Category Archives: Exhibits and Events

50 Years: Civil Rights in Arizona / Exhibition, January 15-August 13, 2013.

March 1, 2020Exhibits and Events, WorkArizona, Chuck Ford, Civil Rights, Lupe Castillojrdiaz@arizona.edu

Publicity material by Marty Taylor, University of Arizona Libraries

From the UA News Service:

UA Exhibition Reflects on Decades of Civil Rights in Tucson

Jan. 14, 2013

On Aug. 28, 1963, thousands were drawn to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to be part of what would become a historic event: the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

On a national level, the march spurred the passing of important civil rights legislation.

To honor that history, a new exhibition at the UA’s Special Collections will review how, 50 years later, the fight for civil rights has impacted local Tucson communities.

The exhibition, “50 Years: Civil Rights in Arizona from 1963 to Today,” is on display Jan. 15 through Aug. 31 at the UA Special Collections, 1510 E. University Blvd. The Special Collections exhibition focuses on national civil rights issues. A companion exhibition focusing on local civil rights will be on display in the UA Main Library during the same time period.

Highlights of the exhibit include national civil rights legislative documents from the Morris K. and Stewart L. Udall Collections and from the Tucson Council for Civic Unity archive, which detail the council’s effort to end discrimination and segregation in Tucson and Arizona.

The exhibition also includes photographs and papers from civil rights groups and individuals representing the African American, Native American, Asian American, Mexican American and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities of Tucson. An audio kiosk with songs from the civil rights era is also part of the exhibition.

A lecture series featuring community leaders, UA scholars and local educators, will accompany the exhibition. All lectures take place at Special Collections and are free and open to the public. They are:

Jan. 15: “50 Years: Tucson’s African American Community will be held 7-9 p.m. A screening of the documentary film “In Their Own Words: The 1960s Civil Rights Movement in Tucson” and a panel discussion with Charles Ford, former Tucson Vice Mayor and retired Tucson Unified School District principal, and Cressworth Lander, anative Tucsonan and president of the Dunbar Coalition.
Feb. 12: “50 Years: Tucson’s Native American Community” will be held 4-6 p.m. A discussion about Arizona, the Supreme Court and legal cases affecting and involving tribal members law cases, Arizona during the civil rights era with Robert A. Williams, Jr., the E. Thomas Sullivan Professor of Law and American Indian Studies at the UA James E. Rogers College of Law.
March 7: “50 Years: Tucson’s LGBTQ Community” will be held 7-9 p.m. A discussion with Adela Licona, an associate professor in the UA’s English department; Stephen Russell, who directs the Frances McClelland Institute; and Jamie Lee, a doctoral student in the UA School of Information Resources and Library Science.
April 29: “50 Years: Tucson’s Mexican American Community” is a discussion with Lupe Castillo, a faculty member at Pima Community College, and Margo Cowan, a Pima County public defender.

Contact: Bob Diaz, UA Special Collections, at 520-621‐7010 and diazj@u.library.arizona.edu.

Here is another overview of the exhibition and programs, from the February 21, 2013 issue of the Tucson Weekly. The exhibition and programs were The Weekly’s “Pick of the Week”.

50 Years Later, by Megan Merrimac.

For more information see: 50 Years Later, a “Pick of the week” article by Megan Merrimac that appeared in the Tucson Weekly on February 21, 2013.

Visions of the Borderlands: Myths and Realities / Exhibition and Programs (January 23-June 30, 2017)

March 1, 2020Exhibits and Events, WorkDenise Chavez, Natalie Diaz, Patricia Preciado-Martinjrdiaz@arizona.edu

Promotional material by Marty Taylor, University of Arizona Libraries

I co-curated this exhibit with Veronica Reyes-Escudero and a graduate student from the Library School. My portions of the exhibit dealt with stereotypes of people and places and included a focus on pulp fiction, movies and movie posters, as well as dude ranches and promotional material used by entities like the Tucson Sunshine Club. Veronica’s sections of the exhibit dealt with real life accounts of life along the border taken from diaries, for example and photographs of farming and ranching. The annotations that follow were all contributed by Veronica.

