California State University, Northridge will commemorate the life of Cesar Chavez on Wednesday, March 27 at the third annual Cesar Chavez Service Fair. This photo was taken at last year’s fair. Photo by Jenny Donaire.

Continuing one of California State University, Northridge’s values of maintaining alliances with the community, the Department of Chicana/o Studies and Unified We Serve are hosting the third annual Cesar Chavez Service Fair on Wednesday, March 27 in honor of the late labor leader.

The event will take place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Cleary Walk West in front of Bayramian Hall. More than 50 nonprofit vendors and organizations will distribute information about volunteer opportunities. The event is open to students, faculty, staff and the community.

“One of the values CSUN is founded on includes giving back to the community and making meaningful connections with community members,” said Justin Weiss, coordinator of Unified We Serve, the campus’ volunteer program. “This event is a great opportunity for participants to sign up with nonprofit organizations and make a significant difference in the community.”

The event also will be “infused with culture,” featuring music, salsa dancing lessons and free food. Among the organizations expected to attend are those providing services to the homeless, youth mentorship and beach cleaning.

Chavez was an American civil rights leader who dedicated his life to improving working conditions and the quality of life for migrant and seasonal farmworkers. He founded what is today known as the United Farm Workers. CSUN will be closed April 1 in observance of Chavez’s life.

“Our first service fair featured Chavez’s granddaughter Natalie Hernandez,” said Weiss. “Since then, we were inspired to continue this event.”

For more information about the event, visit the Unified We Serve website.

Some of the photos are images of young professors standing in front of a chalkboard, others depict students taking part in demonstrations, working on a bilingual student newspaper or meeting on campus.

There are more than 100 in all, and together the images tell the story of the founding of California State University, Northridge’s Department of Chicana/o Studies in the years 1968 to 1975. They will be on display in the first floor of CSUN’s Jerome Richfield Hall beginning Saturday, April 27.

The university will celebrate the exhibition with a reception and host a mini-reunion of those who were part of the department’s founding. The event from 5 to 10 p.m. on April 27 in Richfield Hall on the west side of the campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge.

“We are honoring the students and community folks who were part of the struggle to get the department founded,” said Chicana/o studies professor Jorge Garcia, one of the event’s organizers. “The photos document what when on—the strikes, the demonstrations, the teatro, the activities by students, the community, the campus—from the founding of M.E.Ch.A. (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan) and EOP (Educational Opportunity Program) to the actual founding of the department.

“The images are of time in history that changed CSUN and helped create an academic field of study that is recognized around the world,” he said.

In addition to the exhibition, the free event will include a screening of the documentary “Unrest,” about the beginning of Chicana/o studies, hosted by Miguel Duran and presentations by a Marta Ramirez, a member of the early Chicano student theater group “Mascarones,” and Ramos Holguin, an early student activist who later became director of CSUN EOP.

For more information about the exhibition, call CSUN’s Department of Chicana/o Studies at (818) 677-2734.

CSUN’s Chicana/o studies department was established in 1969 in response to the educational needs of Chicana/o students. At the height of the civil rights movement, history professor Rodolfo Acuña was recruited by students, faculty and community and became the department’s founding faculty member. In a short span of time, he developed 45 courses, and by April 1969 the department had been born.

Courses were designed to provide students with an awareness of the social, political, economic, historical and cultural realities in our society. It was structured as an inter-disciplinary, area studies department in order to offer a Chicana/o critique and perspective within the traditional disciplines.

Over the years, the department has evolved to respond to changing demographics. Currently the Department of Chicana/o Studies at California State University, Northridge is the largest of its kind in the country housing 25 full-time and 35 part-time professors. Between 160 and 170 class sections are offered every semester.

2012 authors with thier books. Photo courtesy of Rosa RiVera Furumoto

People have been telling stories dating back to when the medium was cave paintings. It is a basic human desire to share life experiences and tell inspiring tales. California State University, Northridge’s Chicana/o studies students are making sure that every voice has a chance to be heard, especially the little ones.

On Saturday, May 4, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Department of Chicana/o Studies will host “Family Authors Fair.” The event which will feature children’s book author René Colato Laínez and books authored by 40 first grade students and their parents.

As part of their class work this year, CSUN students in the Chicano/Latino Children’s Literature in Communities (CHS 480) courses developed and implemented four lessons that engaged children and families from San Fernando, O’Melveny, Dyer Street and Telfair Avenue elementary schools in writing their own books.

“The heart behind the event is watching little first graders grow from shy students too frightened to raise their hands in class to confident students eager to engage in dialogue about the ideas in books and how these ideas connect to their lived experiences,” said Chicano/a Studies professor Rosa RiVera Furumoto. “I’ve watched this transformation and it is magical.

“In all, it is about awakening in the first graders and their families a love of books and reading and the idea that they too can be authors with important and creative ideas to share with others,” RiVera Furmoto continued. “By bringing the children and their families to campus and taking them on a campus tour, we hope to convey the message that CSUN is a place for them and their children to further their dreams. We want them to become more aware of campus life and to picture their children in college.”

The fair will include a workshop with Laínez, books authored by the children and their parents, lunch and a tour of the campus. Each author will stand near his or her book and discuss their book with others.

