Opening Reception: "On the Side of Angels: Latina Lesbian Activism"
Event Date:
Saturday, June 21, 2025 -
4:00pm to 6:00pm
Event Location:
Vincent Price Art Museum, 1301 Avenida Cesar Chavez, Monterey Park, CA 91754
In collaboration with the Vincent Price Art Museum, the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC) presents the exhibition, On the Side of Angels: Latina Lesbian Activism. Part of the Latina Futures 2050 Lab initiative, this archival exhibition explores the activism of Latina lesbians and their contributions to the issues and struggles of LGBTQ+, immigrant rights, labor rights, the AIDS crisis, and housing issues.
This exhibition commemorates the doctoral dissertation On the Side of Angels: Lesbian Activism in Los Angeles, 1970-1990, submitted by Yolanda Retter to the University of New Mexico in December 1999. Retter played a pivotal role in advocating for diversity within the archival collections of repositories in Los Angeles, including the USC One Archives and the CSRC, where she served as librarian and archivist from 2003 until her untimely death in 2007. During her time at the CSRC, Retter made significant strides in expanding the archives to include lesbians of color, notably accessioning the paper collections of Laura Esquivel and Elena Popp. Both Esquivel and Popp were key figures in the Latina lesbian and Latine gay movement in Los Angeles during the 1980s and 1990s, and were members of Lesbians Unidas (LU), which emerged from Gay Latino and Lesbianas Unidos (GLLU). The exhibition is based on materials from CSRC archival collections.
On the Side of Angels is co-curated by Vanessa Quintero and Jocelyne Sanchez.
Vanessa Quintero, MLIS, is the exhibitions curator for the Latina Futures 2050 Lab. Jocelyne Sanchez, MLIS, is an archivist at the CSRC.