CSRC Newsletter - Summer 2020

We bring you our first ever summer issue! There were simply too many things to convey before the start of classes in the Fall. First, I’ll be continuing as director for one more year in order to allow a smooth transition for the incoming director. I’m really excited about the new director, who will be announced in the coming months. In addition to the events described below, the CSRC has been actively involved in proposing concrete steps for increasing racial justice at UCLA. You can see the letters and statements on the CSRC website here. Finally, this Wednesday we will celebrate Esteban E. Torres as he receives the UCLA Medal. Torres, who served eight terms as a US congressman, is one of the first Latinos from California to be elected to the US House of Representatives in the twentieth century. The presentation of the award was postponed when UCLA transitioned to remote learning and work in order to curb the spread of COVID-19. As a result, CSRC will now co-host the first virtual UCLA Medal ceremony! You’ll find information about when and where to watch, and how to send Torres a message of congratulations, below. I hope you will join us online as Chancellor Gene Block recognizes this remarkable man, whose work has been predicated on achieving racial, social, and economic justice for all Americans.

 

Wishing everyone a safe and happy summer!

 

 

Please join us for the virtual UCLA Medal ceremony honoring Esteban E. Torres. The UCLA Medal is the highest honor for extraordinary accomplishment that may be bestowed upon an individual by UCLA. Torres championed labor rights throughout his professional career, first through his work with the UAW and then in the US House of Representatives, where he was the member for California’s 34th congressional district from 1983 until he retired in 1999. Following his retirement, Torres went on to serve on the California Transportation Commission, the National Latino Media Coalition, and on numerous Boards. The ceremony will include remarks from Congressman Torres, as well as UCLA chancellor Gene Block, Institute of American Cultures vice provost David Yoo, and CSRC director Chon A. Noriega, plus several civic leaders. The event is hosted by the UCLA Office of the Chancellor, the IAC, and the CSRC. To RSVP and leave a message of congratulations for Congressman Torres, please visit http://uclaspecialevents.ucla.edu/estebanetorres. The video will remain online after it premieres.

 

The CSRC is pleased to announce that Xaviera Flores, CSRC librarian and archivist, and Doug Johnson, CSRC archives specialist, have earned career status following performance reviews this year. For UC librarians, career status is the equivalent of academic tenure for professors. Congratulations, Xaviera and Doug, for this much-deserved recognition for your excellent work!

 

The CSRC welcomes José Loya, assistant professor of urban planning, to UCLA. Loya received his PhD in sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and holds a master’s degree in statistics from the Wharton School. His research addresses issues of importance to Latinos in urban areas, including the stratification of home ownership that results from ethno-racial and gender disparities in mortgage access. Loya was appointed following a national search led by the UCLA Department of Urban Planning and the CSRC. Loya will be a CSRC Faculty Associate and a member of the CSRC Faculty Advisory Committee. We welcome him to the CSRC community and look forward to working with him.

 

The CSRC welcomes Genevieve Carpio, assistant professor of Chicana/o and Central American studies, as the chair of the CSRC Faculty Advisory Committee for 2020-21. We would like to thank Vilma Ortiz, professor of sociology, for her dedicated service as committee chair from Fall 2015 through Spring 2020.

 

The CSRC congratulates Leisy Abrego, professor of Chicana/o and Central American studies and CSRC faculty advisory committee member, on her appointment as chair of the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies. The appointment is for a three-year term.  We look forward to working with Abrego in her new role.

 

Pilar Tompkins Rivas, director of the Vincent Price Art Museum (VPAM) and former CSRC arts project coordinator, has been named chief curator and deputy director of curatorial and collections at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. The museum, which is under construction, is located in Exposition Park. Rivas was a co-curator of the CSRC-organized exhibitions Mapping Another L.A.: The Chicano Art Movement, Icons of the Invisible: Oscar Castillo, Asco and Friends: Exiled Portraits, and Home—So Different, So Appealing. As VPAM’s director she collaborated with CSRC on Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell.

 

The CSRC congratulates Michael Aguilar, CSRC community engagement coordinator, on his new position as outreach and user engagement librarian at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library at San Jose State University. Aguilar began working at the CSRC while pursuing master’s degrees in Latin American studies and library and information studies. After he graduated, Aguilar was a key contributor to the La Raza digitization project before becoming our first community engagement coordinator. Aguilar’s last day at the CSRC was June 30. We thank him for his service to the CSRC community and wish him the very best.

 

Alicia Gaspar de Alba, professor of Chicana/o and Central American studies, director of the LGBT studies program, and former CSRC associate director, has received an OpenUCLA Affordable Course Materials Initiative Award from the UCLA Library for the upcoming academic year. The awards provide support to professors who create original educational resources that eliminate the need for students to purchase textbooks. Gaspar de Alba received her award for her forthcoming course, “Femi[ni]cide: Death, Gender, and the Border,” which will be offered in Spring 2021. Jennifer Osorio, head of international studies for the UCLA Library and CSRC Faculty Advisory Committee member, will partner with Gaspar de Alba to facilitate the selection of these resources.

 

Pamela Munro, distinguished research professor of linguistics, is the recipient of a 2019-20 Edward A. Dickson Emeritus Professorship Award. The award honors outstanding research, scholarly work, teaching, and service performed by an emerita or emeritus professor since retirement. Munro is a specialist in the preservation and revitalization of indigenous languages of the Americas, and since her retirement in 2011 she has continued to publish, teach, and engage in community service. She also participates in the Zapotexts research group, in which members transcribe, translate, and analyze Zapotec documents from the early Mexican colonial period. Munro, who received several CSRC research grants for her work in this area, co-authored the first Zapotec-English dictionary, which was published by CSRC Press in 1999.