“In this way, the children begin to see themselves as authors and the families can take pride in their children’s efforts,” said RiVera Furmoto.

The fair will be held at Cal State Northridge’s Chicana/o House located on Plummer Street east of Etiwanda Avenue.

For more information contact the Chicana/o Studies department at (818) 677-2734 or visit their website at www.csun.edu/chicanostudies.

Denise Sandoval

“Rushing Water, Rising Dreams: How the Arts are Transforming a Community,” a book by California State University, Northridge Chicana/o studies professor Denise Sandoval and Luis Rodriguez have received a bronze medal from the Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY).

The awards, launched in 1996, are designed to bring increased recognition to deserving but often unsung titles published by independent authors and publishers. Sandoval’s book received the bronze medal in the multicultural, nonfiction adult book category.

“Rushing Water, Rising Dreams” explores the impact of 20 years of lack of neighborhood cultural spaces adversely affected struggling families and communities. It also examines how the independent bookstore Tia Chucha’s in the northeast San Fernando Valley–the second  largest community of Mexicans and Central Americans in the United States–inspired a cultural awakening and revival of the economy and community spirit. A documentary was also created to accompany the book.

“This is the first book that places the focus on the northeast San Fernando Valley and allows the people of those communities to speak their stories—their truths,” said Sandoval. “There are many books that document the history of the San Fernando Valley, but many of them focus on the west side of the Valley, the more affluent and well known side, areas like Northridge, Encino and Sherman Oaks. There are also many books on Chicano/Latino history in Los Angeles (heavily focused on East Los Angeles/Boyle Heights, which is understandable given the early roots of the city of Los Angeles). But what’s missing are the histories of the Chicano/Mexican/Latino communities in the northeast San Fernando Valley.

“Rushing Water, Rising Dreams” and the bronze medal. Photo courtesy of Denise Sandoval

“The goal of the book was to show how when a community is given resources, like education and other things that are often overlooked, how resilient they can be, and how positively the arts can affect the revitalization and healing of the people within the community,” she continued.

Bernice Haber, a CSUN Friends of the Library board member, hailed the book, saying, “What makes this story so unique is that it is distinctive to the northeast San Fernando Valley.”

Sandoval and Rodriguez’s project was funded by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission’s Cultivate/Create Initiative, along with donations from individuals and families for a project that will help push forward ongoing support for Tia Chucha’s extensive programming, workshops, events and festivals.

Sandoval and Rodriguez, were able to match $10,000 from the arts commission with donations through in an IndieGoGo online campaign, from several community events and through talks and presentations made around the country by Rodriguez.

Tia Chucha’s Cultivate/Create team included Tia Chucha board members Dolores Villanueva and David R. Diaz, development director Ruben Guevara, and grants/technical assistant Walter P.

“It’s an honor to receive this award, and a dream come true to have been able to work on this amazing project,” said Sandoval.

Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore is the only multi-arts cultural space and trade bookstore in the northeast San Fernando Valley with workshops in the visual arts, Mexican dance, music (including Son Jarocho Mexican musical tradition), writing, theater and puppetry, among others. They also present film screening nights, open mics, author readings, art exhibits, healing workshops, indigenous cosmology and community dialogues. They host the only annual outdoor literacy, arts and performance festival in the San Fernando Valley, with the assistance of L.A. City’s Department of Cultural Affairs, called “Celebrating Words: Written, Performed & Sung.”

CSUN Alumnus Richard “Cheech” Marin and gallerist Robert Berman visit during the opening of the Bordeaux exhibit. The two are posed in front of a painting by Gronk, one of the hundreds of Chicano artists that are part of Marin’s collection. Photo by Lysiane Gautheir.

Comedian, actor and director Richard “Cheech” Marin ’68 (English) always loved art. The native of South Central Los Angeles who moved to the San Fernando Valley as a young boy was fascinated by paintings and the stories they told.

“It just seemed like a wonderful form of expression,” said Marin. Today, the California State University, Northridge alumnus has one of the largest private collections of Chicano art in the world. From June 27 to Oct. 26, “Chicano Dream: The Cheech Marin Collection, 1980-2010,” will be on exhibit in Bordeaux, France as part of the Sister Cities of Los Angeles cultural exchange. It will be on display in the Museum of Aquitaine in Bordeaux.

“This is a great cultural exchange and opportunity,” Marin said. “It’s an important part of not only our Chicano culture but our American culture.”

“Portrait of Cheech” by artists, Carlos Donjuan.

Marin’s collection is one of two exhibits that will pay tribute to Chicano art during this cultural festival in France. Asco, a documentary exhibition featuring a collective of East Los Angeles Chicano artists in the ’70s and ’80s, will be on display in the Contemporary Art Museum of Bordeaux from June 26 to Sept. 21. This group of 12 artists includes CSUN Chicana/o studies professor Harry Gamboa Jr. Over the years, art collectors, museum curators and academics have hailed Asco and Gamboa for presenting the realities of a community that was long ignored and provocatively translating their universal experiences.

Sister Cities of Los Angeles celebrates the myriad of cultures that make up the city through a continuing program of service in the areas of civics, education, culture, trade and economic development, travel and sports and recreation. It promotes the image of Los Angeles around the world and expands global interest in the city and tourism. The series of art exhibits are expected to attract more than 500,000 visitors.

