I wish to open my remarks with a note of sincere gratitude for my predecessor, Dr. Chalane Lechuga, who served as treasurer of the organization for several years and mentored me in the role. Under her stewardship, we organized data for comparative trend analysis, maintained sound fiscal strategies, and aligned reporting to tax categories. Similar gratitude goes to Dr. Julia Curry Rodríguez and Kathy Blackmer Reyes who helped me reconcile at least five different and complex financial systems in operation at NACCS and have supported our infrastructure, website, conference, policy, by-laws, and incorporation processes in the past year.
We are currently in the 2019-2020 Fiscal Year, which spans from July 1, 2019 until June 30, 2020, but I return to the previous fiscal year for a moment. We ended the previous fiscal year (FY 18-19) in an auspicious position. Using round numbers, we finished the previous fiscal year with about $61,000 in our main account, compared to about $25,000 the previous year (FY 17-18; Minnesota conference). I attribute our financial standing in the FY 18-19 to good membership renewals/enrollments and a remarkably successful conference in Albuquerque, where our executive director negotiated a favorable contract and conference registrations were strong. The location, theme, turnout, panels, as well as donations, in-kind contributions, and ad/vendor sales were also markedly strong.
The revenue (and expenses) of our “financially fragile organization”–to quote Aureliano De Soto–are closely tied to the annual conference. Going forward, if we are going to practice responsible stewardship of the organization we must continue to be mindful of conference site selection. Additionally, I take this opportunity to remind all members of the crucial importance of membership renewal, advertisement and vendor sponsorships, and paying conference registration.
Turning to the current fiscal year, we are still in a stable financial position. Attached, please see our detailed mid-term FY report. (Not included is our Castañeda endowment account, whose balance is tied to stock indices, and had experienced positive gains in the past two FYs). Our key expenses included the mid-year board meeting and conference-planning for the Seattle location and our professional services costs. Additionally, and in accordance with the memorandum of October 2018, the board approved a payment of 10% of the organization’s outstanding debt for past professional services. Seattle was an attractive site, but one that represented higher costs (space, audio-visual, room rate, food & beverage). The organization made a significant down payment on the conference and the conference was subsequently cancelled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the second half of FY 19-20, our revenue streams were less active because we did not hold a conference, but our expenses came down in tandem. We will finish the FY in a sound fiscal position and will continue to monitor the developments in the emergent health, economic, travel, and academic environment and adjust the planning and execution of future NACCS gatherings. Our organization will certainly contend with the impacts with the support of the membership.
Lastly, I share some of the ongoing projects the treasurer is coordinating with the board of the organization. These projects include solving the organization’s burden of unsustainable merchant fees for credit card transactions, studying the alignment of the membership term to the FY instead of the calendar year, updating the website, and refreshing leadership orientation.
by Yvette J. Saavedra and Isabel A. Millán, Chicana Caucus Co-Chairs
In light of the unfortunate cancellation of the 2020 NACCS Conference in Seattle, we wanted to update you on what we had been planning. Continuing our commitment to student support, the Chicana Caucus has awarded three student scholarships to help fund students who would have presented at the conference. Following the Chicana Caucus Plenary tradition of centering timely, cutting edge scholarship, our 2020 plenary speakers were to be: Dr. Sandra Pacheco, Dr. Francisco Galarte, and Dr. Doris Careaga-Coleman. We had hoped that our speakers could engage the theme of Reshaping Our Bodies of Knowledge: Transcending the Limits of Chicana/x Studies Plenary. Additionally, we had hoped to present Dr. Amanda V. Ellis the Chicana Caucus Publication Recognition plaque for her article, “Bruja, Curandera, Y Lechuza: Collapsing Borders and Fusing Images.” This piece, recently published in the Fall 2019 issue of the Chicana/Latina Studies, exemplifies the kind of scholarship we seek to produce and engage with as part of Chicana Studies. Lastly, we wished to recognize our student scholarship recipients, as well as nominate new co-chairs for 2020-2022. Please consider running!
