This panel discussion is the second event being offered in conjunction with Special Collections’ exhibit, “Tucson: Growth, Change and Memories.” The exhibit, which explores various aspects of Tucson’s history and growth as an urban community, opens on Aug. 17 and runs through Jan. 14, 2016. The panel features an eclectic group of four Tucsonans, remembering life from the 1950s onward. Joining us to share their stories will be former City Councilwoman Molly McKasson, business owner Katya Peterson, newspaper columnist Ernesto Portillo, Jr., and Lydia Otero, Professor of Mexican American Studies.
From the Special Collections website: “This lecture by renowned writer and professor Dr. Thomas E. Sheridan, is the opening event for Special Collections’ new exhibition, “Tucson: Growth, Change, and Memories.” The exhibition explores various aspects of Tucson’s history and growth as an urban community.
Sheridan is a Research Anthropologist at the Southwest Center, which is dedicated to documenting and interpreting the region’s natural and human cultures. He also serves as Professor of Anthropology in the University of Arizona School of Anthropology. He has conducted ethnographic and ethnohistoric research in the Southwest and northern Mexico since 1971 and directed the Mexican Heritage Project at the Arizona Historical Society from 1982-1984. He is the author of a number of works about the history of the region, including “Los Tucsonenses: The Mexican Community in Tucson, 1854-1941” and “Arizona: A History,” now in its second edition.
The evening’s lecture focuses on changes wrought in the Mexican community in the past 75 years as the result of rapid urbanization. The lecture will be followed by a reception.”
Tom Sheridan spoke to a packed house.
Tom Sheridan and Bob Diaz
This lady was shocked, but happy to find her car parked in front of the Otero House.
“Visions of the Borderlands: Three Women Writers Share Their Stories”, featured the writers Denise Chavez, Patricia Preciado Martin, and Natalie Diaz. The program can be listened to in its entirety below.
Steve Hussman, Director of Special Collections introduces the program and panelists.
Patricia Preciado Martin and Natalie Diaz talking to attendees of the program.
From the UA News Service:
“Denise Chávez, Natalie Díaz and Patricia Preciado Martin are three celebrated authors whose novels, poems and oral histories provide unique perspectives and indigenous visions of the borderlands. Each of these writers will present samplings of their works that will broaden understanding of and appreciation for borderlands communities.
Natalie Diaz at the podium.
Patricia Preciado-Martin
Chávez, a native of Las Cruces, New Mexico is a novelist (“The Last of the Menu Girls,” “Loving Pedro Infante,” “The King and Queen of Comezon”), performance artist and bookseller whose award-winning works offer a portrayal of life in the U.S.-Mexico border region from a female, Mexican American perspective. Díaz, a native of Needles, California, grew up on the Fort Mohave Indian Reservation. She is a poet whose work “When My Brother Was an Aztec” has been awarded the Nimrod/Hardman Pablo Neruda Prize. Preciado Martin is a native Tucsonan, whose oral histories describe both urban and rural life in southwest Arizona as seen through the eyes of working class, Mexican American people”
1968: From the My Lai Massacre to Yellow Submarine featuring Tom Miller
Tom MillerTom Miller’s press pass for the 1968 Democratic Convention, from the Tom Miller Collections, Special Collections.
Special Collections, The University of Arizona Libraries
September 6, 2018
From the UA News Service:
Where were you – or your parents – 50 years ago? Many people took part in the anti-Vietnam war movement, hoping to bring pressure on the government to pull out of Vietnam through underground presses and demonstrations. According to Miller, the critically acclaimed writer and author of “Cuba, Hot and Cold” and “The Panama Hat Trail,” the underground press was a “joyously sloppy endeavor made up of people who knew little about journalism but had strong feelings about the war and the cultural life it spawned.” Miller, who witnessed the violence surrounding the 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention in the aftermath of the Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. assassinations, will present a talk about his activities in the underground press and how the rest of the country reacted to the anti-war movement.
In 2002, the University of Arizona Special Collections acquired Miller’s archives, and some materials from this collection will be included in the “1968 in America” exhibit.