Marin, the comedian-turned-actor-turned-director-turned-art collector, owns more than 600 pieces of art including works by Carlos Almaraz, Elsa Flores Almaraz, Carlos Donjuán, Frank Romero, Sonia Romero, Leigh Salgado and Vincent Valdez. He is best known as one half of the hilariously irreverent, satirical duo “Cheech and Chong.” Marin and his partner, Tommy Chong, released a series of best-selling comedy albums in the 1970s and received a Grammy Award among his achievements. The comedians’ movie, “Up in Smoke,” became the highest-grossing comedy of 1978, topping $100 million at the box office. The partnership lasted 15 successful years. Marin went on to direct and star in numerous films and television series.

He said he gained his first real appreciation of art while a student at then-San Fernando Valley State College.

“I took a pottery class and I found my medium,” said Marin, who said he always felt like an artist. “Art is just a wonderful way to communicate.”

Marin has maintained his connections to CSUN. He was the recipient of the 2004 Distinguished Alumni Award. He has participated in the university’s speakers’ series and exhibited his collection in the CSUN Art Galleries.

California State University, Northridge will celebrate the 45^th anniversary of the founding of its Department of Chicana/o Studies with a benefit concert scheduled to take place Saturday, Oct. 25, at 7 p.m. at the university’s Plaza del Sol Performance Hall.

The evening will commemorate the interdisciplinary nature of the department and its efforts to cultivate and teach Mexican musical, song and dance traditions. The night’s master of ceremonies will be Spanish-language radio and television personality José Ronstadt.

The celebration also will shine the spotlight on CSUN faculty members, alumni and associates who have achieved regional, national and international recognition for their teaching and performance. The concert will include performances by Conjunto Hueyapan, Ixya Herrera, Veto Ruiz, Ballet Folklorico Ollin and Mariachi Estrella de Jalisco de Ernesto Molina.

“Since its establishment, the Department of Chicana/o Studies has offered both lecture and practicum courses in the fields of traditional Mexican music, song and dance,” said CSUN Chicana/o Studies professor Fermín Herrera. “It has also sponsored workshops, symposia, recitals and concerts covering many facets of Mexican musical heritage: sones jarochos, sones huastecos, sones de mariachi, sones abajeños, banda, norteño, marimba, salterio, rondalla, huapangos, pirecuas, boleros, corridos, cancione clásicas and canciones rancheras.”

The evening will include performances of Mexican narrative songs, corridos, by professor Everto Ruiz and Conjunto Aztlan, an ensemble founded in the late 1960s through the sponsorship of the Chicana/o Studies department and which includes department alumni. Harp, requinto and jarana music, son jarocho, will be performed by Conjunto Hueyapan, which is comprised of Herrera as director and María Isabel Herrera, Xocoyotzin Herrera, Xilomen Herrera and others.

The concert also will feature traditional Mexican dance in the jarocho and mariachi style by Ballet Folklórico Ollin, a dance company established by CSUN alumna Virginia Diediker as part of a class project. Additionally, traditional Mexican songs will be performed by vocal artist Ixya Herrera, also a department alumna; and sones de mariachi by Mariachi Estrella de Jalisco de Ernesto Molina, an ensemble that has worked closely with some of the department’s faculty.

All ticket proceeds benefit the CSUN MEChA Scholarship Fund, Ignacio Pulido Scholarship Fund and the Adrian and Ezekial Rodriguez Scholarship Fund.

Tickets may be purchased at the Department of Chicana/o Studies‘ office in Jerome Richfield Hall Room 148 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. To reach the department, call (818) 677-2734. Tickets are also available at CSUN’s Associated Students’ Ticket office in the University Student Union 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Saturday. To reach the ticket office, call (818) 677-2488.

The Plaza del Sol Performance Hall box office also will be selling tickets the night of the event, beginning at 6 p.m.

Parking for Plaza del Sol Performance Hall is located in the G3 parking structure. The G3 parking structure can be accessed by entering Prairie Street from Zelzah Avenue. Parking passes are $6 and can be purchased at machines within each parking structure or Information Booth 3, located on Prairie Street off Zelzah Avenue. Parking passes can also be pre-purchased at The Permit Store online.

When the Whitney Museum of American Art opens its new home in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District next month, among the works featured in its first exhibition will be pieces by California State University, Northridge Chicana/o studies professor Harry Gamboa Jr.

The exhibition, “America is Hard to See,” will inlcude an unprecedented selection of works from the museum’s renowned permanent collection, including pieces by Asco (Spanish for “nausea”), the pioneering Chicano art group co-founded by Gamboa, Gronk, Willie F. Herrón III and Patssi Valdez.

“I’ll be attending the opening reception at the Whitney Museum of American Art where all Americans and the world will find it easier to see Chicano art,” Gamboa said.

“America Is Hard to See,” which opens May 1 and runs through Sept. 27, examines the themes, ideas, beliefs, visions and passions that have preoccupied and galvanized American artists over the past 115 years. Reflecting the way artists think and work, all mediums are presented together without hierarchy. Numerous pieces that have rarely, if ever, been shown before will appear alongside familiar icons, in a conscious effort to challenge assumptions about the American art canon.

