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ABSTRACT Title of Document: ARCHIVAL BODY/ARCHIVAL SPACE: QUEER REMAINS OF THE CHICANO ART MOVEMENT, LOS ANGELES, 1969-2009. Robert Lyle Hernandez, III, Ph.D., 2011 Directed By: Associate Professor Mary Corbin Sies, American Studies This dissertation proposes an interdisciplinary queer archive methodology I term ―archival body/archival space,‖ which recovers, interprets, and assesses the alternative archives and preservation practices of homosexual men in the Chicano Art Movement, the cultural arm of the Mexican American civil rights struggle in the U.S. Without access to systemic modes of preservation, these men generated other archival practices to resist their erasure, omission, and obscurity. The study conducts a series of archive excavations mining ―archival bodies‖ of homosexual artists from buried and unseen ―archival spaces,‖ such as: domestic interiors, home furnishings, barrio neighborhoods, and museum installations. This allows us to reconstruct the artist archive and, thus, challenge how we see, know, and comprehend ―Chicano art‖ as an aesthetic and cultural category. As such, I evidence the critical role of sexual difference within this visual vocabulary and illuminate networks of homosexual Chicano artists taking place in gay bars, alternative art spaces, salons, and barrios throughout East Los Angeles. My queer archive study model consists of five interpretative strategies: sexual agency of Chicano art, queer archival afterlife, containers of desire, archival chiaroscuro, and archive elicitation. I posit that by speaking through these artifact formations, the ―archival body‖ performs the allegorical bones and flesh of the artist, an artifactual surrogacy articulated through things. My methodological innovation has direct bearing on how sexual difference shapes the material record and the places from which these ―queer remains‖ are kept, sheltered, and displayed. These heritage purveyors questioned what constitutes an archive and a record, challenging the biased assumption that sexuality was insignificant to the Chicano Art Movement and leaving no material trace. The structure of my dissertation presents five archive recovery projects, including: Robert ―Cyclona‖ Legorreta, Joey Terrill, Mundo Meza, Teddy Sandoval, and VIVA: Lesbian and Gay Latino Artists of Los Angeles. The restoration of these artists also reveals the profound symbiosis between this circle of artists, Chicano avant-gardism, and the burgeoning gay and lesbian liberation movement in Los Angeles. My findings rupture the persistent heterosexual vision of this period and reveals a parallel visual lineage, one which dared to picture sexual difference in the epicenter of Chicano art production. ARCHIVAL BODY/ARCHIVAL SPACE: QUEER REMAINS OF THE CHICANO ART MOVEMENT, LOS ANGELES, 1969-2009. By Robert Lyle Hernandez, III Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2011 Advisory Committee: Associate Professor Mary Corbin Sies, Chair Associate Professor Jennifer Gonzalez Associate Professor Angel David Nieves Professor Martha Nell Smith Associate Professor Psyche Williams-Forson © Copyright by Robert Lyle Hernandez, III 2011 Dedication This is dedicated to my parents Robert and Debbie Hernandez for their unwavering faith and love. In memory of Carlos Ibanez y Bueno (1941-2001), Mundo Meza (1955-1985) and Teddy Sandoval (1949-1995). ii Acknowledgements Earning a Ph.D. was a goal I had never imagined for myself. Growing up in a small trailer park in Boulder, Colorado my perception of the world was bound to the walk to Crest View Elementary, Saturday morning visits to Grandma‘s house, and the endless span of park stretching far behind our home. My journey here was an unusual one spurred by curious escapes into television, creative writing, and my father‘s extensive VHS library--each tape meticulously registered, inventoried, and indeed, archived in a small notebook kept on the living room coffee table. His collection was a surprising but resonating influence, one of the first image archives I came in contact with. The other was the collection of stories shared between the women in my family sitting around grandma‘s dining room. Chisme, as I would come to understand it later, was the convoy to the Chicano family‘s historical records. It was here that photographs would manifest from a closet storage box. The same box that would surface the night grandma died. Her passing on New Year‘s Eve of 2003 sent us reeling from Boulder Community Hospital. Our return to her empty house would be the last time we would talk through her things. This deeply emotional ritual sifting through her personal affects was a powerful and indescribable moment for me. It was a connection that would intensify as her private belongings were adopted between family members and her long-time home was sold to a California real estate developer. Today, the plum tree orchard I remember so fondly is no more and the family garden is a paved parking lot. I grieve this loss and with it, my connection to iii Boulder--a place where the majestic university on the hill was the only school I ever wanted to attend as well as the setting for grandma‘s employment. For 35 years she cleaned school classrooms, lab buildings, and the prized alumni house. Before she died, she attended my graduation and rightfully claimed a seat in the auditorium as my guest. I was her first grandson to graduate Magna Cum Laude with dual degrees from CU-Boulder. She smiled and called me her ―John Boy.