in a piece by the Los Angeles Times discussing the impact of the music of Los Tigres del Norte in Mexico and the United States.
Los Angeles Times, September 13, 2018 (PDF)
Mentioned in UCLA News, September 13, 2018 (PDF)
 
“Invisible No More / No más invisibles”
The findings of the Invisible No More study, conducted by the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative (LPPI) and the CSRC, were discussed in an article by ManhattanTimes.
ManhattanTimes, September 11, 2018 (PDF)
 
“Latinos Remain Largely Excluded By Smithsonian Institutions, New Report Finds”
An article discussing the findings of the Invisible No More study, conducted by the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative (LPPI) and the CSRC, was featured on a WAMU American University Radio broadcast. The transcript is available on the station’s website.
WAMU American University Radio, September 10, 2018 (PDF)
 
“Blu-Ray Review: The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, a Landmark Film”
A review of the newly released Blu-Ray and DVD of The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez that cites an interview with CSRC director Chon A. Noriega as part of the supplemental materials.
Screenanarchy, September 5, 2018 (PDF)
 
“Datebook: 45 Years of Printmaking, Children of the Holocaust and Jack Whitten's Writings”
The La Raza exhibition at the Autry Museum of the American West, which was organized in collaboration with the CSRC, was included in a roundup of acclaimed exhibitions currently on view across Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Times, August 23, 2018 (PDF)
 
“'The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez' (1982) Is a Landmark of Chicano Cinema, and a Passion Project for Star Edward James Olmos”
The Los Angeles Times featured a piece on the film The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, which was recently restored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. An interview with CSRC director Chon A. Noriega is featured in the new supplemental materials included in the newly released DVD and Blu-Ray versions.
Los Angeles Times, August 21, 2018 (PDF)
 
“A Pioneer of Latinx Identity: Laura Aguilar’s Unapologetically Queer Bodies”
CSRC archival materials were used in an article by Aperture, which examined the work of photographer Laura Aguilar and her contributions to Latinx identity.
Aperture, August 2, 2018 (PDF)
 
“Art Gallery Publishes UCLA Undergraduate’s Research on Artist Patssi Valdez”
Rocio Sanchez-Nolasco, CSRC associate director Charlene Villaseñor Black’s advisee, was featured in a piece by UCLA News that notes the publication in Art Gallery of Sanchez-Nolasco’s research on artist Patssi Valdez. Sanchez-Nolasco conducted archival research for her study at the CSRC.
UCLA News, July 19, 2018 (PDF)
 
“A Chicano Renaissance? A New Mexican-American Generation Embraces the Term”
CSRC director Chon A. Noriega was quoted in a piece by NBC News that examined a renaissance in the use of the words “Chicana” and “Chicano.”
NBC News, July 15, 2018 (PDF)
Highlighted in UCLA News, July 17, 2018 (PDF)
 
“Datebook: Shots of Old Route 66, Dreamlike Paintings and Garments Fashioned from Paper”
The La Raza exhibition at the Autry Museum of the American West, which was organized in collaboration with the CSRC, was included in a roundup of acclaimed exhibitions currently on view across Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Times, July 12, 2018 (PDF)
 
“Exhibition—The 1968 Walkouts: Selections from UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Collections”
The 1968 Walkouts: Selections from the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, organized by the CSRC, was highlighted by Best Things California. The exhibition was on view at the Vincent Price Art Museum, June 2–7, 2018.
Best Things California, July 6, 2018 (PDF)
 

Events

LGBTQ Welcome Back Resource Fair
Thursday, October 4, 3:00–4:30 p.m.
UCLA James West Alumni Center
Celebrate the beginning of the academic year and kick off National Coming Out Week with the UCLA LGBT Campus Resource Center and the UCLA Lambda (LGBTQ) Alumni Association. The event will feature campus and community partners, including the CSRC, who will present information about the resources and services they provide on campus. The fair is open to all students, faculty, alumni, and Bruin community members. For further information, visit the LGBTQ Welcome Back Resource Fair events page.
 
2018 CSRC Annual Open House
Thursday, October 11, 5:007:30 p.m.; program at 6:00 p.m.
CSRC Library–144 Haines Hall
Join us for the annual CSRC Open House! The open house will also serve as the official opening of Family, Community, Country: The Nell and Phil Soto Story, a library exhibition featuring materials from the recently acquired Nell and Phil Soto Papers. Tom Soto will provide comments on the exhibition, which surveys his parents’ forty years of public service to the state of California. The exhibition will remain on view in the CSRC Library through fall quarter. Also scheduled to appear are representatives from the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC), who will give a brief presentation on the NHMC's Latinx Inclusion in Film campaign. There will be other special guests, CSRC publications on sale, and more. Meet CSRC staff and enjoy catering by Casablanca on the patio. See you there! 
 