When the Asco first hit the streets of Los Angeles 40 years ago, the community did not know what to make of its performance pieces, which tackled the day’s issues, including racism, head on.

The initial reaction to Asco’s work was resistant and political. Over the years, art collectors, museum curators and academics have hailed Asco and its members for presenting the realities of a community that was long ignored and provocatively translating the universality of its experience. The Smithsonian American Art Museum created a special exhibition in 2013 that includes their work, “Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art.” The exhibition is currently on display at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City.

For the past four decades, Gamboa has documented and interpreted the contemporary urban Chicano experience through his art, whether in photographs, videos or performance pieces.

Gamboa’s work has been exhibited in museums around the world, including a show currently on display at the Princeton University Art Museum, “The City Lost and Found: Capturing New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, 1960-1980.”

Despite the international acclaim for his work, Gamboa continues to teach four classes in CSUN’s Department of Chicana/o Studies and is a faculty member in the photography and media department at California Institute of the Arts.

For more about Gamboa and his art, visit his website http://www.harrygamboa.com.

Luis Rodriguez. Photo by Arlene Mejorado

Los Angeles Poet Laureate Luis Rodriguez will read from some of his work during a special appearance at California State University, Northridge on Wednesday, May 6.

The event, scheduled to take place from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Northridge Center of the University Student Union, will include a student spoken-word performance in honor of Rodriguez, who was named the city’s poet laureate by Mayor Eric Garcetti last fall.

CSUN Chicana/o studies professor Denise Sandoval said the event on May 6 will celebrate Rodriguez his contributions to literature and Los Angeles’ Chicano culture.

“Luis Rodriguez is a national literary hero, not just a hero in the Chicana and Chicano community,” Sandoval said. “CSUN is celebrating his work and his contributions not just to the San Fernando Valley as a founder of Tia Chucha’s in the northeast San Fernando Valley, but all of Los Angeles. He has helped shape the Chicano community with his art and his activism.”

Brought up in Watts and East Los Angeles, Rodriguez is a community activist and vocal advocate for the power of words to change lives.

Best known for his memoir “Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.,” Rodriguez is also an award-winning poet. His collections include “My Nature is Hunger,” “The Concrete River,” “Trochemoche” and “Poems Across the Pavement.” He published a sequel to “Always Running” in 2011 called “It Calls You Back: An Odyssey Through Love, Addiction, Revolutions, and Healing.” The following year, the book became a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Autobiography.

Rodriguez also is founder and editor of Tia Chucha Press, which has a bookstore and cultural center in Sylmar that is popular with CSUN students.

His ties with the university run deep. He co-edited with Sandoval “Rushing Waters, Rising Dreams: How the Arts are Transforming a Community” in 2012. He also co-produced a documentary of the same name, written by John F. Cantu. The book won an award from the Independent Publishers Association.

Those wishing to attend can make reservations by emailing juana.mora@csun.edu.

Halloween is approaching, and with it the commercially misunderstood Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos. Face painting and death-themed festivities show similarities to the European-based Halloween, but Día de los Muertos revolves around the appreciation of life and dead loved ones.

“It is important to understand that it is not Halloween,” said Lara Medina, professor of Chicana/o Studies. “It’s an ancient tradition that’s adapting to modern times.”

The California State University, Northridge Department of Chicana/o Studies — in cooperation with Medina and professor Yreina Cervantez — will host a two-day celebration, Miccaihuitl, in honor of Día de los Muertos, Oct. 29–30. The events will be primarily hosted at the Chicana/o House, located on Plummer Street, across from the Department of Art building.

“The tradition is about the annual time to remember, honor and commune with our loved ones who have passed on,” Medina said. “It’s a very spiritual time to connect again with our dead.”

On Thursday, Oct. 29, guests are invited to participate in the Noche de Ofrendas (Night of Offering) procession starting at 5:30 p.m. at Jerome Richfield Hall, culminating at the CSUN Chicana/o House at 6 p.m. At the procession, participants are encouraged to exchange stories of deceased loved ones and share food and flower offerings.

“We will also have a community altar, and people can add to it,” Medina said.

At 6 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 30, the Chicana/o House will host Día de los Muertos festivities with live music, food and art vendors. CSUN students will present information about the Día de los Muertos tradition, arts and crafts, and face painting for children.

“Friday will be more of a festival event,” Medina said. “It will be more music and performance.”

Also on the 30th, CSUN’s Delmar T. Oviatt Library is collaborating with the San Fernando Public Library to host a program with professor Xochitl Flores-Marcial, who will speak on “Words about Día de Los Muertos: Indigenous Perspectives.” The program will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Oviatt Library’s Ferman Presentation Room.

Earlier in the month, Flores-Marcial offered a workshop, “How to Make Papel Picado,” in honor of the holiday, at the San Fernando Public Library.

All CSUN Miccaihuitl events are open to the public and those who are interested in honoring the dead with joy and respect. “It’s a time when the veil between the physical world and the spiritual world is lifted,” Medina said. “So the spirits are able to return and enjoy all of the bounty we have laid out for them.”

