Exhibit banner and poster designed by Marty Taylor, UA Libraries.
My most recent and last exhibit for Special Collections was a look back at 1968, 50 years later. I was only 9 years old at the time, but remember the era vividly. I had a brother in Vietnam, and two of my siblings were in California enjoying themselves in San Francisco, along with thousands of other young people. I spent the year collecting baseball cards and playing flag football with the other kids in the neighborhood. The assasinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy didn’t impact me that much, as I was not old enough to understand what was happening in the larger world. The music I listened to was usually the popular stuff one heard on the radio, and the Beatles, of course. Doing this exhibit brought back a lot of memories. It also impressed upon me that it was an amazing time, with so much going on, culturally, musically, and politically.
September 4, 2018-December 7, 2018,
Special Collections, The University of Arizona Libraries
From the UA News Service:
One of the most volatile years in the history of the United States was 1968. The Tet Offensive escalated the war in Vietnam, we lost two monumental leaders – Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy – to assassination, and riots broke out across the nation. As students protested the war, popular music became a powerful voice for their generation. At the same time, the civil rights and Black Power movements inspired environmentalists, women, Chicanos, Native Americans and the gay and lesbian community to add their voices to the discourse.
This exhibit showcases a variety of materials from University Libraries’ Special Collections. Explore hidden treasures highlighting politics, news, art, literature and culture from 50 years ago – including underground press publications, sports and music memorabilia and photographs from the University of Arizona.
I found a bunch of “psychedelic”, 60s style handkerchiefs that I used for the exhibit cases.
60s memorabilia from a private collection.
More 60s memorabilia. Collection courtesy of Bob Diaz.
This section of the exhibit provided a chronological look at local, national and world events that happened in 1968.
A poster from the Tom Miller collectoin. The Yippees played a prominent role in the youth movement of the 60s.
A scene from Aengus Anderson’s short film on 1968 in America. Morgan Maxwell Jr. is on the far right side just to the left of the police officer.
Video program that accompanies the exhibit, created by Aengus Anderson.Another scene from Aengus Anderson’s film.
A list of Arizona casualties of the Vietnam War in 1968. From the Arizona Daily Star Index.
Members of a student athlete leadership club visiting the exhibit
Company Town: Arizona’s Mining Communities During 100 Years of Statehood, was the first exhibit I curated completely on my own in my new job as exhibits and events coordinator in Special Collections at the University of Arizona. The exhibit was located in the Science-Engineering Library, in a much smaller exhibit space than the Special Collections gallery. It was a fun project and one I was very eager to work on. I enjoyed doing the research on mining in Arizona and found that Special Collections has a rich treasure trove of historical information on mining. In the exhibit, I featured information on Ajo, Globe-Miami, San Manuel Superior, Jerome, Bisbee, Clifton-Morenci, and Ray/Sonora, and included original photographs, books and other materials. I learned a lot from this project along the way. Feedback I was given included that I used way too much material and that I should not have used sticky dots on any of the materials. I also didn’t include enough written annotations. The Dean of the College of Mining wasn’t too happy either because I included a section on labor strife in Arizona. She even asked the University administration to intervene on her behalf to pressure me to remove the information on labor issues, but the Vice-Provost and the Dean of the Library defended my right to include “controversial” information in the exhibit. Below, I’ve included an article written by the UA News service, with links to further information, including a video of the exhibit and an article written for the Arizona Daily Star by Ernesto Portillo, Jr.. I also planned one program, a lecture by Dr. Anny Ochoa O’Leary. A news story and the transcript of her talk are linked below.
SAMSUNG
January 6, 2012: Exhibit – ‘Company Town: Arizona’s Copper Mining Communities During 100 Years of Statehood |UA News …
“Company Town: Arizona’s Copper Mining Communities During 100 Years of Statehood,” a new exhibit at the UA Science-Engineering Library, shares 100 years of stories, struggles and triumphs from Arizona’s copper mining communities.
The history of mining in Arizona is rich and colorful with silver, gold and copper all having been discovered and mined in the state. The first mining company was established in Ajo in the 1850s; the arrival of the railroad brought a booming industry to Clifton-Morenci, Bisbee and Jerome.
Throughout the 20th century, while mining companies made significant profits, the mining workers’ salary was often not a living wage. Conditions in the mines were dangerous and unhealthy; many miners developed a lung disease now referred to as “miner’s lung.” In this context, labor relations between workers and the mine owners throughout Arizona’s history have been volatile, and at times violent.
“Company Town” features an in-depth selection of photographs, pamphlets, original manuscripts, federal and state reports and personal papers drawn from UA Special Collections. The materials on display detail the history of eight Arizona mining communities – Ajo, Bisbee, Clifton-Morenci, Globe-Miami, Jerome, Ray-Sonora, San Manuel and Superior – and show that these communities were more than just a mine, and the people more than just mining workers.