 

Two recently published books were informed by research conducted with CSRC collections. José M. Alamillo, professor of Chicana/o studies at California State University, Channel Islands, drew upon the La Opinión Newspaper Records for his new book, Deportes: The Making of a Sporting Mexican Diaspora (Rutgers University Press, 2020), and Benjamin Francis-Fallon, assistant professor of history at Western Carolina University, made extensive use of  the Edward R. Roybal Papers for his publication The Rise of the Latino Vote: A History (Harvard University Press, 2020).  

 

InPark Magazine profiled recent hires at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, including Pilar Tompkins Rivas as chief curator and deputy director of curatorial and collections. The article mentions Rivas's former appointment as arts project coordinator at the CSRC.

InPark Magazine, July 13, 2020 (URL) (PDF)

 

In a story about the recent toppling of statues near California missions, the CSRC-led research project Critical Mission Studies was mentioned, as well as “Toppling Mission Monuments and Mythologies,” an online conference organized by the project’s leaders and held on July 15. The collaborative project involves researchers from area universities and Indian tribes.

Religion News Service, July 9, 2020 (URL) (PDF)

 

A story in UC Riverside News previewed the online conference “Toppling Mission Monuments and Mythologies,” organized by Critical Mission Studies, a research project based at the CSRC.

UC Riverside News, July 9, 2020 (URL) (PDF)

 

The Los Angeles Times reported on the appointment of Pilar Tompkins Rivas as chief curator and deputy director of curatorial and collections at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. Rivas is currently director of the Vincent Price Art Museum and a former arts project coordinator at the CSRC. She served as a co-curator of the CSRC-organized exhibitions L.A. Xicano (a series of interrelated exhibitions), Asco and Friends: Exiled Portraits, and Home—So Different, So Appealing, and through her role at VPAM, Tompkins Rivas partnered with the CSRC on the exhibition Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell.

Los Angeles Times, July 9, 2020 (URL) (PDF)

Chicago Tribune, July 9, 2020 (reprint) (URL) (PDF)

 

In a statement published June 30, 2020, Chancellor Gene D. Block and Executive Vice-Chancellor and Provost Emily A. Carter announced new steps that UCLA will take to support Black students at UCLA. The CSRC, along with the other ethnic studies research centers within the Institute of American Cultures, was named as one of the university units that will be bolstered in these efforts.

UCLA Newsroom, June 30, 2020 (URL) (PDF)

 

A book review of The Hispanic Republican: The Shaping of an American Identity, from Nixon to Trump (Ecco Press, 2020) by Geraldo Cadava and The Rise of the Latino Vote: A History (Harvard University Press, 2020) by Benjamin Francis-Fallon cited the authors' use of the CSRC Library’s archive, which the reviewer called an otherwise “underutilized” resource.

The Nation, June 30, 2020 (URL) (PDF)

 

UCLA Newsroom published a photo essay of Bruins demonstrating their resiliency during the pandemic. Offering their personal experiences were LeighAnna Hidalgo, CSRC IUPLR-Mellon dissertation fellow; Moctesuma Esparza, CSRC collections donor and UCLA alum; Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, member of the CSRC faculty advisory committee; and Darling Sianez, CSRC business manager.

UCLA Newsroom, June 22, 2020 (URL) (PDF)

 

UCLA Newsroom published a piece highlighting four students from the class of 2020 with ties to UCLA's four ethnic studies centers and their related academic departments. Among them was CSRC graduate student researcher Sarah Corona. Corona recently received an MA in Latin American studies and an MLIS in information studies.

UCLA Newsroom, June 12, 2020 (URL) (PDF)

 

Fullerton Observer published a piece examining the history of the Bernal house, the focus of a landmark case in the legal fight to end race- and ethnicity-based residential segregation. Doss v. Bernal: Ending Mexican Apartheid in Orange County, a CSRC Research Report co-authored by UCLA professor Robert Chao Romero, is cited in the piece.

Fullerton Observer, June 11, 2020 (URL) (PDF)

 

UCLA Newsroom published a statement written by UCLA faculty that calls for the end of state violence against Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian peoples. CSRC director Chon A. Noriega is a co-signer of the statement.

UCLA Newsroom, June 5, 2020 (URL) (PDF)

 

 

The finding aid for the Aztlán and UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press Records has been updated. Founded in 1969, CSRC Press was an essential contributor to the founding and flowering of Chicano studies in the 1970s. It was one of first academic publishers to focus on matters of concern to Chicanx communities, and its journal, Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, provided opportunities for scholars in the emerging field, many of whom could not find mainstream publishers. The collection contains materials related to the press's operations between 1970 and 2007 and includes original submissions, production process materials, promotional materials, annual reports, and correspondence. The finding aid is available at the Online Archive of California.

 

On July 1, CSRC librarian Xaviera Flores participated in the panel discussion “Introduction to Special and BIPOC Library Resources,” which was presented via Zoom to the twenty-one students in this year’s UCLA Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship cohort. Flores spoke about the challenges of obtaining and creating access to library materials during the COVID-19 pandemic. Joy Holland, librarian for the American Indian Studies Center, and Dalena Hunter, UCLA Library librarian and archivist for Los Angeles Communities and Cultures, also participated. The panel was presented as part of English Composition 180: “Research Writing Workshop.”

 

Most off-campus exhibitions that include images and artworks from CSRC collections and publications are currently closed due to the COVID-19 crisis. The following exhibition is now on view:

• Art after Stonewall, 1969–1989, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, through October 4.

CSRC Press