California State University, Northridge students, faculty, staff and the general public participated in a two-day celebration, Miccaihuitl, which honored Día de los Muertos and included a Noche de Ofrendas (Night of Offering) procession, Oct. 29–30. People of all ages enjoyed the celebration and honored those who have passed away.

CSUN’s Chicana/o House hosted the celebration and offered visitors the opportunity to honor their deceased loved ones by sharing memoirs on decorated altars. Participants told stories to remember their family members and friends, watched performers and strolled around the numerous vendors, who sold traditional crafts and food. People wore traditional Día de los Muertos attire and face paintings, which represent the vulnerability of life.

Performers wear traditional Día de los Muertos attire at the annual CSUN celebration in honor of the Mexican holiday, Oct. 30, 2015. Photo by Ruth Saravia.

Rodolfo Acuña, Ph.D., Historian
from Chicano Male Unbonded series
©2000, Harry Gamboa Jr.

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and the Autry Museum of the American West have acquired several photographs by California State University, Northridge Chicana/o studies professor Harry Gamboa Jr. for their permanent collections.

The photographs are from Gamboa’s acclaimed ongoing series, “Chicano Male Unbonded,” black-and-white portraits of more than 100 Latino males that call into question the assumptions and stereotypes society has of men of Mexican descent. Among the photographs going to the National Portrait Gallery is one of CSUN professor Rudolfo Acuña, a founder of CSUN’s Department of Chicana/o Studies who is often hailed as the “father” of the field of Chicana/o studies.

Gamboa, an internationally recognized artist who co-founded the pioneering Chicano art group Asco (Spanish for “nausea”) with Gronk, Willie F. Herrón III and Patssi Valdez, said given the current political climate, he was particularly moved that images from the “Chicano Male Unbounded” series were chosen for acquisition.

“I created this work as a way to counter the negative stereotypes people have of Chicano men,” he said. “They are all photographs of men I know on some personal level. Some I know from academia and the art world, others are family or friends. They all self-identify as being Chicano. It’s very interesting to stand back and listen as viewers speculate on who the men are. I’ve heard people comment, just from looking at the pictures, that they are gang members. But then they get closer, read the descriptions and discover that the ‘gang members’ are lawyers, Ph.Ds, artists and novelists.

“In these days, when political talk includes discussion about the mass deportation of Mexicans and Mexican males in particular are negatively portrayed, this work stands out,” Gamboa continued. “It provides a positive discussion about what these men could be and who they actually are and what they represent — pillars of not only Chicano culture, but American culture.”

Kim Sajet, director of the National Portrait Gallery, said the gallery aims “to interpret the American story through the people who made a contribution to its history.”

“Important to that effort is to represent achievements that often make a major impact in a specific field but receive little national recognition,” Sajet continued. “Harry Gamboa’s portrait of Rudolfo Acuña acknowledges how Chicana/o studies came into the modern university setting and has subsequently broadened the understanding of who we are as a people.”

W. Richard West, president and CEO of the Autry Museum, said his museum’s selection of works is based on criteria such as art historical significance and connection to the museum’s mission to bring together the stories of all peoples of the American West.

“Our acquisition of Harry Gamboa’s portraits — including those of Willie Herron and Louie Perez — contributes to our ability to present a more comprehensive narrative of the Chicano experience in Los Angeles,” West said. “We plan to exhibit the portraits in fall 2017 in tandem with an exhibition of photographs from ‘La Raza’ magazine as part of the Getty’s broader ‘Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA Initiative.’’

Willie Herrón, Artist/Musician, 2000
from Chicano Male Unbonded series
Autry Museum of the American West
©2000, Harry Gamboa Jr.

Amy Scott, the Autry’s chief curator and Marilyn B. and Calvin B. Gross Curator of Visual Arts, said Gamboa’s “Chicano Male Unbonded” series “sits at crossroads, between traditions of photographic portraiture and street performance, between self-styling and artistic presentation.”

“As a result, the series constitutes a versatile framework for reconsidering some of the many labels so often applied to men in the Chicano community or of Mexican descent,” Scott continued. “Autry visitors will have the opportunity to examine traditions of photographic portraiture relative to race and identity in Los Angeles, and the West at large.”

When Gamboa and his colleagues first hit the streets of Los Angeles more than 40 years ago with Asco, the community did not know what to make of its performance pieces, which tackled the day’s issues, including racism, head on.

The initial reaction to Asco’s work was resistant and political. Over the years, art collectors, museum curators and academics have hailed Asco and its members for presenting the realities of a community that was long ignored and provocatively translating the universality of its experience. The Smithsonian American Art Museum created a special exhibition in 2013 that includes their work, “Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art.” The exhibition is currently on display at the Delaware Art Museum.

For the past four decades, Gamboa has documented and interpreted the contemporary urban Chicano experience through his art, whether in photographs, videos or performance pieces.

Last year, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York featured pieces by Gamboa from its permanent collection as part of its opening celebration of its new home in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. Some of those pieces will be on display later this month as part of the Whitney’s new exhibition “Human Interest: Portraits from the Whitney’s Collection,” which is scheduled to run from April 27, 2016 to Feb. 12, 2017.

Gamboa’s work has been exhibited in museums around the world. Despite the international acclaim for his work, Gamboa continues to teach four classes in CSUN’s Department of Chicana/o Studies and is a faculty member in the photography and media program at California Institute of the Arts.