As we end our term as co-chairs we would like to convey our gratitude to the Chicana Caucus membership for giving us the opportunity to represent you in the organization. Also, our thanks to the NACCS leadership for their support. This has been a wonderful experience for the both of us.
by Jesse Esparza and Samantha Rodriguez, NACCS Tejas Foco Co-Chairs
A. Report on NACCS Tejas Foco 2019:
The 2019 NACCS Tejas Foco was held at Houston Community College System, Eastside Campus, from February 14-16th. The conference theme was “Semillas de Poder: Honoring Chicana/o/x Movements & Mapping 21st Century Resistance”.
Many thanks to the conference chair, Dr. Natalie Garza, and the hosting committee for putting together the 13th consecutive NACCS Tejas Foco. The entire HCC community was welcoming to the NACCS Tejas Foco Conference presenters and participants. Many Foco members commented that the conference was well-organized. With the assistance of community organizations, universities and colleges as well as HCC deans, the chancellor of instruction, and faculty from various divisions, the conference organizers were able to cover the costs. We had approximately 300 people register for the conference and the conference was free for HCC students.
B. Awards Committees and Reports:
Non-Fiction: Samantha Rodriguez serves as chair. Dr. Monica Muñoz Martinez won for her work entitled The Injustice Never Leaves You: Anti-Mexican Violence in Texas. Honorable Mention was given to Dr. Melita Garza’s They Came to Toil: Newspaper Representations of Mexicans and Immigrants in the Great Depression.
Young Adult/Fiction: Reyes Ramirez serves as chair. Alex Temblador won for her young adult novel Secrets of the Casa Rosada and Daniel Peña won for his debut novel Bang.
Dissertation: This is the only monetary award (approximately $500 this year); Jaime Mejia serves as chair. Dr. Miguel Juárez won for “From Concordia to Lincoln Park: An Urban History of Highway Building in El Paso, Texas,” a dissertation from the University of Texas, El Paso.
Premio Estudiantil: No awardee this year; Students and professors can nominate; Leo Treviño and Tiffany González serve as co-chairs. Efforts have been made to ensure that student nominations are put in place so that this award is distributed.
Poetry Book: Isaac Chavarria serves as chair. Rubi Orozco Santos won for Inventos Míos.
Premio Estrella de Aztlán: Former premio winners serve on the committee; Beto Calderón serves as chair. Graciela Sánchez and Eddie Arellano won this award for the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center and the Discover College Life Project respectively.
C. K-12 Meeting Report:
Third Annual Free MAS Summit: June 15, 2019 in San Antonio, Texas at Our Lady of the Lake University. Approximately 300 teachers and community leaders attended this year’s summit.
D. Report on NACCS Tejas Foco 2020:
The 14th consecutive annual conference was set to be held at South Texas College, Pecan Campus, in McAllen, Texas from March 5-7th. The chair of the planning committee is Dr. Trinidad Gonzalez (tgonzale@southtexascollege.edu). The theme of next year’s conference is Chicanx Praxis.
Specific information about the 2019 conference, including the CFP, can be found on our website: https://naccstejasfoco.wixsite.com/tejas
Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/NACCSTEJAS2019/
Texas A&M University, Kingsville is interested in hosting the 2021 NACCS Tejas Foco.
For over twenty years I worked at universities and year by year observed conditions deteriorate. While demands in all areas increased, little if any assistance was provided to meet growing expectations. Recognition of service to professional organizations was weakly acknowledged even as faculty was encouraged to take on these roles. As I spent time on the work needed as a National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies officer, the promised support from the university never materialized.
The consequences included an annual review that inaccurately reflected my performance. In the end it led to removal of my tenure status when two University of Texas System campuses were merged. Subsequently, I made the decision to leave the profession. However, what I had gained during university life was not something the system could take away.
Throughout the years in university life my skill set and interests shifted. Though my doctorate is in educational psychology, much of my work shifted more to social psychology. NACCS was in part responsible for that shift. What I found so refreshing about NACCS conferences was that they were, and continue to be, interdisciplinary. Attending sessions involving research in a variety of disciplines provided me with ideas for my own work.
