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CSRC Newsletter - Winter Quarter 2023

CSRC director Veronica Terriquez (front row, center) and organizers at the Thriving Youth Survey launch event in Oxnard, CA, February 6, 2023
 
Volume 21, Number 2

Director’s Message

The first three months of 2023 have been a whirlwind, literally and figuratively. As I write, I first want to acknowledge the communities across the state that have been unequally impacted by climate change and the recent storms. Decades of disinvestment in our infrastructure and the withering away of safety nets tend to hurt the most marginalized members Latinx and similarly situated communities.[1]  
 
As we weather these tumultuous times and the challenges posed by our changing climate, the CSRC continues to remain deeply engaged in addressing issues of equity, inclusion, and representation through our research and programming. This quarter we launched our Albert M. Camarillo Lecture series with an incisive and sobering talk by Carlos Vélez-Ibáñez, titled “The Rise of the Necro/Narco Flexible Superstate Network: From Tucson to Tapachula and Their Cultural and Behavioral Consequences.”
 
Part of UCLA’s HSI Infrastructure Initiative is to hire faculty whose research, teaching, and/or mentorship have ties to Latinx communities. The CSRC is at the center of this effort, devoting time and resources to diversifying our faculty, especially in STEM fields. In recent months, I have met extraordinary junior scholars who are pushing new boundaries in a wide variety of disciplines and also have a lot to offer students of diverse ethnic backgrounds. Those selected for these highly competitive faculty positions will be announced in the coming months, along with our second cohort of HSI Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellows, Latinx Studies Seed Grants, and IAC grants recipients. In the meantime, I am pleased to share that three doctoral candidates—Kevin Cruz Amaya (Chicana/o and Central American studies), Salvador Herrera (English), and Hector Negrete (film, television, and digital media)—have been awarded dissertation-completion fellowships through the Inter-University Program for Latino Research (IULPR), administered by the CSRC.
 
The CSRC, working alongside the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative at the Luskin School of Public Policy, has continued the strategic planning process for the Latina Futures, 2050 Lab. We are meeting with scholars and community stakeholders who will join forces to pursue new lines of research that inform a multipronged policy agenda focused on promoting equity for Latinas in California and beyond. The Latina Futures, 2050 Lab recently participated in Latina History Day, the annual conference organized by HOPE (Hispanas Organized for Political Equality). We were energized by the leadership of the mujeres who will help guide our applied research program.
 
At the CSRC we continue to build on the California Freedom Summer Participatory Action Research Project, which engages UC, community college, and high school students in research and civic engagement in their own communities. As an outgrowth of this work with students, we have launched our Thriving Youth Study in order to understand how local institutions can better invest in young people’s educational success, workforce development, well-being, and civic leadership. In alignment with the Latinas Futures, 2050 Lab, this research will include a gender analysis that will examine how family care work shapes the trajectories of Latinas as communities recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and related economic burdens. This research began in Oxnard, where the city of Oxnard, Oxnard College, Clinicas del Camino Real, CSU Channel Islands, and community organizations have guided and supported data collection efforts. The Oxnard study will serve as a template for expanding the Thriving Youth Survey to other regions across the state. You can watch a short video highlighting Oxnard College students’ engagement in this project.
 

The work we do here at the CSRC is a collective effort and a labor of love. Our work could not be possible without the involvement and support of the UCLA community, friends, and collaborators. We are grateful to our funders and donors who believe that our research and programming can make a difference in academia and in the community.

Mil gracias,
 
Veronica Terriquez
Director and Professor
 
[1] For further reading, see Climate Change from the Streets: How Conflict and Collaboration Strengthen the Environmental Justice Movement by Michael Mendez (Yale University Press, 2020).
 

OPPORTUNITIES

Call for Applications: UCLA Gold Shield Ethnic Studies Graduate Fellowship
The Gold Shield Ethnic Studies Fellowship is intended to support one continuing student in each of UCLA’s four ethnic studies master’s or doctoral programs (African American Studies, American Indian Studies, Asian American Studies, Chicana/o and Central American Studies). Students should demonstrate a commitment to promoting social justice and inclusion of historically marginalized peoples through research, scholarship, art, and activism grounded in the experiences of diverse racial and ethnic communities. For more than eighty years, Gold Shield Alumnae has supported UCLA undergraduate and graduate students in their quest for higher education and has fostered enduring relationships between students, Gold Shield members, alumni, and the University.
  • Amount: Four awards of $5,000, paid as stipends, which are applied to standard tuition, unless awardee has another tuition-payment source.
  • Eligibility: Students selected for this prestigious fellowship must be (at the time of the award) a graduate student whose work focuses on a topic relating to ethnic communities in the United States.
  • Disciplines: Humanities, Social Sciences, African American Studies, American Indian Studies, Asian American Studies, Chicana/o & Central American Studies.
  • Application Deadline: April 18, 2023 (check with your department for any
    earlier internal deadlines that need to be met). For more information, visit UCLAscholarships@fas.ucla.edu

EVENTS

Book Talk and Student Workshop: Yu Tokunaga Presents Transborder Los Angeles: An Unknown Transpacific History of Japanese-Mexican Relations
Wednesday, April 5, 2023
Talk at 12:00 p.m.; student workshop at 3:00 p.m.
Young Research Library Presentation Room
Please join us when Yu Tokunaga, associate professor of history at the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies and Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies at Kyoto University, Japan, presents his new book, Transborder Los Angeles: An Unknown Transpacific History of Japanese-Mexican Relations (University of California Press, 2022). Robert Chao Romero, associate professor of Asian American studies and Chicana/o and Central American studies at UCLA will serve as discussant. A light lunch will be provided.
 