California Student University, Northridge educates one of the most diverse student bodies in the nation. This diversity allows students to gain an insight into a world that was once previously unknown to them, and discuss many issues from around the globe. Eager to be at the forefront of these discussions, the campus was honored to welcome the 2014 Los Angeles Poet Laureate and Scholar in Residence at CSUN, Luis J. Rodriguez.

Rodriguez was introduced by the chair of the Department of Chicana/o Studies Gabriel Gutierrez, who spoke of his own personal admiration for Rodriguez’ work.

“I was in Santa Barbara at the time, and one of my friends told me about this guy down in LA who had written a book called Always Running, and that I should read it,” Gutierrez said. “I was one of the lucky ones, and was able to find a brand-new copy, and I read the first chapter and said, ‘OK, it’s pretty good.’ Then I got home that evening, and I couldn’t put the book down. In fact, I couldn’t sleep. The following day, I was riveted, because it spoke to so many themes and so many issues that we need to address in the world.”

Rodriguez proceeded to live up to this reputation, prefacing the reading by saying that he wanted the event to serve as a dialogue for the CSUN community. He delivered four poems that spoke to the aspects of people’s lives that the audience could relate to, and would inspire them to speak about their feelings. His first poem, entitled Heavy Blue Veins, was a personal story from Rodriguez’ childhood, when he would watch his aunt treat his mother for the various medical problems that plagued her life, and spoke to the ideals of roots and family.

His second poem focused on the idea of cultural acceptance, having been drawn from a dark time in Rodriguez’ life when he suffered from heroin addiction, and how he struggled to overcome the fact that he could not identify with any one particular culture. His final poems were sonnets inspired by the works of William Shakespeare. Rodriguez mentioned how he was brought to tears the first time he heard the poems, and felt compelled to write his own.

After the reading, Rodriguez changed roles from poet to moderator, and facilitated a discussion on a range of different subjects, from wealth to racial relations to modern literature. People of all ages, from students to faculty members, stepped up to voice their opinions and asked questions, listening to what Rodriguez had to say.

Teresa Ramirez, an astrophysics major and avid fan of Rodriguez’ work, spoke about how the reading had affected her and how she believed it could help the campus.

“I thought it was very beautiful,” Ramirez said. “How he talked about different races. How there are sometimes tensions between us, and how it’s really sort of false, in a way that we really shouldn’t play into. I think it can help CSUN because the school is extremely diverse, and I think with that there are some tensions, but events like these help to ease those tensions.”

After the lecture, Rodriguez further reiterated his statements about how he hopes that these kind of events can help people ignore the stereotypes about one another, and begin a discussion to prove that the lives they lead are not so different.

“I think that CSUN needs to carry the dialogue further,” Rodriguez said. “I think this is a great community, very diverse, and I think that we just need to keep dialoguing further on the issues because I’m afraid that with the media and the kind of yelling that’s coming out of the political process, we’re missing some of the salient points of who we are as a people, and as a country.”

Erasing the Border (Borrando la Frontera) by Ana Teresa Fernández

Dressed in a black cocktail dress and, at times, wearing stilettos, artist Ana Teresa Fernández took on the controversies surrounding the United States/Mexico border by “erasing” the fence between the two countries with blue paint. From a distance, her work looked like a gap of blue sky in the rusted steel bars.

In the five years since the original installation of “Borrando la Frontera (Erasing the Border)” was created on the fence dividing Tijuana and San Diego, Fernández’s work has inspired conversations about U.S./Mexican relations along the border and about broader issues raised by U.S. immigration policies. Similar installations have appeared along the border elsewhere in California and in Arizona and Texas.

Fernández will talk about her art during a lecture at California State University, Northridge on Wednesday, Oct. 26. Her lecture is slated to take place at 4 p.m. in the Kurland Lecture Hall of the Valley Performing Arts Center.

“Her work pushed the boundaries, literally and figuratively,” said Chicana/o studies professor Melisa Galván. “Fernández’s work makes a statement about social justice, as well as about how art can really challenge our notions of what is real and what is imagined. At the same time, it brings us together in its creation, and that’s a powerful thing. It also challenges what we see in the news media, and it forces us to reconsider how our borders are constructed.”

Fernández was born in 1981 in Tampico, Mexico, and she lives and works in San Francisco. Through her work, she explores the politics of intersectionality and the ways it shapes personal identity, culture and social rhetoric through painting, performance and video. Her work illuminates the psychological and physical barriers that define gender, race and class in Western society and the global South.

She has exhibited at Humboldt State University; the Tijuana Biennial in Mexico; the Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana; the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco; and The Oakland Museum of California. Her large-scale 5W public art project in San Francisco was awarded “Best of the Bay” by 7×7 Magazine in 2013. The Headlands Center for the Arts granted Fernández the Tournesol Award and her films have been screened at festivals internationally.

For more information about her lecture, contact Melisa Galván at mgalvan@csun.edu.

A coalition of seven organizations fighting the rise of violence in Mexico will be at California State University, Northridge on Tuesday, Nov. 15, to talk about what is happening in their home country.

