Promotional material by Marty Taylor, University of Arizona Libraries
This was the first in a series of 3 corridos programs held between 2013 and 2016. Several performers shared their talents, including Mr. Bobby Benton, Mr. Jim Griffith, Justin Enriquez and Juan Aguilar of Los Cuatro Vientos, and an unknown gentlemen who shared some of his own original compositions. It was a night to remember. See below to listen to the audio of the program.
Many thanks to Aengus Anderson for shooting this beautiful promotional video for Una Noche De Corridos, featuring Justin Enriquez and Juan Aguilar.
From the UA News Service:
“Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month at the UA Special Collections as local musicians, including UA students, perform ballads of passion, pride and politics, also known as corridos. Throughout the oral history and tradition of Mexico, the corrido has been a source of information, education and celebration about events, people or places.
The corrido was particularly important during the Mexican War of Independence and the Mexican Revolution when news of events, heroes and tragedies were shared through the genre.
Often times sung by a single performer playing a guitar, corridos vary in length, style and rhythm. As a staple of Mexican musical life, corridos are also celebrated in an annual contest held during the Tucson Meet Yourself festival”.
I was a member of Teatro Libertad from 1983 to 1985. Putting this exhibit and program together was one of the highlights of my career in librarianship. It took many months of planning to bring over 25 former members together, but I managed to pull it off. Teresa Jones flew in from Seattle, Pamela Calla joined us live from New York via Skype, and other members just seemed to pop out of the woodwork. The reunion was a memorable occasion, and putting the exhibit together was a blast.
Promotional material designed by Marty Taylor
From the UA News Service: “A local street theater company from the 1970s, Teatro Libertad, is featured in a new exhibit on display from Sept. 3, 2013 – Jan. 12, 2014 at the UA Main Library. Formed in 1975 by seven local actors and musicians – Scott Egan, Barclay Goldsmith, Teresa Jones, Arturo Martinez, Pancho Medina, Arnold Palacios, and Sylviana Wood – the group was influenced by the tradition of teatro Chicano, the Chicano movement of the 60s and 70s, and with inspiration from El Teatro Campesino – a group formed by Luis Valdez in the early 1960s.
Teatro Libertad tackled real life, everyday issues as experienced by the Chicano community in Tucson and the Southwest. Using satire, comedy, and music, the group wrote and performed their plays with the goal of getting people to think about issues such as unemployment, union organization, race, and cultural identity. Among the plays written and performed by Teatro Libertad were “Los Peregrinos,” “El Vacil de 76,” “Los Pelados,” “La Jefita,” “Semilla Sembrada” and “La Vida Del Cobre.”
Teatro Libertad’s first full length play, Los Peregrinos
The bilingual, multicultural group relied on simple stage sets and props – old boxes, masks, and signs – when performing in local neighborhood centers throughout Tucson and in Mexico City, San Diego, Santa Barbara and New York. The group also performed – sometimes from a flatbed truck – in Arizona’s mining towns for striking miners or farm workers.
More than 25 performers participated in the all-volunteer Teatro Libertad during the group’s 14-year run. Additional members included Pamela Bartholomew, Olivia Beauford, Bob Diaz, Lilliana Gambarte, Pernela Jones, Jean McClelland, Juan Villegas and a host of others.
Semilla Sembrada was written and performed in the early 1980s
The exhibit, “Teatro Libertad and Chicano Theatre in Tucson,” is a retrospective review of the societal and cultural context in which the group performed. Original scripts, promotional materials, photographs, newspaper articles, reviews, and other original documents recreate the work of Teatro Libertad. Bob Diaz, associate librarian in Special Collections, curated the exhibit, with material on loan from former members. A permanent archive of Teatro Libertad will also be established for the benefit of future academic research and scholarship.
A selection of plays and other materials on Chicano theater
Promotional material by Marty Taylor, University of Arizona Libraries
In the mid-2000s I was a board member of Tucson Meet Yourself. Knowing that the 40th anniversary of the event was coming up, I decided to curate an exhibit on the event. Special Collections is home to the archives of the Southwest Folkore Center, which sponsored Tucson Meet Yourself. There was a wealth of materials to choose from, and it was great fun putting this exhibition together.
From the UA News Service: In celebration of the 40th anniversary of Tucson Meet Yourself, the UA Special Collections is hosting “40 Years of Tucson Meet Yourself” through Jan. 10. The special exhibition, curated by Bob Diaz, offers a retrospective review of the origins, traditions and celebrations that define Tucson Meet Yourself.
A view of the exhibition gallery
A display of Tucson Meet Yourself t-shirts
On display at Special Collections, 1510 E. University Blvd., the exhibition includes decades of posters, newspaper articles, programs, photographs and original documents, such as meeting notes. Also included is a music kiosk and a history of the festival’s annual corrido contest as well as a special profile of Griffith, the festival’s founder who is now retired from the UA.
Curated from the Tucson Meet Yourself Archive in Special Collections, which documents the festival from its first year through 1995, the exhibit also includes select items borrowed from the festival headquarters that were recently relocated to the UA Downtown campus in the Roy Place building.
A display of recordings by Lydia Mendoza and Lalo Guerrero, two regional musicians who performed at Tucson Meet Yourself
For more information about the 40th anniversary of Tucson Meet Yourself and the exhibition, see the Zocalo article, “Ephemera and Eccentricities”, by Monica Surfaro Spigelman.
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.
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.
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”.
