Past Events
Join us at UC-Berkeley’s Latinx Research Center on Monday, November 13th to celebrate the release of Victory is in the Struggle: From Barrio Boy to Revolutionary & Scholar (2023), a memoir by Carlos Muñoz Jr., one of the most important civil rights activists and scholars of the 20th century. Published by Eastward Books, Victory is in the Struggle details the life of a man whose dedication to social justice, courage, and compassion was forged in the crucible of poverty and racial injustice. A pioneer in the Chicano Movement, Carlos Muñoz Jr., co-founded its student and scholarly organizations and was instrumental in establishing the nation’s first Chicano Studies Department, serving as its inaugural chair. His life is a testament to meaningful “firsts,” and his unwavering integrity has left an indelible mark on history.
Join us for an engaging book talk featuring author Christian Paiz as he unveils the untold story behind the United Farm Workers’ (UFW) iconic legacy. Moderated by Prof. Kris Gutiérrez, Associate Dean of the School of Education and Carol Liu Professor of Education, and the participation of UC Berkeley Prof. Emeritus David Montejano, this event delves deep into Paiz’s latest work, which draws from over 200 hours of original oral history interviews with UFW and Chicana/o movement participants from the Coachella Valley. Spanning the tumultuous 1960s to the early 1980s, Paiz’s research sheds light on the challenges faced in organizing a vulnerable labor force amidst a backdrop of declining labor unions. Discover the resilience of ordinary farmworkers and volunteers that shaped a movement transcending individual intentions, and explore the radical dynamics of rank-and-file agency that left an indelible mark on history.
This event is free, open to the public, and wheelchair accessible.
For more information or accommodations, please email latinxresearch@berkeley.edu
The San Francisco Arts Commission in partnership with the Latinx Research Center at UC Berkeley is excited to present Dreaming in Color a two-day symposium celebrating artist Juana Alicia Araiza. Planned in conjunction with the solo exhibition Me Llaman Calle: The Monumental Art of Juana Alicia, this symposium highlights Juana Alicia’s important contributions as an artist and the influence she has had on generations of artists.
Panelists include Juana Alicia Araiza, Cece Carpio, Maria Castro, Meera Desai, Claudia A. Escobar, Irene Pérez, Laura E. Pérez, and Marina Pérez-Wong.
September 8-9, 2023
Multiple locations. See details below.
Space is limited. Please RSVP for one or both days.
Free and open to the public
All programs are free and open to the public. Visit sfartscommission.org for more information and to RSVP. Email maysoun.wazwaz@sfgov.org with questions about the symposium or exhibition. For accommodations email latinxresearch@berekely.edu.
The Latinx Research Center will host an all-day symposium celebrating the historic retrospective Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (Feb. 4-July 23, 2023), co-curated by María Esther Fernández, inaugural Artistic Director of the Riverside Museum of Art’s Cheech Marin Center of Art and Culture, and Laura E. Pérez, Professor of the Department of Ethnic Studies, and Chair of the Latinx Research Center.
The public, all-day series of events will begin with an altar-building workshop, prioritizing students and local young artists, led by nationally recognized artist and UCB Instructor Jesus Barraza and Laila Espinosa, a US-MX performance artist and a Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies doctoral student at UC Berkeley. The afternoon symposium will feature presentations by exhibition catalog essayists, other invited Latinx Studies scholars, and curators: Ella Díaz, Anthony Graham, Ann Marie Leimer, Ronald Rael, Terezita Romo, Ani Rivera, Melissa San Miguel, Susanna Temkin, Mary Thomas, and Adriana Zavala. The symposium will conclude with a keynote by the artist, followed by a buffet dinner, and two short documentary films featuring the artist, Amalia Mesa Bains at de Saisset Museum by Elizabeth Sher and Amalia Mesa-Bains: In Her Own Words by Ray and Daniel Telles.
The symposium is made possible with the support of BAMPFA, the Center for Race and Gender, the Chicanx Studies Program, the Department of Ethnic Studies, and more.
This event is free, open to the public, and wheelchair accessible. For more information or accommodations, please email latinxresearch@berkeley.edu
Join us to celebrate the exceptional research conducted by the LRC-sponsored 2nd cohort of Faculty Mentored Undergraduate Research Fellows (FMURF) and their Faculty Mentors. The LRC’s FMURF program pairs leading scholars with outstanding undergraduates to advance research in Latinx Studies across the liberal arts, sciences, professional schools and the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Throughout the entirety of the 2022-23 academic year, Student Fellows worked closely with Faculty to support one or more original research projects in order to develop research skills, critical thinking, and intellectual creativity.
The May 1st symposium is a public event which will commemorate and celebrate the work of the outstanding student-fellow and their faculty mentor. This year’s Fellows and Faculty will present original findings in the fields of linguistics, medicine, local historiography, urban studies, education, curatorial studies, environmental science, criminology and many more!
