ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries March 1992 /1 5 7 C o lle c tin g p r im a r y m a te r ia ls o f m a jo r e th n ic g r o u p s By Connie V. Dowell Director, External Relations University o f California, Santa Barbara The California E th n ic a n d M u lticultura l A rchives Project. A s archivists w e a re th e keepers o f th e fine th re a d th at links the past w ith th e future so th at future generations will know how th ey who they are. T hat responsibility was never m ore im portant th an now as w e e n te r th e truly m ulti­ cultural, m ulti-ethnic future th a t lies ahead,” says M arch F ong E u , California’s Secretary o f State. To help fulfill th at responsibility, she co-chairs the advisory b o a rd o f th e C a lifo rn ia E th n ic a nd M ulticultural Archives (CEMA). L ocated in th e U niversity of California, Santa B arbara (UCSB) Library, this am bitious project is gathering prim ary source m aterials th at docum ent the cultural and political experiences o f California’s m ajor e thnic groups. “So m uch o f th e early docum entation of ou r California heritage was lost forever sim ply because th e im portance of the m aterials was not considered w hen th ey w ere still available,” says E u. “This archives project will h elp avoid those mistakes by gathering a nd indexing significant records as they are c rea te d and discovered.” C o-chairing th e advi­ sory board, she says, gives h e r an o p p ortunity to give C E M A “b oth h e r professional and personal sup­ p o rt.” Serving with E u as co-chairs o f th e board are L aw rence Baca, a senior trial attorney in th e U.S. D e p a rtm e n t o f Justice, S peaker W illie Brown o f the California State Assembly, a nd playw right a nd film ­ m aker Luis Valdez. T he co-chairs re p re se n t the e thnic groups th a t are th e focus o f th e archives: Native Am erican, Asian A m erican, African A m eri­ can, and C hicano/Latino. b D e v e l o p i n g t h e C h i c a n o / L a t i n o c o l l e c t i o n ecam e U CSB’s relationship w ith Valdez goes back to 1985 w hen he d e cided to donate his pap ers and the archives o f the th e a te r th at h e founded, El T eatro Cam pesino. H e is b est known as th e a uthor o f the play Zoot Suit and as d irector o f th e movie La Bamba. El T eatro Cam pesino, w hich won an Obie Award for off-Broadway th e a te r in 1968, is now considered th e m ost influential bilingual Chicano th e a te r in th e U n ited States. “Since 1985 b oth E l T ea tro C am pesino and I have had a close working relationship w ith the UCSB L ibrary,” says Valdez. “T hey h ad won our confidence, they w orked o ut ways to m eet our p a rticular needs as a working, active, th ea tre com ­ pany, and assured th e long-term preservation of valuable cultural m aterials.” A $136,000 grant from th e F o rd Foundation provided funds forpreserving and processing the archives o f El Teatro. Two L ibrary Services and C onstruction Act (LSCA) grants totaling $142,221 from th e C alifor­ nia State L ibrary support a n o th e r project th at seeks to dissem inate C E M A ’s rich collection to a b roader state audience. Proyecto CA R ID A D (Chicano Art Resources Information Development and Dissemina­ tion) documents the contribution of Chicano artists and provides copies of slides of their works for research and use by libraries, community groups, and schools. T he archives o f four m ajor C hicano/Latino cul­ tu ral arts collectives— C e n tro C ultural de la Raza (San D iego), Self-H elp G raphics and A rt (Los 158 / C&RL News Angeles), G alena de la Raza (San Francisco), and the Royal Chicano Air Force (Sacramento)— docu­ m ent this im portant art m ovem ent which began in the mid-1960s. These collections are com plem ented by the personal collections of artists Jose Montoya, Ralph Maradiaga, Patricia Rodriguez, and Richard Duardo. T he two-year project, which began in 1990, is producing visual arts kits with selected slides and p rin te d r e ­ s o u rc e g u id e s to b e placed in public librar­ ies a n d m u se u m s throughout the state. UCSB assistant pro­ fe sso r o f a r t h isto ry Ramon Favella has been a strong supporter o f the library’s efforts to collect Chicano art for univer­ sity research andforpub- lic access. “W hat’s im­ portant to keep in mind is that Chicano art was created for all people of all ethnicities and classes to appreciate,” he says. T hese im portant C hi­ cano th ea ter and art col­ lections form the basis o f a C hicano/Latino ar­ chival program which was underway for more than seven years in the UCSB L ibrary a nd is A n untitled w ork b y R now a c o m p o n e n t of p art o f the S e lf Help CEMA. Organized less at the University o f C th a n tw o y e a rs ago, CEM A has been expanding from these strengths. “While C EM A has one o f the best C hicano/Latino collections in the country, we are only beginning our efforts to secure the im portant archival collec­ tions of o th er ethnic groups,” says Joseph A. Boissé, UCSB’s university librarian. “W e realize this task is both enorm ous and extremely im portant.” A s ia n A m e r i c a n m a t e r ia l s a c q u i r e d a s c o n t a c t s d e v e l o p e d Boissé said that collection o f Asian American materials has increased since contacts have been developed with the Asian American community. “O u r advisory board has already proven to be exceedingly helpful in this undertaking. A perfect example of that assistance is the work that California Secretary of State March Fong E u has done to introduce our project to various groups w ithin the Asian American community. Through h e r help, G a Asian American archives are now included among our collections,” says Boissé. T he archives of the Asian American T heater C om pany o f San Francisco, th e largest and