UNA PALABRA FROM THE CLS CHAIR,
DOLORES DELGADO BERNAL
|
|
Last year, the CLS department successfully celebrated its 50th anniversary. In this 51st year, we’ve had triumphs and challenges. A recent achievement is officially changing the name of all of our degrees from Mexican American Studies (major and master’s degree) and Chicano Studies (minor) to align with the department name: Chicana(o) and Latina(o) Studies. The degree name change is reflective of our curriculum which is more inclusive and intersectional than in earlier years. An example is one of our newest courses,
Jotería Expressions in the Américas
, and a spring course we’re offering,
The Central American Experience in the US
. We will continue to revisit and realign our curriculum so that Central American studies and critical Latinx Indigeneities are more present. In fact, we are currently conducting a faculty search with our colegas in Latin American Studies for an assistant professor in Indigenous Studies with a start date of August 2020. Another triumph was welcoming two amazing scholar-activists, Anita Revilla and Rafael Solórzano, who bring new expertise, energy, and additional mentoring to our students. (Read more about them below.)
A monumental development, not just for CLS, but for the entire University, came about in part as a response to a proposal from the three ethnic studies departments and to the California State University (CSU) Task Force on the Advancement of Ethnic Studies. President Covino announced in August the creation of a new ethnic studies college, only the second in the nation. While there’s much work ahead to bring this to fruition, CLS looks forward to collaborating with Pan-African Studies, Asian/Asian-American Studies, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Latin American Studies, and many other allied faculty, departments, and programs.
Finally, we want to acknowledge and thank our students. This year, we welcomed a small cohort of brilliant graduate students who are pushing the field via their ideas and activism. Our undergraduate and graduate students have earned fellowships, scholarships, and internships that recognize their efforts and successes in pursuing their education. At the same time, our students face enormous challenges and are impacted by gentrification, the housing shortage, limited access to mental health services, the pending Supreme Court decision on DACA, campus impaction, and most recently unfounded threats against the campus community. While these and so many other struggles are real, we see the beauty in our students’ presence, persistence, and resistance. CLS students are graduating, and they go on to do great things. In fact, alumni of our programs have pursued a wide range of careers, including teaching in community colleges and in K-12 schools, and working in the non-profit sector, government sector, union organizing, and business. (See our alumna profile below.) Graduates from our master’s program (including three from last year) are also currently enrolled in or have completed doctoral programs in top ranking universities, such as UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, Claremont, University of Washington, Michigan State University, University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and University of Minnesota. We encourage interested students to contact the CLS office for more info on our graduate or undergraduate programs. We also encourage alumni to reach out and let us know what you’re doing.
|
|
¡FELICIDADES ESTUDIANTES!
|
|
Graduate students and CLS faculty come together for the fall graduate student orientation.
|
|
Congratulations
to the following graduate students who received a CLS mentoring fellowship for the 2019-2020 academic year.
|
|
Nayely Castrellon
Giovanna Díaz
Patricia Miramontes
|
|
Nick Rivas
Bridget García Vera
Karina Vargas
|
|
Our brilliant CLS undergraduate students have also been recognized with these university and/or department scholarships for the 2019-2020 academic year.
|
|
Gabriel Hernández
:
Isabel Cerano:
Michelle Morataya:
Michelle Elías:
|
|
New World Scholarship and the Blanca Flanagan Rios Scholarship
Urban Pacific Development Corporation Scholarship
Maria Elena & Felix Gutierrez Scholarship
Samuel Freeman Memorial Scholarship
|
|
CLS majors,
Antonio Ruis
and
Yadira Inez Tellechea
, were selected as Mellon-Mays Fellows. The
Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship program is the centerpiece of
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
’s initiatives to increase diversity in the faculty ranks of institutions of higher learning.
