• Home
    • Get the Podcasts
    • About
      • Contact Latinopia.com
      • Copyright Credits
      • Production Credits
      • Research Credits
      • Terms of Use
      • Teachers Guides
  • Art
    • LATINOPIA ART
    • INTERVIEWS
  • Film/TV
    • LATINOPIA CINEMA
    • LATINOPIA SHOWCASE
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Food
    • LATINOPIA FOOD
    • COOKING
    • RESTAURANTS
  • History
    • LATINOPIA EVENT
    • LATINOPIA HERO
    • TIMELINES
    • BIOGRAPHY
    • EVENT PROFILE
    • MOMENT IN TIME
    • DOCUMENTS
    • TEACHERS GUIDES
  • Lit
    • LATINOPIA WORD
    • LATINOPIA BOOK REVIEW
    • PIONEER AMERICAN LATINA AUTHORS
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Music
    • LATINOPIA MUSIC
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Theater
    • LATINOPIA TEATRO
    • INTERVIEWS
  • Blogs
    • Angela’s Photo of the Week
    • Arnie & Porfi
    • Bravo Road with Don Felípe
    • Burundanga Boricua
    • Chicano Music Chronicles
    • Fierce Politics by Dr. Alvaro Huerta
    • Mirándolo Bien with Eduado Díaz
    • Political Salsa y Más
    • Mis Pensamientos
    • Latinopia Guest Blogs
    • Tales of Torres
    • Word Vision Harry Gamboa Jr.
    • Julio Medina Serendipity
    • ROMO DE TEJAS
    • Sara Ines Calderon
    • Ricky Luv Video
    • Zombie Mex Diaries
    • Tia Tenopia
  • Podcasts
    • Louie Perez’s Good Morning Aztlán
    • Mark Guerrero’s Chicano Music Chronicles
      • Yoga Talk with Julie Carmen

latinopia.com

Latino arts, history and culture

  • Home
    • Get the Podcasts
    • About
      • Contact Latinopia.com
      • Copyright Credits
      • Production Credits
      • Research Credits
      • Terms of Use
      • Teachers Guides
  • Art
    • LATINOPIA ART
    • INTERVIEWS
  • Film/TV
    • LATINOPIA CINEMA
    • LATINOPIA SHOWCASE
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Food
    • LATINOPIA FOOD
    • COOKING
    • RESTAURANTS
  • History
    • LATINOPIA EVENT
    • LATINOPIA HERO
    • TIMELINES
    • BIOGRAPHY
    • EVENT PROFILE
    • MOMENT IN TIME
    • DOCUMENTS
    • TEACHERS GUIDES
  • Lit
    • LATINOPIA WORD
    • LATINOPIA BOOK REVIEW
    • PIONEER AMERICAN LATINA AUTHORS
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Music
    • LATINOPIA MUSIC
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Theater
    • LATINOPIA TEATRO
    • INTERVIEWS
  • Blogs
    • Angela’s Photo of the Week
    • Arnie & Porfi
    • Bravo Road with Don Felípe
    • Burundanga Boricua
    • Chicano Music Chronicles
    • Fierce Politics by Dr. Alvaro Huerta
    • Mirándolo Bien with Eduado Díaz
    • Political Salsa y Más
    • Mis Pensamientos
    • Latinopia Guest Blogs
    • Tales of Torres
    • Word Vision Harry Gamboa Jr.
    • Julio Medina Serendipity
    • ROMO DE TEJAS
    • Sara Ines Calderon
    • Ricky Luv Video
    • Zombie Mex Diaries
    • Tia Tenopia
  • Podcasts
    • Louie Perez’s Good Morning Aztlán
    • Mark Guerrero’s Chicano Music Chronicles
      • Yoga Talk with Julie Carmen
You are here: Home / Blogs / MIRÁNDOLO BIEN with EDUARDO DÍAZ 4.05.15 “THE PEOPLE WHO WEREN’T KIDDING”

MIRÁNDOLO BIEN with EDUARDO DÍAZ 4.05.15 “THE PEOPLE WHO WEREN’T KIDDING”

April 5, 2015 by

“Chicanos are Mexican Americans who aren’t kidding!”
—Dan Guerrero

Dan-Guerrero_200

The inimitable Dan Guerrero performing Gaytino!