The discussion will take place from 9:30 to 10:45 a.m. in the Northridge Center of the University Student Union, located on the east side of the campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge.

“Seven different social justice organizations from Mexico have been touring the United States since early October to try to bring attention to the violence they are experiencing in Mexico, especially southern Mexico,” said Martha Escobar, an associate professor in CSUN’s Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies and one of the organizers of the event. “This is an opportunity for our students to learn what is happening in Mexico from the people who are directly affected by what is going on.”

Escobar said among those taking part in the presentation are San Quintin farm workers from Baja California, parents of some of the 43 missing college students who are believed to have been kidnapped two years ago, and the mothers of women who were murdered in Ciudad Juarez.

“They, and others in their caravan against repression in Mexico, have joined together to draw attention to what is happening in their country and to bring solidarity to those who have been affected by it and want to see it stopped,” Escobar said. “They’ve come to the U.S. to create awareness and start a conversation, and foster solidarity between the peoples of the two countries who want to end the violence. They also want to help us understand the role the U.S.  plays in helping to shape what happens in Mexico.”

The presentation is being sponsored by CSUN’s Center for the Study of the Peoples of the Americas, Civil Discourse and Social Change initiative, Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies, Department of Communication Studies and University Student Union.

For more information, contact Escobar at martha.d.escobar@csun.edu.

Denise Sandoval is the lead editor of the anthology “White” Washing American Education: The New Culture Wars in Ethnic Studies, a collaboration of multiple CSUN ethnic studies professors.

The current political climate in the United States has sparked fears of new anti-immigration laws and a potential culture war, prompting scholarly discussions about the necessity of ethnic studies and cultural awareness. A landmark of these discussions is the two-volume anthology “White” Washing American Education: The New Culture Wars in Ethnic Studies — a collaboration from California State University, Northridge ethnic studies professors.

Chicana/o studies professor Denise Sandoval, the lead editor of the book, collaborated with CSUN Asian American studies professor Tracy Buenavista, Africana studies professor Anthony Ratcliff and Los Angeles Unified School District principal James Marín. The team investigated examples of whitewashed U.S. education, to present case studies and to share personal narratives about the struggles of ethnic studies, which had faced many backlashes in the past.

“History has taught us, ‘la lucha continúa’ — ‘the struggle continues,'” Sandoval said. “But the strength we have now is the work of solidarity and collaboration.”

After the state of Arizona passed HB 2281, a law banning ethnic studies in all of Arizona’s educational institutions in 2010, Texas followed with a trend of whitewashing U.S. history in history books. The books downplayed slavery, omitted notable Civil Rights leaders of color or revised information about international relations between the U.S. and other countries.

In response, publishing firm Praeger called for editors willing to work on a book demonstrating the value of ethnic studies in education — and about the impact of diverse ethnicities on U.S. history.

“The history of ‘other’ Americans was considered ‘un-American,’” Sandoval said. “Books were sanitized to remove anything that made the U.S. look bad, including reducing slavery and removing Civil Rights heroes.”

Sandoval and her CSUN colleagues jumped at the chance to include their different disciplines in the anthology. The first volume focuses on K-12, and the second is centered on higher education.

“Part of the motivation for this book was not only documenting what was happening, but also an attest for those of us who were teaching ethnic courses or utilizing ethnic studies pedagogy in our courses,” Sandoval said.

Ethnic studies degrees were established in the late ’60s and early ’70s, with CSUN offering the first Chicana/o studies major nationwide. Sandoval explained that some courses also meet higher education requirements and strengthen social justice awareness and cultural tolerance.

“Right now, living in this crazy, post-election time period, we’re going to need ethnic studies even more,” Sandoval said. “Not just for students from marginalized groups, but also students that might have class, gender or race privilege. These courses give them a new way to think about their world, and to think about discrimination and to see themselves as part of a solution.”

Sandoval earned her master’s degree in Chicana/o studies from CSUN and a Ph.D. in cultural studies from Claremont Graduate University. The cultural diversity and Chicana/o studies department at CSUN drew her back to campus, she said. In particular, Sandoval noted, the students in the cultural identity class she teaches every semester inspire her work — and passion for social justice and the preservation of ethnic studies.

“There are first-generation college students, some of them undocumented, some have survived trauma — but they’re here, in my classroom, a microcosm of CSUN,” she said. “What the [Chicana/o] studies department has created is very strong, and we are such a lucky campus for being so supportive of ethnic studies.”

Sandoval said she has had CSUN students who have wondered why they never learned about certain aspects of U.S. history in high school — and that many undergraduate students of color have learned to connect more with society, after learning how their cultures had contributed to shaping the U.S.

“I try to give them [students] a language in which to see their world, and hopefully inspire them to think about the power they have,” Sandoval said. “Social justice is not just an idea. It’s a pedagogy and philosophy — how we live our lives, recognizing people’s humanity and being willing to fight for equality.”

For more information about the book, visit http://bit.ly/2lIxHW2.

In addition to the seven commencement ceremonies and Honors Convocation, California State University, Northridge held a series of cultural celebrations, which aim to celebrate the diversity of our students and commemorate them on a successful academic journey. These celebrations are organized by student organizations or campus entities. Aztlán Graduation took place May 12.