Each year, 20 students in the CSU are selected to engage in independent research and be mentored into a doctoral program. CLS Profe Alejandro Covarrubias is Yadira’s faculty mentor and WGSS faculty Kimberly Roberts is Antonio’s mentor.
|
|
Jocelyn Vargas
recently published a chapter in the book "Voices from the Ancestors: Xicanx and Latinx Spiritual Expressions and Healing Practices." She is pursuing her master's degree in social work and states, "My CLS classes equipped me with the tools necessary to confront injustice and inequities within the system."
CLS faculty, Theresa Yugar and Felicia Montes, also published a chapter in the book!
|
|
CLS students and one of our alumna presented at the annual MALCS Summer Institute held at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in July.
Cynthia Alonso, Yadira Inez Tellechea, Bridget Garcia Vera, Nancy Valenzuela, Ireri Bernal, and Daisy Herrera
shared their research as part of the panel,
La Lucha Sigue!: Muxeres Resisting Colonialsim and Challenging State Sanctioned Violence.
|
|
ALUM PROFILE: DAISY R. HERRERA, M.A., 2014
|
|
Can you share a little bit about yourself, including where you’re from, when you graduated, and who your family is?
I was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley to parents who migrated from Durango and Jalisco in the 1980s. I grew up hearing oral histories about the Mexican Independence Wars, Pancho Villa and the Mexican Revolution, and other historical events that fueled my love for Mexican history and Latin American history. Witnessing my parents work extremely hard to get me to college only motivated me to study as much as I could. I obtained a Bachelors of Arts in History and Women’s Studies from UC Riverside and completed a dual Master’s of Arts in Latin American Studies and in Mexican American Studies, and a graduate certificate in the Study of Women, Gender and Sexualities, in 2014 from Cal State LA.
Can you share some highlights about your educational journey to Cal State LA and within the CLS department?
I value the amazing and diverse courses I took with my CLS professors. Our professors encouraged us to connect our lectures and meet historical figures outside of the classroom. I will never forget my CLS professor taking her class during my first quarter to hear a lecture given by Sal Castro on campus. That was only the beginning. Through other events and conferences I met Dolores Huerta, Rigoberta Menchu, Gonzalo Mendez, Rudy Acuña, Mario T. Garcia, Ana NietoGomez, Maylei Blackwell, Ramon Gutierrez, Martha Cotera, and Chela Sandova. Another highlight was the pleasure of having a small cohort of students that would coordinate study groups and conference presentations. We remain friends to this day and have spoken about publishing books and articles together.
What is your current position on campus and how has Chicana(o) and Latina(o) Studies impacted your career so far?
I am an Administrative Support Coordinator for the Center for Engagement, Service and the Public Good on campus. I help our center highlight the importance of community engagement both on and off campus, and foster relationships with other departments and programs to promote student wellness and involvement. I am the staff advisor for the MALCS (Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social) chapter on campus, the co-herstorian for the national MALCS organization, and I volunteer with the East LA Women’s Center as a certified domestic violence/sexual assault advocate. I table with ELAWC on campus and give classroom presentations on sexual assault/domestic violence. My education and theoretical orientation has allowed me to understand and tie social justice with community engagement and teach the importance of it.
What consejos can you offer to students thinking about majoring in CLS?
Majoring in CLS will provide you with the social justice and diversity foundation that will make you stand out in any career. This major will give you a very interdisciplinary point of view, and has a lot of significant historical, present, and future importance. The professors are amazing and really care about students learning theoretical frameworks and applying them in the real world. It is a very hands-on major, and you learn so much about where you came from. It will help you develop the passion you have for your history, community, and social justice. I highly recommend that you present at conferences, as this is a great networking opportunity and a great way to expose your research to the scholarly world.
.
|
|
¡BIENVENIDOS! MEET OUR NEW PROFES!
|
|
As a child, I grew up in extreme poverty. My father died when I was eight, and my mother was only 30 years old. She was left to raise three children on her own. Because I had been deemed a "smart" child by my teachers and because my mother was extremely supportive of me, I made it my goal to go to college to pull my family out of poverty.