I love that Dan Guerrero came up with this shorthand definition of Chicano; it succinctly captures both a personal reflection and a communal experience. Dan is an accomplished playwright and producer, whose impactful work, Gaytino, has helped raise awareness and driven advocacy around the experiences and rights of the Latino Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community. Notably—to help contextualize his activism—Dan is the son of the legendary Chicano musician and folklorist, Lalo Guerrero, who also greatly influenced the Chicano Movement.

As a veteran of the Chicano Movement, I often times have to go back to square one when talking about it, especially with younger generations. Unfortunately, the community manifestations and impacts of the movement are not widely recognized or appreciated. One finds few details about it in most history texts and only a handful of documentaries have been produced, including Chicano! A History of the Mexican American Movement. As for museums, there have been a precious few exhibitions on the subject, which is why I was thrilled to see History Colorado, a Smithsonian Affiliate, recently open El Movimiento: The Chicano Movement in Colorado at its flagship venue in Denver.

El-Movimiento-logo_200The El Movimiento exhibition, with some 85 objects, photographs, videos and audio segments, weaves a story that takes visitors from the implications of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which brought an end to the Mexican-American War converting Colorado to U.S. territory in 1848, to the 1960 and 1970 struggles to end racial discrimination, secure rights, improve education, and gain political and social power. Colorado was an epicenter of the Chicano Movement. El Movimiento captures the movement’s efforts from those led by the Crusade for Justice and its seminal Youth Congress in 1969, to farmworker actions in the San Luis Valley, to high school walkouts in Denver, to a strike at the Kitayama Flowers farm in Brighton, to the Coors Boycott, and the emergence of Chicano artists and community murals. The exhibition also highlights Los Seis de Boulder (The Boulder Six), six prominent

1969 Denver Youth Conference

1969 Denver Youth Conference

Chicano leaders were killed in consecutive car bombings in May 1974. The case was never satisfactorily resolved. There are some in the community who believe the activists were targeted by the FBI’s CONTELPRO program, which sought to infiltrate and destabilize Latino activist organizations, including the Crusade for Justice. All told, El Movimiento is a concise, well-crafted survey of a critical period in Colorado’s history.

With El Movimiento, History Colorado shifts the paradigm of a historical society, a reference framework that usually embraces the “official story,” often times excluding the histories of “the other.” In initiating the El Movimiento project, History Colorado begins the process of centering the margin by including Colorado Chicanos and their histories. History Colorado admitted it knew what it didn’t know and what it didn’t have. Principal organizers, Deborah Espinosa and JJ Rutherford, did a really smart thing—they assembled a group of Chicano community advisors to help ensure that events highlighted in the exhibition were properly detailed, contextualized and nuanced.

El-Movimiento-Advisory-Committee_200

Community advisors help shape the El Movimiento exhibit.

As History Colorado had very little material culture with which to work, the exhibition team relied on the community advisors and others to loan documents, buttons, picket signs, clothing, photographs, film and video, audio recordings, and other materials vital to museum storytelling. Other museums would do well to replicate this community-based curatorial approach, especially when they are entering unchartered history waters. History Colorado did another smart thing—it collaborated with Denver’s Museo de Las Américas, whose Chicano exhibition features the work of four prominent Denver-based artists that captures the spirit of the struggle.

I was honored that History Colorado asked me to speak at El Movimiento’s opening in February, attended by hundreds of community members, including many families and children. It was a very moving experience to see this community and its history validated and celebrated. Museum officials tell me that attendance and response has been steady and encouraging, developments enhanced by a robust series of correlative public and educational programs. The exhibition closes at the end of October 2015, but History Colorado indicates that more on the Latino community is forthcoming.

Corky-Gonzalez-Photo_tm180b

Denver civil rights activist Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales featured in El Movimiento

El Movimiento was a risky proposition for History Colorado, because the content is, well, political, unflinching and disquieting. They say that the truth will set you free. My sense is that El Movimiento has helped free this important community institution to tell fully contextualized, accurate stories that matter to its entire, diverse constituency. There are many more stories to tell, especially about the disenfranchised whose contributions have been foundational to community building. Colorado has much to look forward to.