Book Talk: Justin Akers Chacón presents Radicals in the Barrio
Tuesday, October 16, 4:00 p.m.
6275 Bunche Hall
Join us when Justin Akers Chacón, professor of Chicano and Chicana studies at San Diego City College, presents his new book Radicals in the Barrio: Magonistas, Socialists, Wobblies, and Communists in the Mexican-American Working Class (Haymarket Books, 2018), a comprehensive study of the long and rich history of political radicalism within the Mexican and Chicano working class in the United States. Chacón documents the ways in which migratory workers brought their radical political ideologies, new organizational models, and a shared class experience with them when they crossed the border into the United States in the early twentieth century. In this talk, Chacón will focus on the contributions of Mexican radicals in Los Angeles and current organizing among immigrant workers in Southern California. This event is hosted by the Department of History and co-sponsored by the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies, the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies, and the CSRC.
 
2018 IAC Fall Forum
Thursday, October 18, 3:00–5:00 p.m.
UCLA James West Alumni Center
You are invited to the UCLA Institute of American Cultures (IAC) Annual Fall Forum, featuring the 2018–19 IAC visiting researchers and scholars, graduate and predoctoral fellows, and research grant awardees at UCLA’s four ethnic studies centers. Four scholars—one representing each center—will talk about their research and their goals.
Josen Diaz, Ph.D., IAC visiting scholar, Asian American Studies Center
Topic: “Memory as Anti-History: National Culture and Other U.S.-Philippine State Fictions”
Interviewer: Victor Bascara, Ph.D., associate professor and chair, Department of Asian American Studies
Yatta Kiazolu, Ph.D. student, Department of History, Bunche Center for African American Studies
Topic: “Black Women's Transnational Activism in the Era of Decolonization”
Interviewer: Brenda Stevenson, Ph.D., professor and Nickoll Family Endowed Chair in History, Department of History
Nancy Mithlo, Ph.D., professor, gender studies, American Indian Studies Center
Topic: “Seeing American Indians”
Interviewer: Stella Nair, Ph.D., associate professor, Indigenous Arts of the Americas, Department of Art History
Roy Pérez, Ph.D., IAC visiting scholar, Chicano Studies Research Center
Topic: “Proximities: Queer Configurations of Race in Latinx Literature and Performance”
Interviewer: Joshua Javier Guzmán, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Gender Studies
Refreshments will be served. The Fall Forum will be followed by UCLA Alumni Association's Professors in the Pub program, featuring Josen Diaz in a conversational format. The Fall Forum is organized by the Institute of American Cultures and co-sponsored by the American Indian Studies Center, the Asian American Studies Center, the Bunche Center for African American Studies, and the CSRC. Please RSVP at Eventbrite
 
Talk: Judy Baca and Anna Indych-López in conversation
Thursday, October 18, 2018, 7:30 p.m.
Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., L.A., CA 90024
The CSRC is partnering with the Hammer Museum to present a conversation between Judy Baca, famed public artist and recently retired UCLA faculty, and Anna Indych-López, Stuart Z. Katz Professor in the Humanities and the Arts at City College of New York at The Graduate Center. Indych-López is the author of Judith F. Baca, published by CSRC Press. The book will be available for purchase at the event. This event is free with tickets distributed on a first come, first served basis. For more information, visit the Hammer Museum.
 
Book Talk: Contributors present Chicana Movidas: New Narratives of Activism and Feminism in the Movement Era
Tuesday, October 23, 4:00–6:00 p.m.
CSRC Library–144 Haines Hall
With contributions from a wide array of scholars and activists, including leading Chicana feminists from the period, this anthology is the first collection of scholarly essays and testimonios to focus on Chicana organizing, activism, and leadership in the years of the Chicano movement. The essays in Chicana Movidas: New Narratives of Activism and Feminism in the Movement Era (University of Texas Press, 2018), as described by the publisher, “demonstrate how Chicanas enacted a new kind of politica at the intersection of race, class, gender, and sexuality, and developed innovative concepts, tactics, and methodologies that in turn generated new theories, art forms, organizational spaces, and strategies of alliance.” Join us in the CSRC Library for a panel discussion featuring co-editors and contributors Maylei Blackwell, Marisela Chavez, María Eugenia Cotera, Dionne Espinoza, and Anna NietoGomez, among others. A reception on the patio will follow the discussion. Books will be available for purchase at the event.
 