California State University, Northridge professor of Chicana/o studies Denise Sandoval is curating a new exhibit on lowrider cars, The High Art of Riding Low, at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. The exhibit features sculptures, paintings, installations and, of course, lowrider vehicles as art.

The term “lowrider” has a dual meaning, said Sandoval MA ’95 (Chicana/o Studies), who previously curated the Petersen exhibitions Arte y Estilo (2000) and La Vida Lowrider: Cruising the City of Angels (2007).

“The term can be applied to a certain style of customizing [cars] — lower to the ground, fantastic paint jobs … chrome,” she said. “But also it’s a term used to define a person that either owns the car or sees themselves as part of the lowriding scene.”

As all cultures do, the lowrider lifestyle holds certain values and beliefs, including “pride, respect, corazón (the Spanish word for heart), family and brotherhood,” said Sandoval, who in 2003 completed her dissertation on lowriding traditions at the Claremont Graduate University.

The professor noted that the opportunity to curate this exhibit has special significance for her because of the overlap of the subject matter in her personal and professional life.

“[This exhibit] is bringing together two worlds that have really played a big part in my professional and personal life,” she said. “I’m trained in ethnic studies and Chicano studies, [so I see] my role as continuing to document our stories — our Chicano stories — in academia, but also always being connected to the community.”

According to the Petersen website, the exhibit will run through July 2018, in the museum’s Armand Hammer Foundation Gallery.

For more information, please visit petersen.org.

California State University, Northridge Chicana/o Studies professor Yreina D. Cervantez and the students in her “Days of the Dead” course will co-host two events in honor of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) — a Mexican holiday that honors the memories of their deceased loved ones and ancestors.

Ofrendas are decorated altars that honor and recall the lives of those who have passed. CSUN students decorated this community ofrenda outside the campus Chicana/o House for Dia de los Muertos, Oct. 30, 2015. Photo by Ruth Saravia.

The first event, Noche de Ofrenda (Night of Offering), is a personal gathering where people visit the ofrendas — culturally decorated altars that are spiritually offered to their ancestors. The students decorate the ofrendas with flowers, candles, incense, food, drinks, personal items and share stories and eat food with one another.

The event will take place on Thursday, Nov. 2, from 6 to 10 p.m. and is located on the north-side of campus on Plummer Street in the Chicano House at 18111 Nordhoff St in Northridge. Before meeting at the Chicano House, there will be a procession gathering at 5:30 p.m. at Jerome Richfield. Attendees will walk together across campus to the Chicano House.

“The ofrenda is an offering to the spirits that have passed on,” Cervantez said. “It’s a sacred time where we invoke our loved ones to return from the spiritual realm to the earthly realm and have communion with the living.”

Día de los Muertos is a Mexican tradition that is commemorated on All Saints Day — a celebration of all Christian Saints — and All Souls Day — a holiday that is dedicated to the prayers for the dead — is celebrated in various ways throughout Latin America. Día de los Muertos is now widely celebrated in California and throughout the U.S. Since the holiday has become popular over the years, Cervantez said, Noche de Ofrenda is important because it offers a place of vigil in contrast to the holiday’s commercialization and appropriation.

“Connecting them [the community and students] to the essence of what Día de los Muertos is, and having that night of reflection and contemplation counters the commercialization and commodification of the celebration,” Cervantez said. “You have to have a balance between contemplation and celebration.”

Performers wear traditional Día de los Muertos attire at the annual CSUN celebration in honor of the Mexican holiday, Oct. 30, 2015. Photo by Ruth Saravia.

The second event is the Department of Chicana/o Studies’ 35th annual celebration of Día de los Muertos on Friday, Nov. 3, from 6 p.m. to 12 a.m. in the Chicano House. The celebration will include music, dancing, mask making, face painting, vendors, food and an art exhibition from the community and students. The exhibition will include artwork from CSUN’s printmaking classes which are taught by art professors Rosalie Lopez and Curtis Taylor.

In addition to both events, members of MEChA, the Queer Collective and CSUN’s Students for Quality Education created an altar that will be on display in the Sierra Hall breezeway.

“Día de los Muertos is very empowering for the students,” Cervantez said. “They say it’s another way for them to think about life, death, mourning and regeneration, it’s a really beautiful, cultural and spiritual ritual that they feel connected to.”

During the semester, the students in Cervantez’s course learn about contemporary Chicana/o and Mexican traditions, as well as different cultures’ beliefs, traditions and practices for coming to terms with death. The students also study artistic expression related to the holiday, to create art and prepare the Chicano House with altars and decorations.

The Chicano House is a cultural space that is an extension of the Chicana/o Studies Department and created by students in Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlán (MEChA), an organization that promotes Chicana/o unity and empowerment.

“The Chicano House has become a sacred place for the students on campus,” said Cervantez. “It’s a comfortable environment and it’s an alternative space where they feel a sense of community here on this campus. The Chicano House is a space that keeps us grounded within the institution and connects us to community.”

Both events are sponsored by the Department of Chicano/a Studies and organized by the students in MEChA, Cervántez, her students and Chicana/o Studies faculty and professors Lara Medina, Avilés-Rodriguez, Peter Garcia and Xochitl Flores-Marcial.

The events are free and open to the public.