CSRC Research Grants, 2006-2007

 

The Frontera Collection developed by the CSRC in conjunction with the UCLA Music Library, includes approximately 15,000 78-rpm recordings of Mexican vernacular music recorded between 1905 and 1950. These performances document many types of popular lyric songs, including the first recordings of corridos, canciones, boleros, rancheras, sones, as well as some types of instrumental music, including conjunto music. In addition, the Collection includes many spoken performances such as patriotic speeches and vernacular comedy skits. This early work is the foundation for Latino culture today. The objective of this project is to integrate, as part of the Collection, the oral history of the norteno band Tigres del Norte as well as the Spanish-language written transcriptions of a large number of songs, comic skits, and poems now solely available in digital form at UCLA. The result will provide a broad array of new users of the Collection with the history of one of the most successful Mexican and Mexican American bands and written documentation of the linguistic and poetic nuances of the large repertoire available in these old recordings.

 

 

Since 1993, the U.S.-Mexico border has served as ground zero for a deadly epidemic of raped, mutilated, murdered ?muchachas del sur? that feminist scholars and activists call femicide. This deadly crime wave has already taken the lives of between 370-420 poor, young, brown women and girls. The CSRC sponsored a 2003 conference, ?The Maquiladora Murders, Or, Who is Killing the Women of Juarez?? Professor Gaspar de Alba served as conference coordinator and has moved forward with the research and writing of a critical text that will compile testimonials and artists' statements-- and gather available scholarship from both sides of the border--to compile an anthology that studies the Juarez crimes.

 

 

This is a study of the expropriation of land by the U.S. Navy in the Puerto Rican island of Vieques in the 1940s. Professor Ayala continues his examination of U.S. colonial policies in Puerto Rico, the expropriation of land, the displacement of the civilian population, incidents of violence between U.S. sailors or Marines and local residents. A series of articles have been published on the research completed thus far. On completion of this research project, Professor Ayala plans to finalize a book-length manuscript for submission to the University of Florida Press.

 

In four historical moments at the end of the 19th century, Californios and Americans debated the parameters of citizenship, rights, and racial meaning. In these moments, the debates utilized a language of Spanish heritage that was layered with multiple meanings and varied understandings. Judging from contemporary standards, most historians have been critical of the lack of historical veracity of the claims of American and Californio Spanish heritage. Scholars in history, Chicana/o studies, and literature have assailed the "Spanish Fantasy Heritage," as coined by Carey McWilliams, as either mythological or opportunistic depending on the perpetrator. As part of this project, Ms. Sosa-Riddell will study the notions of Spanish heritage in the historical moment of the late 19 th century to understand the cultural contact that occurred between Californios and Americans during this period. By studying the use Spanish heritage, the researcher intends to uncover the ideas about race that were debated and created by the time that larger populations of Mexicans began to enter the United States in the 20 th century.

 

 

This dissertation research project is a transnational study with a component that will contribute to Chicana Studies and border studies. Cueva specifically examines the U.S.-Mexico economic relationship and the political impacts that economic globalization has on Chicana and Mexican women along the U.S.-Mexican border. Research data will be compiled from NGO's and community based women's organizations--- to focus on women in the labor force, migration/immigration of women, and gendered violence. Specifically, this project addresses economic globalization's impact on impoverished and marginalized women.

 

 

The long-term goal of the research is to identify the geographical extent, dialect diversity, and number of speakers of the variety of Zapotec referred to in the research literature as Zaniza Zapotec. The project is centered on fieldwork in the relevant communities in Mexico and the U.S. The results of the investigation will be submitted for presentation at conferences on indigenous languages. A research paper will also be prepared for submission and publication in a journal.