After leaving the university and not having enough activity in my life, I began looking for volunteer opportunities in Latin America. After weeks of research I settled on Centro de Esperanza Infantil in Oaxaca de Juárez. My selection of that program was based on two main factors. First, the services offered in the program are similar to a program where my university students completed their service learning hours. Secondly, and more importantly, I was drawn to the values stated in their operating principles: respect for the cultures and languages of the program’s participants.
Centro de Esperanza Infantil (CEI) is a foundation that solicits sponsors to cover the school expenses of children and youth. Students in the program are among the poorest in the state and would otherwise not attend school. The center provides a range of services from school supplies and uniforms to tutorial services to breakfast and lunch. The majority of the participants are from one of the many indigenous groups found in Oaxaca and some speak an indigenous language as their first language along with Spanish.
Initially the plan was to volunteer for four months then divide my time between Oaxaca and the States. I was not there more than two months before I realized that this was home. Oaxaca was where I should to be. Apart from CEI the city and state are culturally vibrant. My time is divided between CEI and cultural events and festivals in the area.
My activity at CEI is divided in three areas: homework assistance, English tutorials, and play. Homework assistance is mostly with primaria children and part of that is teaching them study skills. English tutorials are with secundaria, preparatoria, and universitaria students. Beginning in secundaria, English is a part of the curriculum. Play occurs in the form of games and park trips with primaria children and joking with older program participants during tutorials.
My skills as an educational psychologist have served me well as I work with children and youth, although there have been some adjustments. I have had to adjust my expectations of the behavior of program participants. For example, when teaching about social distance in a university discussion I would include cultural differences as a factor in that behavior. Here children and youth up to about 14 years of age have no conception of social distance. I expected that younger elementary students would have a close social space but I did not expect students in first or second year of secundaria (seventh and eighth grade) to stand or sit very close and even place their hand on my back or shoulder. This occurs more with boys than girls, which is expected. Also, the attitude toward homework is definitely different in that it is not negative. They stay focused with or without supervision. Likewise, the general cheerfulness of the program participants creates a pleasant environment.
One area that did concern me was the distancing of participants from their mother language, particularly the younger ones. When asked whether they spoke any languages other than Spanish, the response was always no. When later I heard them speaking an indigenous language I asked what language was being spoken to which they replied that it was a nonsense language. One later admitted they were speaking Triqui. I had purchased a book on basic Zapoteco that had an excellent introduction that included the importance of language preservation. After having this group of program participants read that section their attitudes changed and they openly would speak in Triqui and began to teach me basic phrases and terms.
Outside of CEI there have been a range of activities that occupy my time. There are dozens of exhibit openings, book presentations, performance art events, lectures, and more, every week. Much is learned from attending these events. These are not only personally rewarding but also provide information that I can share with the children and youth with whom I work.
My experiences engaging with the program participants led me to sponsor two children. The director initially brought me a stack of folders and asked if I wanted to select a child to sponsor. I left the decision to her discretion. I had no idea how to select and asked her to do so. Later she asked if I was interested in sponsoring a second participant whom I already knew, one I had worked with since my first days at CEI. I said yes, so I now have two ahijados. (The terms used for sponsors and sponsored participants are madrina, padrino, ahijado, and ahijada.) The two have enriched my life further.
While there was value in university life there was also much to contend with. Through my experience with NACCS, developing collegial relationships and friendships became an important part of managing university life. As I noted, my research and teaching was enriched as a result of my involvement in NACCS. Now, all those experiences have resulted in an active and more rewarding life where I continue to use the knowledge I have gained in a variety of areas. Further, in the process of working with program participants I get to see them grow and develop. So, while the end of my academic career ended in a stressful and unpleasant experience it led me to move to a place where I have a better life. Leaving university created an opportunity.
Dr. Inés M. Talamantez, scholar, mentor, teacher, and activist, passed to the next life on September 27, 2019. In her scholarship and in our meetings Dr. Talamantez, a long-time member of NACCS as well as our sister organization Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social, and of the American Academy of Religion, consistently called on all of us to reject colonial and patriarchal mindsets and institutions. It was Dr. Talamantez who, when Dr. Margo Tamez, Lipan Apache, received the Antonia I. Castañeda Award, made sure we honored protocol. As we honor her life, we also remember her role in building the field of Native American religious studies, her fierce scholar-activism, engagement with the Indigenous caucus, and commitment to calling us all to activism, accountability, power, and life.