More:

Chicano Movement Chicano El Movimiento History Colorado Denver Colorado Latinos & Hispanics Mexican American

__________________________________________

Copyright 2015 by Eduardo Díaz.

Filed Under: Blogs, Mirándolo Bien with Eduado Díaz Tagged With: Chicano Civil Rights Movement, Chicano history, Corky Gonzales, Eduardo Díaz, El Movimiento Denver exhibit, Mirandolo Bien with Eduardo Diaz

LATINOPIA WORD – “TRUMP: MAKING AMERICA UNGREAT”

December 8, 2019 By Tia Tenopia

Dr. Alvaro Huerta is a professor of Urban and Regional Planning at California State Polytechnic University at Pomona. In his recent book, Defending Latina/o Migrant Communities in the Xenophobic Era of Trump and Beyond, he challenges hateful myths of the Latinos as rapists and criminals. Alvaro believes Trump has set our country back fifty years. […]

BURUNDANGA BORICUA DEL ZOCOTROCO 12.08.19 “INSPIRACIÓN”

December 8, 2019 By Tia Tenopia

Se mueve la vida de momento en momento. Hay algunos pocos de exaltación y entusiasmo, cuando todo toma velocidad y empuje, se exacerba la imaginación y se enciende la productividad. Algunos lo llaman “inspiración”, otros le dicen “musa”. Es una epifanía o descubrimientos que nos hace vibrar de entusiasmo. Suelen alternarse con esos tiempos de […]

ROMO DE TEJAS 12.08.19 “WHY THEY LEAVE: CENTRAL AMERICAN ACCOUNT”

December 8, 2019 By Tia Tenopia

Why They Leave: A Central American Account In the last decade more immigrants arrived at the U.S. borders from Mexico and Central America than from any other region of the world. The arrival of immigrants on our southern border has been the subject of numerous print and television stories, and the migration story has been […]

TALES OF TORRES 12.01.19 “THANKSGIVING LEFTOVERS”

December 1, 2019 By Tia Tenopia

Thanksgiving Day has come and gone, leaving lots of leftovers – both actual and metaphorical. Above the din of football game crowds emanating from the nonstop television in the next room, there were conversations. Conversations about family chisme (gossip), politics and the very issue of what Thanksgiving is really all about. Leftover conversations continue days […]

More Posts from this Category

New On Latinopia

LATINOPIA WORD MÓNICA TERESA ORTÍZ “HUMAN RESOURCES”

By Tia Tenopia on February 16, 2014

Mónica Teresa Ortíz is a Texas poet representative of a new generation of Latina poets and authors. She is the author of the acclaimed chapbook collection “On a Greyhound Straight from the 915.” She read her poem about the exploitation of undocumented immigrant workers in the United States, “Human Resources,” on September 17, 2010 at […]

Category: LATINOPIA WORD, Literature

LATINOPIA WORD XOCHITL JULISA BERMEJO “OUR LADY OF THE WATER GALLONS”

By Tia Tenopia on May 26, 2013

Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo is a poet and teacher from Asuza, California. She volunteered with No More Deaths, a humanitarian organization providing water bottles in the Arizona desert where immigrants crossing from Mexico often die of exposure. She read her poem, “Our Lady of the Water Gallons” at a Mental Cocido (Mental Stew) gathering of Latino authors […]

Category: LATINOPIA WORD, Literature

LATINOPIA SHOWCASE “LOVE IN THE TIME OF ALBINO”

By Tia Tenopia on April 13, 2014

Gabriel Carmona and Branden Selman are the founders of Nac Film Theory, an independent film company based in Nagotchoches, Texas. Both of these talented filmmakers produce, direct, film, edit and act  in their independently produced films. Latinopia is proud to showcase the poignant “Love in the Time of Albino,” another independent production by this talented […]

Category: Cinema/TV, LATINOPIA SHOWCASE

© 2019 latinopia.com · Pin It - Genesis - WordPress · Admin