second- oldest Asian American T heater in N orth America, is the m ost recent CEM A acquisition. At the heart o f this collection are hundreds of scripts by such n o ta b le p lay ­ w rig h ts as D a v id H enry Hwang, Philip Gotanda, Frank Chin, and Genny Lim. T h e C h in e s e American Political As­ sociation wasCEMA’s first archive from that e th n ic g ro u p . T h e Oakland group, which was form ed in 1984 to advocate social rights a n d c o n s titu tio n a l privileges for Chinese Americans, donated files on voter registra­ tio n d riv es, b a llo t analyses, position pa­ p e rs , p h o to g ra p h s , and news clippings. “If Asians hope to change things, they have to unite and get involved politically. W e try to show o u r m em bers that politics is related to th e ir lives,” says oberto Delgado which is Edwin Kung, presi­raphics a nd A rt Archive d ent of the 700-mem- lifornia, Santa Barbara. ber group. W orking with the files of groups that have daily operating needs sometimes poses challenges for C E M A ’s new director, Salvador G uerena. “W e have tried to work with each group to m eet their individual needs,” he explains. “Some groups have b e en surprised that libraries are interested in their day-to-day records. Those who make history are usually too close to the process to know that their desks and files are filled with the grist o f history.” T he archive project collects materials in any form at from com puter disks to serigraphs, personal corre­ spondence to minutes of meetings. F a c u lt y m e m b e r s h e l p a c q u i r e c o l l e c t i o n s UCSB faculty m em bers have also played an im portant role in locating collections. Associate professor of Black Studies Douglas Daniels re­ cently donated materials on the Bay Area Black P a n th er Party (San Francisco) collected by Richard March 19921159 Aoki, an organizer of th e Bay Area Black Panther support m ovem ent. This collection includes several early issues o f th e Black P anther p arty new spaper published in 1966, flyers from th e H uey Newton D efense Com m ittee, and m aterials from Eldridge Cleaver’s U.S. Presidential bid with the Peace and F reedom Party. "In my research sem inar on th e black com m unity and th e police it will be useful for students to learn how widely re p o rte d the Black Panthers w ere and how influential they w ere,” says Daniels. “The students can also see how the Panthers p resented th eir own case, and com pare the view as insiders versus outsiders.” “I t ’s enormously gratifying to see how many scholars are already using these m aterials in both th eir teaching and research. T hese collections di­ rectly support th e work of the academ ic d e p art­ m ents on cam pus,” says Boissé. “CEM A also helps th e university realize its com m itm ent to create and n urture a culturally diverse academic environm ent.” “O ne o f UC SB’s m ajor academ ic planning goals is to increase diversity within our institution. The Library’s CEM A project perfectly com plem ents this goal. I have given CEM A my full support and am pleased to serve on its advisory board,” says B arbaras. Uehling, UCSB chancellor. “The archive’s prim ary resource materials will help students and scholars from all backgrounds b e tte r understand the rich heritage and accomplishments of California’s ethnic groups.” University librarian Boissé says that research libraries should play a m ore aggressive role in collecting and preserving useful and im portant prim ary resource materials. “T he records and p e r­ sonal papers that CEM A is acquiring reflect history from the point o f view of th e outsider looking/ com ing in. Although not ignored, th at point o f view is all too frequently downplayed in scholarship. CEM A will make it m ore difficult for future schol­ ars to ignore m inority points o f view in dealing with the evolution o f California during the second h alf of the 20th century,” h e says. G eorge Lipsitz, associate professor o f American studies and history at the University o f M innesota, agrees with Boissé. "These collections are rare resources, docum enting an extraordinarily signifi­ cant m om ent in m odern U.S. art and urban his­ tory,” he says. “T heir availability will be an im por­ tan t step in rectifying the historically unbalanced and distorted accounts of American culture that have followed from th e unbalanced nature o f the collections o f prim ary sources.” Lawrence Baca, CEM A advisory board co-chair, thinks that these collections will provide inform a­ tion th at will help people understand them selves as well as others. “In th e past, it was cultural conflict, not cultural diversity. O ur long history o f m isunder­ standing ethnic groups comes from a lack of knowl­ edge. Access to th e kinds o f m aterials that CEM A collects will be im portant for people from all groups to study to give them a b e tte r perspective on th em ­ selves as well as others,” says Baca, aPaw nee and the highest ranking Native American at the Justice D epartm ent. To make this point, he recalls an old saying: “W hen two m en m eet th ere are really six present— each as he sees the oth er man, each as he sees him self and each as he truly is.” ■ ■ A w ork titled “N ow Is the Time" by Alonso Davis a n d p art o f the S e lf Help Graphics and A rt A rchive a t the University o f California, Santa Barbara. Cost-effective access to scientific literature in 35 fields H ow can you give your your full-text subscriptions, patrons comprehen­ Cambridge journals give sive access to current you a cost-effective means scientific literature in a to cover thousands of wide range of fields? publications... so your Cambridge Scientific patrons can keep up Abstracts j our nals with important global provide a solution to research. 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