Often referred to as the “mother of the field of Native American religious traditions”, Dr. Talamantez earned her Ph.D. at the University of California, San Diego, served a postdoc at Harvard Divinity School, and later accepted a position at the University of California at Santa Barbara. It was at UCSB that she would teach for most of the next four decades, but her mentorship and field-building extended far beyond the UC system. Her mentorship, scholarship and pedagogy were seamless. Once, in an interview with Natalie Avalos, also Apache and Chicana, she noted “My pedagogy has always been focused on issues of authenticity: religious, historical, linguistic, and political, both in the past and present. I am open to and excited about the theme of reimagining communication and cooperation… It’s time to recognize each other in a new way that we never thought of before. I’m amazed by what we know and curious about learning more about each other with sincere respect—dropping our fear of each other and learning the true definitions of power” (Avalos, 2016, 154).
Many NACCS members will remember the powerful work Dr. Talamantez contributed to Fleshing the Spirit—a volume critical to scholars of religion and spirituality, and to anyone committed to wholeness. Through their ongoing conversations with other mujeres about Chicana, Latina, and Indigenous spirituality Elisa Facio and Irené Lara conceived of and developed this first anthology of Chicana, Latina, and Indigenous women’s spiritualities. It was Dr. Talamantez’s work that opened the volume, and so I close this brief memorial with her teaching words:
On this sun day I offer my thoughts for all of our journeys to succeed.
This is hard labor
The ancestors knew we were coming
They left work for us
Now we carry their wisdom forward.
Know who you are, sabe quien eres
Know your land, conoce tu tierra
Learn your language, aprende tu idioma (2014, xi)
Dr. Inés M. Talamantez ¡Presente!
Works Cited
Talamantez, Inés, “A Mindful Invitation: Una invitación consiente” from Fleshing the Spirit, edited by Elisa Facio and Irené Lara, University of Arizona Press, 2014.
Avalos, Natalie. “Interview with Inés Talamantez.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, vol. 32 no. 1, 2016, p. 153-168. Project MUSEmuse.jhu.edu/article/616355
La Rondalla Amerindia De Aztlán is a group of Chicano social justice musicians that has inspired and motivated political action and education among La Raza for the last 50 years.
La Rondalla Amerindia De Aztlán was started at San Diego State University (SDSU) in 1969 by professor José ‘Pepe’ Villarino and his Chicana/o Studies (C/S) students and has been a continuous and significant component of the C/S history we are celebrating. Among a variety of initiatives, the members of La Rondalla Amerindia De Aztlán, as students, professors, professionals and community activists, were involved with the formation of C/S at SDSU from 1969 and continue its social justice work to this day.
La Rondalla Amerindia De Aztlán provides music with a message that inspires and educates by telling social justice stories of, among others, SDSU Chicana/o students, faculty, staff and community activists, both inside and outside of university systems. We were a César Chávez “go to” group at many marches and other social justice events. Our music has impacts far beyond the campus, yet it was part of the academic center that emerged from C/S at SDSU.
La Rondalla Amerindia De Aztlán implements its mission in a manner consistent with “El Plan De Santa Barbara” and defines the importance and need for Chicano Studies by chronicling our community’s social justice initiatives. One of its songs is part of a Smithsonian collection and one of its original members, “Chunky” Ramon Sanchez was recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts’ National Heritage Fellowships—“Chunky” Presente!
Five of the current members of La Rondalla Amerindia De Aztlán are interviewed in the internationally acclaimed documentary on Chunky’s life, “Singing Our Way to Freedom.”
La Rondalla Amerindia De Aztlán’s unique and lived social justice music was and remains at the heart and soul of Chicana/o studies academia. Our social justice music provides substantive academic hope in a way that educates and inspires our students and community to social justice action. Spanning 50-plus years, La Rondalla Amerindia De Aztlán has written and performed songs that chronicle the lives of individual Chicana/o campus activists and events of historical importance. Many of the songs performed by La Rondalla Amerindia De Aztlán are a living history of great political significance and importance.