Following the book talk, Tokunaga will conduct a student workshop related to the book in the same room from 3:00-4:00 p.m. Undergraduate and graduate students are welcome.
 
Registration is required:
Book Talk: bit.ly/3jsVtJ9
Student Workshop: bit.ly/3HT82XI
 
Screening: Short Films by Harry Gamboa, Jr
Monday, May 15, 2023
7:30 p.m.–9:00 p.m.
Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036
Available Space at the Academy Museum presents a program of short videos by artist, educator, activist, and former CSRC artist-in-residence Harry Gamboa Jr.
 
Gamboa Jr.’s short videos from the 1980s present collaborative works by Asco, the Los Angeles-based performance group, whose core members were Gamboa, Willie Herrón, Glugio “Gronk” Nicandro, and Patssi Valdez. Captivating, dynamic, daring, and humorous, these creative performances represent Asco’s search for a new artistic language and perspective. The films are directed by Harry Gamboa Jr. and appear courtesy of the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center and the UCLA Film and Television Archive. The event was programmed by Hyesung ii. Total program runtime is 74 minutes. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit https://www.academymuseum.org/en/programs/detail/harry-gamboa-jr
 
McNair Senior Presentations
Thursday, May 25 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
CSRC Library–144 Haines Hall
The CSRC is pleased to host the McNair Research Scholars Program Senior Presentations during Undergraduate Research Week. The UCLA McNair Research Scholars Program was established in 2003 as a two-year research-based program that prepares undergraduate students interested in pursuing a PhD to apply to and excel in the best graduate school programs in the country. During their first year in the program, McNair Scholars participate in the UCLA Student Research Program (SRP) under the guidance of a faculty mentor and attend weekly seminars designed specifically for the program. These seminars guide students through navigating the academy and developing research proposals. During their second year in the program, McNair Scholars apply to graduate school and complete, present, and publish their research project and senior thesis. Every scholar has the opportunity to donate their research materials and senior thesis to the Southern California Library. A reception will follow the presentations. The event is organized by the UCLA McNair Research Scholars Program and co-sponsored by the UCLA Undergraduate Education Academic Advancement Program and the CSRC.
 

NEWS

CSRC welcomes new staff
The CSRC is thrilled to welcome two new staff members. On March 20, Magaly Arias joined us in the role of office manager. She was previously employed at the UCLA Krieger Center, where she worked as an educator. Carlos Paniagua, currently operations manager at the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE), will be the new management services officer. Paniagua begins his appointment on April 3.
 
Noriega selected for UCLA Faculty Mentoring Honorary Society
Chon Noriega, distinguished professor of film, television, and digital media and former CSRC director, has been selected to join the 2023 cohort of the UCLA Faculty Mentoring Honorary Society. Supported by a grant from the University of California Office of the President (UCOP), the Faculty Mentoring Honorary Society recognizes UCLA faculty for excellence in mentoring. The work of mentoring is too often invisible and unrecognized, and the society honors faculty who have contributed to the professional development of early and mid-career faculty at UCLA, especially the mentorship of underrepresented faculty with respect to identities such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, and disability.
 
Herrera earns tenure
Juan Herrera, assistant professor of geography and CSRC Faculty Advisory Committee member, has earned tenure.
 
Blackwell publishes book
Maylei Blackwell, professor of Chicana/o and Central American studies and CSRC Faculty Advisory Committee member, has published Scales of Resistance: Indigenous Women's Transborder Activism (Duke University Press, 2023).
 
Lucero receives funding for nursing pathway program
Robert Lucero, professor, inaugural Audrienne H. Moseley Endowed Chair in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, dean of equity, diversity, and inclusion at the UCLA School of Nursing, and member of the CSRC STEM and Faculty Hiring Review committee, has received funding to launch a five-year training program titled “Nursing Professoriate Pathway Program: From Bench-to-Community.” The project, which will be supported by the UC Hispanic Serving Institutions Doctoral Diversity Initiative (UC-HSI DDI), is designed to provide trainees with the skills to pursue an academic career at a research university such as UCLA.
 
2023-24 IUPLR-Mellon dissertation fellows announced
Doctoral candidates Kevin Cruz Amaya (Chicana/o and Central American studies), Salvador Herrera (English), and Hector Negrete (film, television, and digital media) are the UCLA recipients of 2023-24 dissertation-completion fellowships offered by the Inter-University Program for Latino Research (IUPLR) and the Mellon Foundation. These students will be part of a national cohort of outstanding doctoral candidates from five universities. Fellowships include a stipend, mentorship, and participation in the IUPLR conference and summer institute. The CSRC is a founding member of the IUPLR, and it contributed to establishing this fellowship program for students who are writing dissertations that focus on Chicanx or Latinx studies and utilize humanities-based research methods.
 
