San Jose State University SJSU ScholarWorks National Association for Chicana and Chicano Noticias de NACCS Newsletter Studies Archive 2-2010 Noticias de NACCS, vol. 39, no. 1, February 2010 National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/noticias_naccs Part of the Chicana/o Studies Commons, Education Commons, Ethnic Studies Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Latina/o Studies Commons, and the Race and Ethnicity Commons Recommended Citation National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies, "Noticias de NACCS, vol. 39, no. 1, February 2010" (2010). Noticias de NACCS Newsletter. Paper 58. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/noticias_naccs/58 This Newsletter is brought to you for free and open access by the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies Archive at SJSU ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Noticias de NACCS Newsletter by an authorized administrator of SJSU ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Volume 39, Number 1, February 2010 Â Chair-Elect: NACCS 2010 CONFERENCE OVERVIEW AND HIGHLIGHTS Devon G. Peña, Ph.D. , NACCS Chair-Elect he theme of the 37th Annual Conference of the National to contend with audience TAssociation for Chicana and Chicano Studies is “Environ- members that walked out mental Justice for a Post-Neoliberal Age.” This is the first time of sessions or shouted at in the history of NACCS that the association focuses the annual us because they misrecog- conference theme on environmental issues. Given the growing nized our work as “focus- concern for the disproportionately harmful impacts unleashed ing on a white middle class by climate change and other forms of environmental injustice on issue”. This happened to marginalized communities, this is a timely theme. your Chair-Elect at the conferences in Los Angeles in 1989 and Spokane in 1995. We endured, and so here we are now about The scholars and activists that have presented papers and to take the first major step toward NACCS recognition of the workshops on environmental themes at NACCS since the most significant set of problems facing our communities as we late 1980s, feel inspired and vindicated that we are no longer do our part to defend the Earth and its life-support systems. relegated to marginal status as “voices in the wilderness”. The environment, ecology and political ecology, environmen- There is a saying in the environmental justice movement: tal justice, and related issues have finally been placed on the “We have always been environmentalists, we were just to NACCS “radar screen,” and we will perhaps never again have Continued on page 16 NACCS Book Award Inside Noticias by Karleen Pendleton Jiménez de NACCS e are pleased to announce that the recipient of Wthe 2010 NACCS Book Award is The Los Ange- Page 7 les Plaza: Sacred and Contested Space by William David Member News Estrada. The text offers a compelling read of the richly layered histories of one public parcel of land. From Page 13 pre-columbian times to the present day, Estrada traces Cervantes Recipients the community initiatives and individual dreams that have shaped the landscape and architecture of the Page 17 Plaza. The scope of the project is remarkable, chroni- Preliminary Program cling with precise detail hundreds of years of multi- ethnic contributions to shared space. Estrada captures Page 23 the contradictions and continuities, the politics and Brief History of Seattle sensibilities that have made the Plaza one of the most significant sites of Chicana/Chicano heritage. Continued on page 2 VISIT THE NACCS WEBSITE AT WWW.NACCS.ORG From the Editor Editor: Kathryn Blackmer Reyes eader, I return again as an [email protected] Rinterim editor for this issue of Noticias. It’s a time consuming job, Production Editors but it is also one that I have always Julia Curry Rodríguez enjoyed so I am pleased to step in Layout/Design: to help the Board. As a high school Design Action Collective student I was in journalism and it was there with an electronic type- Noticias de NACCS writer and a roll of receipt paper (to Volume 39, Number 1, February 2010 make columns) that I typed my way through high school. While I cursed that typewriter many NACCS Business Office times over (no automatic correction type — only “white out”) Attn: Noticias de NACCS/ I truly loved working on the newspaper. Newsletter Editor P.O. Box 720052 So in this role, I have the privilege of writing some reflections San Jose, CA 95172-0052 that have come to me in recent days. We have lost several email: [email protected] important colleagues and groundbreakers in our profession. I have been fortunate to meet many of them through my many Noticias de NACCS is the official newsletter of years in NACCS — not as a