I took my first class in Latino Studies at Princeton in 1991, my first semester in college. Up until then, I had never studied my own community or history. In fact, I grew up in San Antonio, Tejas surrounded my Mexicanas/os/xs and Tejanas/os/xs, but still very steeped in (internalized) racism and colonialism. After taking that class, I realized that the racism, colorism, and classism we had experienced growing up was widespread and spirit-murdering, so I made it my goal to teach myself, my family, and everyone else about this reality. I was still trying to just make money to support my family, so I majored in chemical engineering, then switched to economics, and finally I found religion (where the only tenured Chicano professor taught), as well as African-American Studies, Latin American Studies, and American Studies. I thought I would become a high school teacher to change the world, but then I decided to teach the teachers so I could have a wider impact. I ended up with a master's degree from Columbia University and a Ph.D. from UCLA in education with a focus on race and ethnic studies. I got my first job in the field of Women's Studies at UNLV. I went on to become the chair and co-founder of the Department of Interdisciplinary, Gender, and Ethnic Studies. After 15 years of leading change at UNLV, I decided to return to Los Angeles as a professor in the Department of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies. I made this decision based on two truths: 1. I want to be in a department where
all
faculty members are committed to a vision of social justice
and
are simultaneously engaged in teaching and knowledge production that directly serves Chicanx/Latinx and people of color communities, and 2. I want to work at an institution where I can receive mentorship, guidance, and collaboration rooted in a critical social justice praxis. I believe I will best receive this by working with my colegas in this department.
I am so excited about the many possibilities we have at Cal State LA within the CLS department. I believe we can be leaders in many areas, including Chicanxs Studies and Education, Chicana Feminisms, Joteria Studies, Central American Studies, Community and Public Scholarship, and much more. I'm excited to keep growing our expertise and these areas of study for future students and scholars.
|
|
My rumbo al doctorado has been a non-traditional journey. While at UC Berkeley in the 1990s, I experienced the repealing of affirmative action, university budget cuts to ethnic studies, tuition increases, and anti-immigrant measures. Consequently, as a first-generation, queer, Chicano undergraduate, this period was a marginalizing experience. Similar to today, these years were challenging, so instead of enrolling in a graduate program, I became politically involved to transform the education system that was pushing Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x out of the educational pipeline. Also, early on, while I was a junior in college, I was given the opportunity to teach Raza Studies at two local East Bay high schools. Teaching was an exhilarating experience and became an anchor of mine that allowed me to maintain my mental health during those years of intense hostility. These spaces taught me the importance of developing classroom norms of respect and fostering a safe space when examining the impacts of white supremacy, heterosexism, and capitalism. Teaching became the starting point to what became 20 years of fighting for educational reform and racial justice. I realize now that organizing across multiracial and migrant communities allowed me to build bridges across aggrieved communities. To see youth and women of color, queer, and undocumented youth become inspired, apply to college and get accepted, motivated me to apply to UCLA in 2014 to begin my path to the Ph.D.
I recently received my doctoral degree from UCLA as part of the department’s first Ph.D. graduating cohort. While at UCLA, I documented the history of the Trail of Dreams, a four-month walk from Miami, Florida to Washington D.C., which not only redefined migrant rights activism led by undocumented and queer youth, but also expanded our collective understanding of political agency by Latina/o/x migrants living in the U.S. South. I spent four years traveling back and forth between Los Angeles, Miami, Central and South Florida, Atlanta, and North Carolina. I visited key places along the route where press conferences and community gatherings were held at historical Black spaces. At the end, I found myself immersed in data, a migrant justice archive. Researching 21st century social movements can be a daunting process because of the immense amount of primary source material available—YouTube videos, photographs, blog posts, local and national press coverage.
It’s important to state that my research design continues to be driven by my privileged position of being once a youth organizer who participated and witnessed the emergence of youth-led campaigns across the state of California at the turn of the 21st century. I say this because it’s part of why this moment and movements have been so fascinating for me. In fact, my personal lived organizing experience in the past and present has acted as data and archive that I draw upon.