Haro presents at ELAC on Eastside Walkouts
On March 7 and 15, Carlos M. Haro, CSRC assistant director emeritus, was a speaker at two programs hosted by the Chicana/o Studies Department at East Los Angeles College and coordinated by Nadine Bermudez, professor of Chicana/o studies. Both events focused on the student walkouts in L.A. Eastside schools in 1968. The March 7 event included a screening of the 1996 documentary Taking Back the Schools, produced by Susan Racho. Haro introduced the documentary and discussed the important role played by Lincoln High School teacher Sal Castro. (This year marks the tenth anniversary of Castro's passing.) For the March 15 event, "1968 Student Walkouts: Images to Commemorate the 55th Anniversary of the East L.A. Student Walkouts," Haro provided a lecture and photo presentation with images drawn from CSRC collections, primarily the La Raza and Oscar Castillo collections. The images included photos taken by Devra Weber and Oscar Castillo; both photographers participated in the program and provided comments. Also participating was Charlotte Lerchenmuller Castro, widow of Sal Castro. 
 
Haro named citizen of the month
In January, Carlos M. Haro, CSRC assistant director emeritus, was recognized by the city of Montebello as Citizen of the Month. David Torres, mayor of Montebello, announced the honor and presented Haro with a scroll during the city council meeting on January 11.
 
Noriega and Fernandez discuss exhibition
On February 16, former CSRC director Chon Noriega spoke with artist Christina Fernandez about the exhibition Tierra Entre Medio at the Barbara and Art Culver Center of the Arts at UCR Arts. The multi-generational exhibition, organized by Fernandez, foregrounded four Chicana photographers working in Southern California: Arlene Mejorado, Lizette Olivas, Aydinaneth Ortiz, and Fernandez. A video of the public conversation is available here. Noriega was curatorial advisor for Christina Fernandez: Multiple Exposures, a traveling survey exhibition originated by the California Museum of Photography, also at UCR Arts. The exhibition catalog was published by UCR Arts in partnership with CSRC Press.
 
L.A. Xicano oral histories cataloged at Met library
Published PDFs from the CSRC Oral Histories series, which originated in 2013 to document life narratives of prominent Chicano and Latino figures, including artists, are now available at Watsonline, the digital catalog of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Thomas J. Watson Library. The Watson selected the oral histories of artists interviewed by Karen Mary Davalos for L.A. Xicano, a set of five interrelated exhibitions organized by the CSRC in 2011 that explored the diverse artistic contributions of Mexican-descent artists since 1945. View the documents on Watsonline here.
 
New on CSRC YouTube
 
  • IAC 2022 Fall Forum (October 20, 2022) (VIDEO)
The UCLA Institute of American Cultures (IAC) 2022 Fall Forum features the 2022–23 IAC visiting researchers and predoctoral fellows at UCLA’s four ethnic studies centers. Featured speakers were interviewed by faculty experts, followed by a live Q&A.
 

PRESS

Spring issue of Aztlán mailing soon
The spring issue of Aztlán opens with Charlene Villaseñor Black’s commentary on Chicano photographer Luis C. Garza. The first two essays explore representation in visual media. Carlos Jimenez and Alfredo Huante analyze Latinx-led urban revitalization in working-class barrios—“gente-fication”—as presented in the television shows Vida and Gentefied, and Kevin Anzzolin looks at graphic representations of the migrant body in the films Crossing Arizona, Which Way Home, and Who Is Dayani Cristal? The second two essays investigate legal issues and their impacts. Kelly Washbourne examines the function of the book ban instituted in Tucson after passage of HB 2281, and Juvenal Caporale assesses the impact of civil gang injunctions in Southern California. The Dossier section, “Globalizations: Decentering, Expanding, and Reconceptualizing Latina/o/x and Chicana/o/x Studies,” was curated by Cecilia M. Rivas, Michael A. Parra, and B. V. Olguín. It is the first part of a two-part Dossier that assesses the global nature of Latinidades. The Artist’s Communique presents the abstract paintings of Los Angeles–based artist Linda Arreola. Information on subscriptions and the purchase of individual articles is available at https://www.chicano.ucla.edu/publications/purchase-and-subscribe
 

CSRC IN THE NEWS

All “In the News” articles are available in PDF format on the CSRC website.
 
Daily Bruin, March 16, 2023 (PDF)
 
The Pajaronian, March 9, 2023 (PDF)
 
Hyperallergic, February 5, 2023 (PDF)
 
UCLA Labor Center, December 19, 2023 (PDF)
 

To subscribe to the CSRC Newsletter, visit https://www.chicano.ucla.edu/subscribe

The UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center acknowledges the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (the Los Angeles basin and So. Channel Islands). As a land grant institution, we pay our respects to the Honuukvetam (Ancestors), ‘Ahiihirom (Elders) and ‘Eyoohiinkem (our relatives/relations) past, present and emerging.