From the UA News Service: “Visions of the Borderlands: Myths and Realities is an exhibition inspired by two works published by the University of Arizona Press, Celluloid Pueblo by Jennifer L. Jenkins and Postcards from the Sonora Border by Daniel D. Arreola. There is a reality and a myth of the U.S.–Mexico borderlands, propagated through multiple lenses. Featuring material depicting both reality and myth through photography, posters, pamphlets and written documentation, this exhibit centers on important areas of enterprise for the Southwest such as photography and film; copper mining; tourism; and cattle ranching. It also expresses issues of discord such as the Mexican Revolution, mining strikes and immigrant exclusionary legislation of the time. “

Promotional video for “Visions of the Borderlands”

Local writer, Ernesto Portillo, Jr. featured “Visions of the Borderlands” in one of his “Neto’s Tucson” columns

The exhibit was also covered in a publication titled “Bear Essential News”. Click here to read it.

Two events were planned to go along with this exhibit. The opening event was titled, “Visions of the Borderlands: Exploring Popular Historical Imagery,” featuring author Daniel Arreola and University of Arizona Professor Jennifer Jenkins.

The second program “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. Producing this program was, for me, the best part of the whole project.

Arte Publico Press and the Legacy of Latino Publishing in the U.S / Exhibition, April 2- June 12, 2012

March 1, 2020Exhibits and Events, Workjrdiaz@arizona.edu

I worked with Dr. Charles Tatum of the Humanities program at the University of Arizona on this exhibit and lecture. Unfortunately, no photos of the actual exhibit exist, as they were lost when one of my hard drives bit the dust.

Promotional poster by Marty Taylor, University of Arizona Libraries

Main Library

April 2, 2012-June 12, 2012

News release by Bob Diaz

Tucson, Ariz. (March 29, 2012) – A new exhibit at the UA Main Library explores the history of Latino literature in the United States and chronicles a national movement to recover the Hispanic literary tradition. On display from April 2 – June 12, 2012, “Arte Público Press and the Legacy of Latino Publishing in the U.S.” showcases one of nation’s oldest and most esteemed Hispanic publishing houses. Nicolás Kanellos, director of Arte Público Press, will deliver the opening lecture titled “From the Latino Archive to Your PC or Laptop or Hand-Held Device: EBSCO Partners with Hispanic Recovery” on April 4 from 3:30 – 5:00 p.m. in UA Special Collections.

Nicolás Kanellos, founding publisher of the noted Hispanic literary journal The Americas Review (formerly Revista Chicano-Riqueña), established Arte Público Press in 1979. As that nation’s oldest and largest non-profit publisher of literature of U.S. Hispanic authors, Arte Público Press showcases Hispanic literary activity, arts, and culture. Its imprint for children and young adults, Piñata Books, is dedicated to the realistic and authentic portrayal of the customs, characters and themes unique to Hispanic culture in the United States.

Here is a selection of authors and book titles published by Arte Publico Press, and included in the exhibit.

Cine Mariachi Film Festival at the Fox / 2006

March 1, 2020Community Service, Exhibits and EventsFox Theatre, Mexican filmjrdiaz@arizona.edu

In 2005, I became a board member of the Tucson International Mariachi Conference. It was a memorable experience. I hadn’t done a lot of fundraising before, but one of my tasks as a member of this group was to do just that. I came up with the idea of having a film festival, and pulled all my resources together to produce “Cine Mariachi at the Fox”. I worked with the Mexican Consulate in Tucson to secure a beautiful print of the film “Dos Tipos de Cuidado” starring Pedro Infante and Jorge Negrete, and I also pulled some strings to secure the Fox Theatre as the venue for the program. My friend Pima County Supervisor Richard Elias was intstrumental in helping me with this. My mariachi friends Johnny Contreras and Olga Flores helped get a small mariachi group together to provide musical entertainment, and we even had ballet folklorico dancers.The promotional materials were done by a marketing group that worked with the Tucson International Mariachi Conference. We even got write-ups in the local press. It was a full day’s worth of fun! Now that these films are freely available on Youtube, I have included them below. Enjoy!