Our music is a significant tool that educates about the Chicano Studies social justice history. It is part of the fight to preserve and advance justice for our culture.
Do call on La Rondalla Amerindia De Aztlán to provide social justice music for any political, educational and social justice event relevant to our Raza. Any stipends are put toward the César Chávez Scholarship or other related scholarships.
This American Autopsy: Poems. By José Antonio Rodríguez. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019. Volume 23 in the Chicana & Chicano Visions of the Americas Series, 76 pp. $14.95, ISBN 978-0-8061-6396-3.
Reviewed by Teresa Carrasco, Washington State University
In This American Autopsy: Poems, José Antonio Rodríguez presents readers with a poetry collection of intimate memories and moments of violence, death, dreams, and family. Readers are confronted with imagery and contemporary issues regarding immigration, state violence, murder, and capitalism. Rodríguez references events and tragedies such as the Challenger explosion, Bonnie and Clyde, Lincoln’s assassination, caged children in McAllen, TX, Gone With the Wind, Ferguson, and the police murder of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, thus constructing a tangible American autopsy. Reading through this collection of poems, this reader began to question if they were reading an autopsy, or perhaps a vivisection, with the corpse still clinging to life. There is no easy way around hard histories and painful realities of the nation-state. Yet, although the subjects Rodríguez engages and vividly portrays are intense and complex, there exists a tenderness in the delicate ways he crafts the intricate realities within each poem.
The book is divided into two sections: “morphology” and “etiology” with poems flowing from one part to the next. Written in Spanish, English translations can be found in the conclusion of the book. The poems of part two are significantly longer in verse and more intense than those in the opening pages. Here the reader encounters wet sheets, white sofas, and chrome rails as they flicker before you in the dreams Rodríguez describes. The imagery lingers long after setting the volume down. One poem in particular lingered with this reader and, not ironically, stands as representative of the larger work: “Cuando Me Besan/When They Kiss Me.” Here Rodríguez writes, “El frio que…/Se cola por entre los olanes/De las cortinas floreada/Sin orugas ni mariposas,” “The cold…/Sifts through the curtains’/Floral folds absent of/Catepillars and butterflies.” Rodríguez’s sharp images will draw you in and hold you in their gaze, as you feel the cool air wafting from this American Autopsy.
Titles were submitted to NACCS Chair for Noticias de NACCS
Land Uprising: Native Story Power and the Insurgent Horizons of Latinx Indigeneity by Simón Ventura Trujillo
Simón Ventura Trujillo (Assistant Professor, NYU English) has published his first scholarly monograph entitled Land Uprising: Native Story Power and the Insurgent Horizons of Latinx Indigeneity (University of Arizona Press, 2020). The book engages with New Mexican land grant struggles to rethink the relationship between Indigenous land reclamation and Latinx and Chicanx Indigeneities.
Special issue on the 50th anniversary of Ethnic Studies for the Ethnic Studies Review edited by Dr. Xamuel Bañales and Dr. Leece Lee-Oliver
The special issue on the 50th anniversary of Ethnic Studies for the Ethnic Studies Review, published by the University of California Press, was released in December of 2019. Co-edited by Dr. Xamuel Bañales and Dr. Leece Lee-Oliver, the special issue features over twenty essays that engage with the foundations, meanings, and/or futurity of Ethnic Studies, illustrating critical dialogues and efforts to maintain the field as a liberatory project. The journal features essays from a variety of activists, artists, and scholars engaged in Chicano/a/x-Latino/a/x Studies, including: Ysidro Macias, Jennie Luna, Malaquias Montoya, and Nelson Maldonado-Torres. To access the journal please visit https://esr.ucpress.edu/content/42/2?current-issue=y.