‖ As I cross this final threshold in my graduate studies, I can‘t help but think of her, her laughter after picking up my bulging backpack of books, and her enthusiasm over every school achievement. My path to Ph.D. competition may not have happened without the fortuitous meeting and support of key mentors, scholars, and friends that went beyond the call of duty and directed me along this life course. This began in 2003 with my enrollment in the Critical Studies M.A. Program in the Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media at UCLA. Key seminars with Professors John Caldwell, Kathleen McHugh, Chon Noriega, Rafael Perez-Torres, and the late Lisa Kernan and Teshome Gabriel were pivotal by introducing me to cultural criticism, media industries, and technologies. Moreover, my instantaneous bond with a cohort of film and television scholars including Elena Powell Beecher, Crystal Lemaire Bailey, Hye Jean Chung, Priscilla Espinoza Kaiserman, Burcu Melekolgu, Colin Gunkel, Laurel Westrup, and Maria Munoz Chacon made the intense conditions of graduate school less daunting and worthwhile. From the moment I stepped foot on campus, Dr. Chon A. Noriega and his staff at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center formed an immediate intellectual iv outlet. Chon‘s initiative, vision, and mentorship provided countless opportunities including an encounter with a man named ―Cyclona‖ in 2004. Little did I realize that this initial meeting would radically alter my initial research aspirations and introduce me to a profound set of questions and concerns intensifying my search for the names of artists scattered in Legorreta‘s private collection. Names that would later have direct bearing on how Chicano art history is written, interpreted, and taught. True to his namesake, Robert ―Cyclona‖ Legorreta opened Pandora‘s Box spurring new questions and lines of investigation and for that, I am forever grateful. To accomplish this ambitious research agenda, I needed a new set of interdisciplinary skills. Fortunately, my interests in archive theory, Latino cultural heritage, visual culture, and art history found a home in the Department of American Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park and under the tutelage, mentorship, and rigor of Dr. Mary Corbin Sies. It is no coincidence that much of my training was cultivated under her watch and leadership. In fact, many of this dissertation‘s nascent ideas were cultivated in Mary‘s seminars on museum research, cultural landscape studies, and American studies theory and method, where a cohort of young scholars like Gina Callahan, Kirsten Crase, Patrick Grzanka, Doug Ishii, Bettina Judd, Tiffany King, Beck Krefting, Ana M. Perez, Maria Vargas, and Amelia Wong, shaped the contours of my work. Indeed, Mary is an invaluable asset to Maryland providing an unprecedented level of student mentoring, commitment, and engagement unmatched by any other American Studies faculty in the U.S. Additionally, my supplementary studies in the areas of race, American art, and museum culture led me to the Department of Art History. In particular, seminars with v Dr. Renee Ater created a welcoming environment for a visual culture studies provocateur opening new lines of aesthetic and cultural inquiry, always with her encouraging words that Chicano art does have a place in the American art classroom. Her courses fueled my bond with a cluster of art history graduate students. Sybil Gohari, Eowyn Henry, Jennifer Quick, Megan Rook-Koepsel, Jonathan Walz, and the fabulous Breanne Robertson continued to ask me the hard questions and acknowledged me as one of their own. From the moment I arrived at College Park much of my time outside the seminar room was dedicated to the development, advocacy, and planning of the U.S. Latina/o Studies Program (USLT), the first in the Mid-Atlantic region. From my involvement in the initial program proposal to Provost William Destler in 2006 to my role as the program coordinator in our pilot year (2007-08) and in the American Studies department (2009-10), I attained a rare glimpse into program building and curricular design. I was afforded the unusual opportunity to teach the first Latina/o Studies courses in American Studies including a class on Latino art and Museum Studies, and a senior capstone course on Latino cultural landscapes. Several undergraduates were instrumental in not only the success of my courses but in the institutionalization of the USLT program.

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