presenter, nor as an academic the National Association for Chicana and Chicano colleague, but rather as a worker for this organization. In the Studies. Published four times yearly, with a circula- tion of 800, Noticias de NACCS includes current most recent departures of Don Luis Leal and Shirlene Soto, comments on Chicana and Chicano Studies, news I have reflected on how my work in NACCS allows me to of Chicana and Chicano Scholars, Association ac- honor them. I have had the privilege of taking small actions tivities and more. Noticias de NACCS is sent to to make their experience at NACCS a bit better, or at least all NACCS members, outside subscribers, and se- that is my hope. My interaction with folks like Dr. Soto and lected non-subscribers. Dr. Leal might have been rather small and perhaps forgetful on their part, but I hold my interactions with them in a cher- ished part of my memory. I consider myself fortunate to have (NACCS Book Award) continued from page 1 grown up in NACCS since my first conference was in 1986 while I was an undergraduate student at UC Davis. I view We have also awarded the text my work in NACCS as a privilege that allows me to be at the Yolanda M. Lopez, written by Karen forefront of Chicana and Chicano Studies and to meet and Mary Davalos, with an honorable interact with so many of our treasured and honored scholars. mention. Through a carefully craft- Moreover, because of my involvement I also have the good ed narrative of life history, com- fortune to meet and work with those scholars that are up and munity struggle, visual imagery, coming. I never take for granted that each and every one of and aesthetic critique, Davalos has you holds the promise for Chicana and Chicano Studies and created a beautiful book. It is both our future. a personal and political portrait of one of our most important artists. After so many years, I still feel like I did when I was a stu- dent. I am in awe of our teachers and students, mentors We received 17 books for consid- and mentees. I get to enjoy a part of the association that eration for the 2010 NACCS Book is hidden or invisible to many. To be part of the team that Award. Judges were impressed by works to insure this space is my contribution. These recent the breadth and depth of the submissions, on topics includ- deaths have made me reflect on that privilege. If it wasn’t ing music, education, myth, feminism, film, religion, law, for NACCS I hardly think possible that I would have had art, immigration and more. While such a broad selection of those 30 seconds, if that, with many of you. And for that I am material offered judges a challenging task, we became aware grateful. of the degree to which Chicana/Chicano Studies is thriving. If you are interested in submitting texts (published in 2009) for Why NACCS? I often ask that of myself. I ask that privately next year’s competition, submission guidelines will be posted as I see returning names in the program and returning in the next newsletter. n members. I ask myself in private if our scholars know how Continued on page 6 2 February 2010 Â 2010-2011 NACCS BOARD CANDIDATES By Mari Castañeda, Past Chair am happy to present the candidate slate for the 2010-2011 Candidates: At-Large Representative I NACCS Board elections. Below you will find brief bios for (select one) Roberto D. Hernandez, University of California, Berke- each candidate. Voting for the candidates will begin Febru- ley; and Michelle Téllez, Arizona State University ary 17 at 9:00 a.m. until 9:00 a.m. March 3 online at naccs.org. You must be a current member of the association to vote. My Roberto D. Hernandez thanks to the Nominations committee for all their work. University of California, Berkeley NACCS has always been a place where I have felt at home, surrounded by schol- Candidate: Chair-elect/Chair (select one) ars, educators, and activists alike, brought together by a sense of shared purpose. I Jaime H. Garcia first started attending and presenting origi- University of Texas at Brownsville nal research at NACCS in 2000 (Portland, OR) as a third year undergraduate student I have been active in NACCS for over ten at UC Berkeley. I have continued to attend years. During that time I have served as and present my scholarship at NACCS Tejas Rep for four years and Treasurer for regularly. Each year, I began incremen- two years. During my tenure as treasurer I tally involving myself with more than just assisted in the preparation of budgets and presenting work during the annual meet- financial reporting. I served as editor for the ings. While still an undergraduate, I was actively involved in the Northern selected proceedings of the 2001 conference California Foco, serving as both a student rep and presenting at a Regional published in 2006.