Before I began my Ph.D. program, I had the honor to organize with a group called the Santa Ana Boys and Men of Color. For two years, I facilitated an inter-generational, Chicana/o/x, Latina/o/x, mixed status, differently abled, queer, at-promise and system impacted high school and college aged youth and adult organizing space to fight the school-to-prison-to-deportation pipeline. Together, we organized conferences, town halls, workshops, trainings, and field trips to engage youth and adult leaders allies in an open and shared process to develop innovative solutions. At the end, we demanded (and won) city, county, and school district officials to invest in restorative justice practices in K-12 schools, city services, and OC’s juvenile justice system. The most memorable moments were supporting and witnessing the leadership development of this transformative coalition that week after week would stand in front of room dias and demand the respect and dignity of youth of color. Equally important, during the summer of 2014, our Restorative Justice For All Campaign pushed our district to invest and fund restorative justice practices. And, over the past four years, the school district has seen a 75% drop in suspensions in a predominantly Latina/o/x school district.
|
|
¡FELICIDADES FACULTAD!: FACULTY NEWS AND RECENT PUBLICATIONS
|
|
Anguiano, José.
(2019). Sound Studies Caucus: Critical Latinx Sound Pedagogies in the Classroom, the Stage, and the Night Club. Paper presentation at the American Studies Association. Honolulu, Hawai'i.
Cisneros, Nora.
(forthcoming, 2020). Indigenous girls write, right!?: Unsettling urban literacy education through writing circles and community resurgence.
Urban Education Journal,
Special Issue edited by Mónica González Ybarra and Grace D. Player.
Cupchoy, Lani.
(2019)."Divine Feminine."
Journal of Pacific Horticulture
, 80(2).
Delgado Bernal, Dolores,
Alemán, E. Jr., Morales, S., & Mendoza, S. (2019). Critical Race Feminista Methodology: The Challenges and Promises of Preparing Graduate Students in Community Engaged Research. In N. Deeb-Sossa and A. De La Torre (Eds.).
From the Fields and the Trenches: Community Empowerment, Sustainability and Community Based Research in Chicana/o Studies
(19-42)
.
Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Leal, N. Jorge.
(2019, August). Public scholarship project “Rock Archivo LÁ” was recently featured in a
New York Times article
Preserving Latinx History Through Vintage Photos
. Dr. Leal employs social media to collect and share the ephemera of the period along with captions that places the material in a broader historical context that centers on the historical Latina/o/x presence and contributions in the U.S.
López, L. Michelle.
(2019). Mujer Chingona. In Curtis, E. M., Berlanga-Shevchuk, M., & Sanchez, E. (Eds.)
Linda Vallejo: Brown Belongings.
Los Angeles, CA: LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes.
Montes, Felicia.
(2019). Full Moon Coyolxauhqui Circle. In
L. Medina and M. Gonzales
Voices from the Ancestors: Xicanx and Latinx Spiritual Expressions and Healing Practices
. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Ramos, Leda.
(2019). Co-produced the Dolores Huerta Square Unveiling and Street Festival to pay homage to legendary labor and civil rights icon Dolores Huerta and to reclaim Latinx feminist public history in Boyle Heights. City politicians, artists, and activists paid homage to Dolores Huerta, the 89-years-young feminist icon with an official City of Los Angeles Square named in her honor.
Revilla, Anita Tijerina.
(In press).
What Happens in Vegas Does Not Stay in Vegas: Youth Leadership in the Immigrant Rights Movement in Las Vegas, 2006. Originally published in
Aztlán:
A Journal for Chicano Studies
. (37)1, 2012. Reprinted in 4th edition of
The Chicano Studies Reader: An Anthology of Aztlán
.
|
|
DEPARTMENT EVENTS, EXHIBITS, AND ACTIVITIES
|
|
|
|
Profe Lani Cupchoy’s
CLS and history classes completed a digital collective meme project that gave students a space to encourage creativity, expression, critical thinking, and development of primary sources connected to contemporary audiences.