Día de los muertos invocation and celebration
Monday, October 29, 4:00–5:30 p.m.
CSRC Library–144 Haines Hall
Martha Ramirez-Oropeza, artist and adjunct lecturer in the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies, will lead a traditional Day of the Dead invocation ritual outside Haines Hall, followed by a discussion in the CSRC Library with professors Ofelia Cruz Morales and Delfina de la Cruz. Morales and de la Cruz will discuss how their native village Chicontepec, Veracruz, sets ofrenda for its traditional Xantolo (Day of the Dead). The presentation and discussion will be given in Nahuatl and Spanish, with English translations provided.
 
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

Summer scholar visits
The library was busy this summer with visiting scholars, curators, and artists who were using CSRC collections for research pertaining to exhibitions, publications, and dissertations. Among them were Gabriella Beckhurst, doctoral candidate in the history of art at the University of York, England, who conducted research using the Laura Aguilar Papers, and Debarati Byabartta, a graduate student at Texas A&M University, who researched the Latino Theater Initiative–Center Theatre Group Papers for her research on Cantinflas and Mexican cinema. In addition, Erika Lee, director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota, made a return visit to the CSRC to continue her research on repatriation in the 1930s. Lee visited the center in November 2017, when she was on campus to present “From Chinese Exclusion to the Muslim Ban: A History of Xenophobia in America,” the Stanley Kwok Lau and Dora Wong Lau Lecture in Chinese American Studies at the UCLA Asian American Studies Center.
 
New CSRC Library exhibition
Family, Community, Country: The Nell and Phil Soto Story will open at the CSRC Library on October 11 as part of the CSRC’s annual open house celebration. The exhibition celebrates the lives and careers of Nell and Phil Soto. Both were pioneering Latino politicians who served in the California legislature and their local city councils and school districts. The Sotos promoted public health policies, green spaces and parks for children, protecting the environment and air quality, equal housing, and head-start education. Nell (1926–2009) and Phil (1926–1997) were also parents, raising six children, and active church members. Members of the Soto family will be present for the exhibition opening, which draws from the recently donated Nell and Phil Soto Papers. Family, Community, Country will be on view in the library and vitrine through the fall quarter. The exhibition is free to the public and viewable during library hours, Monday–Friday, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
 
Sonidos de la Frontera opens at Music Library
On October 1, the CSRC Library in collaboration with the UCLA Music Library, will open the exhibition Sonidos de la Frontera: Music across Borders and Time. The exhibition highlights the Strachwitz Frontera Collection, the world’s largest repository of commercially produced Mexican and Mexican American musical recordings, which is made available to the public through the University of California’s Digital Library Program. Comprising more than 125,000 recordings, the collection spans almost the entire twentieth century. The exhibition provides a gateway to the collection by using a tiny fraction of the music in combination with material from more than a dozen of the CSRC’s archival collections to discuss significant moments in Mexican and Mexican American music history. Curated chiefly by CSRC archives specialist Doug Johnson, in collaboration with CSRC librarian Xaviera Flores and music inquiry and research librarian Matthew Vest, the exhibition includes photographs, posters, clippings, pamphlets, flyers, songbooks, and audio recordings in a variety of formats. CSRC collections featured are the Humberto Cané Papers, the Pedro J. Gonzalez Papers, and the Anthony Beltramo Collection, among others. The exhibition will be on view outside the Music Library Reading Room at the Schoenberg Music Building for approximately one year. The Music Library is open seven days a week during regular session. For hours, click here. The award-winning research guide to the collection, The Arhoolie Foundation's Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American Recordings, was published by CSRC Press.
 
New acquisitions
This summer the CSRC acquired the Nell and Phil Soto Papers. Nell Soto, who was particularly active in environmental protection policies, was a member of the Pomona City Council in the 1990s before becoming an assemblywoman for California’s 61st District and then a two-term senator for California’s 32nd District. Her husband, Phil Soto, was one of the first Latinos elected to the state legislature. The collection comprises fifty linear feet of political and family papers. Also acquired this summer are the Eastern Group Publications Records. The EGP, which closed in early 2018 after nearly forty years in the newspaper business in Southern California, published the Eastside Sun Journal along with five other bilingual newspapers. The collection contains 126 linear feet. Processing will start this fall. Finally, the CSRC received an addition of 1 linear foot to the Lupe Anguiano Papers.
 
Finding aids now available for Corral and Figueroa collections
The papers of retired UCLA librarian Norma Corral have been processed. The finding aid for the collection, which mostly relates to librarianship in the Latina/o community, is available at the Online Archive of California. Corral was named Librarian of the Year in 2001 by the Los Angeles division of the Librarians Association of the University of California, and she is acknowledged for her role in championing diversity in UCLA collections and within library studies. Also available on the Online Archive of California is the finding aid for the David Damian Figueroa Papers. Figueroa is an activist and communications professional who has served in a number of positions benefitting a range of community constituents, including Latinos, LGBTQ individuals, seniors, people with disabilities, women, and children. The collection documents his years of philanthropy and advocacy work with the AARP and MALDEF and in the entertainment industry, and it includes photographs, correspondence, ephemera, periodicals, and audiovisual materials.
 