One community in particular, Clifton-Morenci, was the epicenter of the Arizona copper mine strike of 1983. Anna Ochoa O’Leary, a professor in the UA department of Mexican American and Raza Studies, lived in Clifton during the strike and was the president of the Morenci Miners Women’s Auxiliary in Clifton from 1985 to 1986.
I was very tired yesterday when I got home from work at 5, so I took a nap, thinking I could just sleep for half an hour and wake up in plenty of time to work on my radio show from 5:30 to 7pm. As luck would have it, however, I overslept and woke up at 5:50 rather than 5:30. I thought to myself, oh oh, what am I gonna do? I don’t have a lot of time to prepare this show. I hate having to rush, but the clock was ticking away. I decided, to heck with it, I’m just going to play nothing but songs that last 5 minutes or longer. Where could I find a whole show’s worth of songs that were that long? And then the lightbulb went on! Last week I had played an all-English language dance music show, so this week I decided I would play an all Spanish language dance show and feature nothing but salsa! Those songs are all usually 4 to 6 minutes long and they’re quite danceable too. So lo and behold, that’s exactly what I did. I went through my small collection of salsa and musica tropical and came up with a good handful of tunes, all of which were at least 4 minutes long. I gave folks a heads up on Facebook that I would be having another dance party, but that this time the featured music would be a mix of salsa and Latin jazz, and one friend in particular got very excited and told me she had just put her dancing shoes on and was ready to boogie the night away. I dubbed the title of the show, “Salsa A to Z”. I almost made it all the way through the alphabet, but had to skip one or two artists because I had run out of time. That same friend who was ready to bop the night away later told me she thought it was a perfect show. Wow, sometimes you never know how things are going to turn out. I have to admit that initially I wasn’t all that excited about doing an all salsa show, as I was bummed that I had to rush things, and I usually like to mix things up, but I’m glad at least one person liked it.
I wasn’t sure if it was my tio Raul’s birthday yesterday or not, but my cousin Carmen just confirmed it, so here’s a tribute to him.
He was born during the Revolution in Mexico, in San Luis Potosi, on February 18, 1913, the same day that his father was born back in 1885 in Asturias, Spain. Because of the war, it wasn’t long before my grandfather, his wife Zeferina, and my tio Raul moved up north to Arizona. He was less than a year old, in fact. My tios Valentin and Mino were born a few years later, in Ray/Sonora, Arizona, a mining town near Superior that is now long gone.
My grandparents with three of their sons–Raul, Val and Mino. Ray/Sonora, Az. circa 1919.
Tio Raul and Tia Prudencia
Uncle Raul and Aunt Prudence married in the late 30s. She was born in Cananea, Sonora, but moved to Superior when she was a young girl.
They ran a bakery and a store together in Superior, and then later he delivered milk to the people of the town and surrounding region. Tio Raul was well known and loved in his community, and was very generous to those in need.
My dad’s cousin Serino, Tio Mino, Tio Raul, Tio Val, my dad Alfredo and Tia Prudencia, around 1945-46.
Tio Raul and Tio Tony
Uncle Raul had tons of cigar boxes all over the place, it seemed. He smoked cigars all the time, and it was rare indeed to ever see him without one hanging from his mouth. …I took a few of these boxes home with me once and still have them somewhere. The lids are falling off because they’re so old.
My cousin Olivia wrote the following for inclusion in our family history book, titled “Diaz Family: Spain To America”. Olivia passed away recently. She was the eldest of all our cousins.
Uncle Raul’s eldest daughter, Olivia.
Alfred and Jo, (my mom and dad), with Uncle Raul and Aunt Prudence, some time in the mid-60s.
I used to love to go up to Superior with my parents, aunts, uncles and cousins to Uncle Raul’s house. It wasn’t very big, but we all managed to fit and we all had plenty to eat. He ran the dairy in Superior and outside was a big refrigerator where he kept the milk and other products he sold. We used to sneak in and help ourselves to chocolate milk all the time. I also loved banging on the old piano that was kept in a closet in one of the rooms. It seems like just yesterday.
The Diaz siblings, sometime in the 70s.
I’ll also never forget the time when we all found ourselves (about 30 of us cousins) in my uncle’s living room with our faces glued to the small black and white television. The Ed Sullivan show was on and his special guests that night were none other than the BEATLES! Wow. This was the first time I’d ever seen them and one of their first ever appearances on national tv. Life sure changed for everyone after that experience. We all became Beatle wannabes. My brother Rudy grew his hair long and joined a band, and we all had our favorites. Mine was Paul…
Tio Raul is seated in between his sisters Carmen and Helen. He always had a cigar in hand. He would give us his cigar boxes to play with when we were kids. My dad, Alfredo, Tio Mino, Tio Raul and Tia Eva, Mino’s wife.
My mom Josephine, Aunt Prudence and Aunt Helen.
Aunt Prudence suffered from arthritis most of her adult life. She preceded Uncle Raul in death at the age of 69 in 1983.
Aunt Prudence’s obituary
Tio Raul died two years later at the age of 72.
Tio Raul’s family at our first family reunion in 1993. Tio Raul’s family at our second family reunion in 2007.