This event is free, open to the public, and wheelchair accessible. For more information or accommodations, please email latinxresearch@berkeley.edu
In this talk based on the recently published book Calculating Brilliance: An Intellectual History of Mayan Astronomy at Chich’en Itza (2022), Prof. Gerardo Aldana will reflect on the effort to understand indigenous math and science from unique Mayan hieroglyphic written records, as refracted by philosophical and cosmological concerns. He will examine the case of a historical event from the Terminal Classic period Chich’en Itza, attested in texts, iconography, in song and in oral history–and will argue how, through this study, we will encounter alter-native interpretations of the archaeological record and confront an indigenous cosmological humility carrying particular meaning and utility within our challenging contemporary global contexts.
This event is free, open to the public, and wheelchair accessible. For more information or accommodations, please email latinxresearch@berkeley.edu
Introduced by Dr. Cati de los Ríos, UC Berkeley alumnus and Ethnic Studies professor Dr. Elias Serna unfolds the story of the Xican@ Pop-Up Book Movement, an arts allegory project which evolved out of the struggle to defend Chicanx Studies in Arizona 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. The XPUB extended activity onto social media platforms, public displays of student work, teacher professional development workshops (XITO, LESMC, UTLA), LA Times cover images, and the production of three manifestos including “El Pop-Up Vuh” and “El Plan de Santa Pop-Up.” Over the last decade, the XPUB unfolded into a versatile resistance allegory for the spread of Ethnic Studies Now in California, the Quincentennial resurgence of Mesoamerican knowledges (Tenochtitlan), Black and Brown hidden histories, the resurrection of the 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. Recent presentations feature the newest “Johnavalos Codice,” a visual display of student “gems” over the years, and the grand premier of the long-awaited, pandemic-era 4th XPUB manifesto.
In this talk and conversation with Professor John Alba Cutler, Richard T. Rodriguez will discuss his recent book A Kiss Across the Ocean. Published by Duke University Press, the book explores the relationship between British post-punk musicians and their Latinx audiences in the United States since the 1980s. Melding memoir with cultural criticism, Rodríguez spotlights a host of influential bands and performers whose music and styles hold significant sway on generations of fans enthused by their matchlessly pleasurable and political reverberations.
Award-winning author Roberto Lovato talks with Levi Vonk and Axel Kirschner about their new book, Border Hacker. Border Hacker follows the real-life story of Axel, an undocumented Afro-Latino migrant and computer hacker, from his deportation in New York City to his desperate attempt to cross Mexico and return to his family. Along the way, Axel met Levi, a young anthropologist from the US, and the two became fast friends, even as Axel’s hacks turned increasingly dangerous. In this talk, Lovato discusses with Kirschner and Vonk about their relationship, what it was like to collaborate on a book together, and how they see writing Border Hacker as a political act.
Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory is the first retrospective exhibition of the work of longtime Bay Area artist Mesa-Bains. Presenting work from the entirety of her career for the first time, this exhibition, which features nearly 60 works in a range of media, including fourteen major installations, celebrates Mesa-Bains’s important contributions to the field of contemporary art locally and globally.
For over forty-five years, Mesa-Bains has worked to bring Chicana art into the broader American field of contemporary art through innovations of sacred forms such as altares (home altars), ofrendas (offerings to the dead), descansos (roadside resting places), and capillas (home yard shrines). She expanded her installations from domestic spaces to include laboratories, library forms, gardens, and landscapes, focusing attention on the politics of space to highlight colonial erasure of the preexisting and still-surviving cultural differences in colonized Indigenous and Mexican American communities. Many of these works offer a feminist perspective on the domestic life of immigrant and Mexican American women across different historical periods—most notably the four-part installation series Venus Envy, which was created over multiple decades and will be displayed in its entirety for the first time at BAMPFA.
Standing at the juncture of cultural diversity, environmentally centered spirituality culled from ancestral non-Western worldviews, and intersectional feminism, Mesa-Bains has been heralded as one of the most prominent voices in feminist Chicanx art of her generation.
Amalia Mesa-Bains: Archaeology of Memory is organized by the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in collaboration with the Latinx Research Center (LRC) at UC Berkeley. The exhibition is guest curated by María Esther Fernández, artistic director of The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture of the Riverside Art Museum, and Dr. Laura E. Pérez, professor and chair of the LRC.
The exhibition is made possible by generous lead support from the Henry Luce Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Major funding is provided by Margarita Gandia and Diana Campoamor, Marta Thoma Hall, Pamela and David Hornik, and the UC Berkeley Latinx Research Center. Additional support was provided by a College of Letters and Sciences Dean’s Faculty Excellence Program project grant, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.