Flores provides library instruction
For the second summer in a row, Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellows received assistance with their second-year research at the CSRC Library. MMUF is a two-year a program that helps foster diversity in the humanities by supporting students pursuing doctorate degrees. Students in their first year spend the summer taking classes at a member institution. In their second year, they spend the summer on their home campuses working on research projects. CSRC library Xaviera Flores worked with the fellows in June and July. In addition, during summer session A, Flores provided instruction to eight students in CCS188, “Chicanx/Latinx Social Movements in the 20th Century,” and twenty-one students in CCS10A, “History and Culture.”
 
Flores and Black speak to conservation program cohort
On July 11, Xaviera Flores, CSRC librarian, and Charlene Villaseñor Black, CSRC associate director and professor of art history and Chicana/o studies, addressed the first cohort of students participating in the Andrew W. Mellon Opportunity for Diversity in Conservation at UCLA. They spoke about the CSRC and archival practices at the CSRC Library. Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the initiative offers instruction in the conservation of cultural collections to undergraduates in a range of fields who are members of minority groups that are underrepresented in the field of conservation. The program is composed of weeklong workshops in the summers of 2018 and 2019, followed by internships in museum conservation laboratories in 2019 and 2020. Flores also led participating students on a tour of the La Raza exhibition at the Autry Museum of the American West. For information on the program, click here.
 
Walkout screening features La Raza images
On September 18, in celebration of National Hispanic Heritage month, the city of North Las Vegas screened the HBO film Walkout at North Las Vegas City Hall. The screening was followed by a conversation between councilman Isaac Barron and Moctesuma Esparza, the film’s producer and donor to CSRC collections. Images of the 1968 student walkouts in the CSRC’s La Raza Photograph Collection were on display prior to the screening.
 
La Raza images shown in Mexico
Selections from the CSRC’s La Raza Photograph Collection were on display this summer in La Raza: The Chicano Movement and Photography, July 7–September 2, at the Centro Fotográfico Manuel Álvarez Bravo in Oaxaca, Mexico. The exhibition was curated by Edward McCaughan.
 
Exhibitions on view with CSRC loans
The following off-campus exhibitions include images and artworks from CSRC collections. All are opening in October or are currently on view:
 
To schedule a tour of the CSRC Library, contact CSRC librarian Xaviera Flores at xflores@chicano.ucla.edu or fill out the form on the CSRC Library Services page.
 

CSRC Press

Fall issue of Aztlán
Subjectivity in the autobiographical memoirs of Federico Ronstadt and Mary Helen Ponce and constructions of Chicana/o identity in the music of the Burrito Circuit and in two Hollywood films—Fools Rush In (1997) and McFarland, USA (2015)—are explored in the essay section of the latest issue of Aztlán. The dossier section, “Gringo Injustice,” examines the relationship between Latina/os and the United States legal and judicial system from the perspectives of authors who are or have been law enforcement officers, gang-affiliated youth, or attorneys. The featured artist is Marcus Zilliox, who uses a variety of media to investigate what he calls “trace, residue, and ghost”: memory, ancestry, and history. Visit the journal’s webpage and subscribe today!
 
New DVD release!
Run, Tecato, Run, written and directed by Efraín Gutiérrez and produced by Josephine Faz, is now available on DVD. Volume 10 in the CSRC’s Chicano Cinema and Media Art series, the film, originally released in 1979, depicts a junkie's efforts to break his heroin habit in order to reclaim and raise his daughter. Produced for $60,000, the film explores the connections between the Vietnam War, drug addiction, and crime, examining them in the context of Mexican American family, culture, and spirituality. It stars Efraín Gutiérrez, Arturo Castillo, and Josie Gutiérrez (Josephine Faz). Also included on the DVD is La Onda Chicana (18 minutes, 35 seconds, color), a short film that captures the sound and feel of Chicano/Tejano music in the 1970s. Shot in Port Lavaca, Texas, in 1976, it showcases some of the leading bands of the time, including Little Joe y La Familia, Snowball and Company, Los Chachos, and La Fabrica. The DVD is $29.95 and available in three versions: original version in English and Spanish (no subtitles); English and Spanish with Spanish in English subtitles; and English and Spanish with captions for the hearing impaired. Institutions such as universities and museums must purchase this DVD directly through the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center. The institutional rate includes rights for educational and public screenings. Contact support@chicano.ucla.edu or (310) 825-2363 for more information.