The Tenure-Track Process for Chicana and Latina Faculty: Experiences of Resisting and Persisting in the Academy edited by Patricia A. Perez
This anthology addresses the role of postsecondary institutional structures and policy in shaping the
tenure-track process for Chicana and Latina faculty in higher education. Major topics include the importance of early socialization, intergenerational mentorship, culturally relevant faculty programming, and institutional challenges and support structures. The aim of this volume is to highlight practical and policy implications and interventions for scholars, academics, and institutions to facilitate tenure and promotion for women faculty of color. Patricia A. Perez is Professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies at California State University, Fullerton. 20% Discount Available – enter the code FLR40 at checkout. https://www.routledge.com/The-Tenure-Track-Process-for-Chicana-and-Latina-Faculty-Experiences-of/Perez/p/book/9780367225810
Mexicanos: A History of Mexicans in the United States (3rd. Ed.) by Manuel G. Gonzalez
Responding to shifts in the political and economic experiences of Mexicans in America, this newly revised and expanded edition of Mexicanos provides a relevant and contemporary consideration of this vibrant community. Emerging from the ruins of Aztec civilization and from centuries of Spanish contact with indigenous people, Mexican culture followed the Spanish colonial frontier northward and put its distinctive mark on what became the southwestern United States. Shaped by their Indian and Spanish ancestors, deeply influenced by Catholicism, and often struggling to respond to political and economic precarity, Mexicans play an important role in US society even as the dominant Anglo culture strives to assimilate them. With new maps, updated appendices, and a new chapter providing an up-to-date consideration of the immigration debate centered on Mexican communities in the US, this new edition of Mexicanos provides a thorough and balanced contribution to understanding Mexicans’ history and their vital importance to 21st-century America.
The Movement for Reproductive Justice: Empowering Women of Color Through Social Activismby Patricia Zavella I am pleased to announce the publication of my new book, The Movement for Reproductive Justice: Empowering Women of Color Through Social Activism, which is based on ethnographic research in multiple sites. It will be published by New York University Press in May of 2020 (https://nyupress.org/9781479812707/the-movement-for-reproductive-justice/). Here is the book blurb: “Shows how reproductive justice organizations’ collaborative work across racial lines provides a compelling model for other groups to successfully influence change.
“Patricia Zavella experienced first-hand the trials and judgments imposed on working professional mothers: her commitment to academia was questioned because of her pregnancy; she was shamed for having children while ‘too young;’ and when she finally achieved a tenure track position in 1983, she felt out of place as one of the few female faculty members with children.
These experiences sparked Zavella’s interest in the movement for reproductive justice. In this book, she draws on five years of ethnographic research to explore collaborations among women of color engaged in activism on behalf of reproductive justice. Many organizations focused on reproductive justice activism are racially specific, such as the California Latinas for Reproductive Justice or Black Women for Wellness. Yet Zavella documents how many of these organizations have built cross-sector coalitions, sharing resources and supporting each other through different campaigns or struggles. While the coalitions are often regional—or even national—these organizations have specific constituencies diverse by race, sexual identities, legal status, or ethnicity, presenting unique challenges and opportunities for the women involved.
Zavella argues that these organizations provide a compelling model for negotiating across differences within constituencies. In the context of the “war” on women’s reproductive rights and its disproportionate effect on women of color, The Movement for ReproductiveJustice demonstrates that a truly intersectional movement built on grassroots organizing, culture shift work, and policy advocacy for women’s human rights can offer visions of strength, resiliency, and dignity for all.”
Patricia Zavella is Professor Emerita, Latin American & Latino Studies Department, at University of California, Santa Cruz.
Cabañuelas by Norma Elia Cantú
Nena leaves Laredo, Texas, and moves to Madrid, Spain, to research the historical roots of traditional fiestas in Laredo. Immersing herself in post-Franco Spain and its rich history, its food, music, and fiestas, Nena finds herself falling for Paco, a Spaniard who works in publishing. Nena’s research and experiences teach her about who she is, where she comes from, and what is important to her, but as her work comes to a close, Nena must decide where she can best be true to her entire self: in Spain with Paco or in Laredo, her home, where her job and family await her return.