|
|
Congratulations to
Profe Theresa A. Yugar
and
Profe Nora Cisneros
for securing a 2019-2020, Instructionally Related Activities Grant to take 55 students in two Environmental Justices classes on a "Toxic Tour" of Los Angeles in collaboration with "Communities for a Better Environment: Building Community Power to Achieve Environmental Justice, Clean Energy and Healthy Communities."
|
|
Students in
Profe Dolores Delgado Bernal’s
Chicana Feminist Theories class attended the Old Timers of Southern California menudo breakfast as part of their oral history project that is documenting the resistance, resilience, and wisdom of female elders in the group.
|
|
Profe Nora Cisneros
facilitated a two-part Graduate Application Workshop co-sponsored by CLS and Latin American Studies to assist students applying to graduate school.
|
|
From left to right: This powerful display in King Hall features two student projects from
Profe Olga García’s
class, including Loteria Cards of characters and scenes from the
Popol Vuh
and handmade books on different pre-Columbian myths. Editors of The Chicana M(other)work Anthology (2019 University of Arizona Press) talked about their book and podcast series to a standing-room only audience.
The event was co-sponsored by
WGSS
,
CCC
, and
MALCS
de Cal State LA.
|
|
Left to right:
Profe Rafael Solórzano
,
Profe Anita Revilla
and CLS graduate student,
Patty Miramontes
, (not in photo) participated in the Association for Jotería Arts, Activism, and Scholarship national conference.
Profe Solórzano
along with students in his Jotería Expressions class attended the play to
T or not to T
, a comedic and touching trans journey of masculinity and the use of testosterone.
|
|
Left to right: Students and faculty at the CLS Meet & Greet share pizza and una plática about life goals and what you can do with a Chicana(o)/Latina(o) studies degree. Students also brainstormed and provided written suggestions about the new ethnic studies college.
|
|
CLS students involved in MALCS and MECHA participated in the Cross Cultural Center’s celebration and created these beautiful altares for dia de los muertos.
Profe Cisneros’
Environmental Justice class also participated and built their altar to honor environmental justice activists and the lives of communities that have been affected by environmental inequities.
|
|
With sadness and respect, we share that
Louis R. Negrete, Ph.D.,
a former faculty member and chair of our department passed away earlier this semester after a battle with cancer. He was with the department from 1973-2005 and was chair in 1978-1979 and 1981-1984. Negrete worked tirelessly through the years to preserve the academic integrity of the department. He was one of the first to engage in “service learning” in the department, and he always maintained connections with our community and classrooms. We continue this legacy of community engagement in honor of his work.
Profe Louis Negrete,
¡
PRESENTE!
Profe Louis Negrete,
¡
PRESENTE!
Profe Louis Negrete,
¡
PRESENTE!
|
|
THU | DEC 5
CLS END-OF-SEMESTER GATHERING
11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. King Hall D2076
CLS faculty, staff, students, please stop by between classes for a hot meal and to convivir and breath before the beginning of finals.
FRI | FEB 14
CHICANA(O) & LATINA(O) STUDIES M.A. APPLICATIONS DUE
WED | FEB 19
RECLAIMING OUR SCHOOLS THROUGH FOOD JUSTICE, STUDENT ACTIVISM AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Film screening followed by panel/Q&A of award-winning documentary
Urban Seeds
(17 minutes, 2019) by filmmaker Lani Cupchoy. The film highlights a school-based garden movement’s extraordinary fight for food justice in urban Los Angeles. Co-sponsors: Chicana(o) & Latina(o) Studies, Latin American Studies, and History Department.
3:05 p.m. U-SU Theatre
TUE | MAR 17
LA SERENATA; WHEN WE LOVE SOMEONE, WE SING TO THEM
La Serenta
tells the story of two loving parents struggling with their beloved Mexican musical tradition when their son requests a love song for another boy. Directed by Adelina Anthony. Written by Ernesto Javier Martínez.
3:00 p.m. U-SU Theatre
|
|
Have questions? Stop by our office located in King Hall C4069
|
|
|
|
Give today to support the Department of Chicana(o) and Latina(o) Studies.
|
|
Newsletter Editor: CLS M.A. student, Giovanna Diaz
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
