You Can Ban Chicanx Books But They Still Pop Up!: The 10-Year Unfolding of the Xican@ Pop-Up Book.
UC Berkeley’s Cati de los Ríos introduces Cal alumnus and Ethnic Studies Professor, Elias Serna. Dr. Serna co-founded the Chicano Secret Service and later aided in the pop-up book movement–a counterpart to LibroTraficante–that arose in the last decade in response to the outlawing of Chicanx Studies books by Arizona Republican lawmakers and to attacks against Ethnic Studies, Black and Brown bodies, and LGBTQ communities. The Xican@ Pop-Up Book (XPUB) movement evolved out of the struggle to defend the Mexican American Studies Department in Tucson, Arizona in 2013 and commemorates 10 years of widespread and varied arts activism. After Arizona Republican lawmakers outlawed Chicanx Studies and destroyed the department, Los Angeles educators designed a curriculum – a counterpart to the LibroTraficante – around banned Chicanx literature, utilizing paper engineering as allegory for the return of Chicanx Studies, the resurrection of banned Chicanx books, and the rising up against attacks on Ethnic Studies. Over the last decade, the XPUB unfolded into a versatile resistance allegory for the spread of Ethnic Studies Now in California, Quincentennial resurgence of Mesoamerican knowledges (Tenochtitlan), Black and Brown hidden histories, the resurrection of struggle for victims of police violence (including Black Lives Matter), and more recently the personal “coming out” LGBTQ+ odyssey of co-founder and former UC Riverside Mexican dance faculty Johnavalos Rios. This event was hosted by The Latinx Research Center on Thursday, March 23, 2023 from 12 to 2 PM. Sign up for our newsletter to receive invitations to our upcoming programmed events by visiting https://mailchi.mp/berkeley/lrc-newsl… To learn more about the Latinx Research Center at University of California, Berkeley, visit https://lrc.berkeley.edu/You Can Ban Chicanx Books But They Still Pop Up! The 10-Year Unfolding of the Xican@ Pop-Up Book (2).png