Meditación Fronteriza: Poems of Love, Life, and Labor by Norma Elia Cantú
The poems are a celebration of culture, tradition, and creativity that navigates themes of love, solidarity, and political transformation. Deeply personal yet warmly relatable, these poems flow from Spanish to English gracefully. With Gloria Anzaldúa’s foundational work as an inspiration, Meditación Fronteriza unveils unique images that provide nuance and depth to the narrative of the borderlands.
meXicana Fashion: Politics, Self-Adornment, and Identity Construction edited by Aida Hurtado & Norma E. Cantú
Fifteen scholars examine the social identities, class hierarchies, regionalisms, and other codes of communication that are exhibited or perceived in meXicana clothing styles.
Insurgent Aztlán: The Liberating Power of Cultural Resistanceby Ernesto Todd Mireles
Insurgent Aztlán: The Liberating Power of Cultural Resistance reconstructs the relationship between social political insurgent theory and Xicano literature, film and myth. Based on decades of organizing experience and scholarly review of the writings of recognized observers and leaders of the process of national liberation movements, the author, Ernesto Todd Mireles, shares a remarkable work of scholarship that incorporates not only the essence of earlier resistance writing, but provides a new paradigm of liberation guidelines for the particular situation of Mexican Americans. Mireles makes a solid case for addressing the decades-long decline of Mexican American identity within itself and broadly among sectors of American society by asserting the powerful role of culture and history, each value unable to exist without the other, in the preservation and political advancement of a people. In the case of Mexican Americans, which consists of an estimated 40 million people and boasts the highest birth rate in the U.S., they constitute “a nation within a nation”. The intellectual challenge, Mireles asserts, is connecting insurgent social political theory with the existing body of Xicano literature, film and myth. The organizing challenge is how to build an insurgent identity that fosters a “return to history” to build a consensus among Mexican Americans, who are a complex collective of culturally, educationally, politically, and economically diverse people, to reclaim their historical presence in the Americas and the world. Insurgent Aztlán must be read by students from high school to graduate studies, their professors, organizers in the fields and factories, union shops, and urban community organizations, wherever Mexican Americans sense the need to re-evaluate their goals and aspirations for themselves and their families.
Somos en Escritos Literary Foundation, Ernesto Todd Mireles, MSW., Ph.D. Social Justice Community Organizer Master program Coordinator, Frantz Fanon Community Strategy Center Faculty, Prescott College
Levi Romero was recently named the Inaugural New Mexico Poet Laureate. He is an assistant professor and Director of the New Mexico Cultural Landscapes Program in Chicana and Chicano Studies at the University of New Mexico. For more information about his work and the award, see https://www.taosnews.com/stories/new-mexicos-first-poet-laureate,62291.
Mari Castañeda, former NACCS Chair, has been appointed Dean of the Commonwealth Honors College at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Karleen Pendleton Jiménez has been promoted to full professor in the School of Education & Department of Gender and Social Justice at Trent University and will serve as the director of the Graduate Program in Education.
Murales de mi tio translated means my uncle’s murals. The uncle and artist featured in this exhibition is Daniel “Chano” Gonzalez, a muralist during the Chicano movement in the 1970s. His nephew, Fresno State instructor Phil Gonzales, has photographed and documented the work on display. This exhibition took place at Fresno State in 2018 and was planned for NACCS 2020. Phil has made a video link available to us to experience the exhibition and presentation: https://youtu.be/n2vgqMMitYg.
The Tecnológico de Monterrey and la Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla will host a Coloquio Internacional on Gloria Anzaldúa September 23- 25, 2020 in Puebla. Stay tuned for further information.
Norma E. Cantú announced that she will no longer be hosting El Mundo Zurdo, the international conference on Gloria Anzaldua held every eighteen months since 2007. More than likely the conference will be held biannually at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Noticias de NACCS is the official newsletter of the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies. Noticias de NACCS includes current comments on Chicana and Chicano Studies, news on Chicana and Chicano scholars, Association activities and more.
The publication is a copyright of NACCS.
NACCS publishes the electronic newsletter on a regular basis.
Co-Editor/Layout: Carlos Reyes Guerrero
Co-Editor, Kathryn Blackmer Reyes
Editor: Karleen Pendelton Jiménez, PhD, May 2020 - November 2020
