The research material of Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, measures 33.1 linear feet and 1.27 GB and dates from 1965-2004. The collection, amassed throughout Ybarra-Frausto's long and distinguished career as a scholar of the arts and humanities, documents the development of Chicano art in the United States and chronicles Ybarra-Frausto's role as a community leader and scholar in the political and artistic Chicano movement from its inception in the 1960s to the present day.
Scope and Content Note:
The research material of Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, amassed throughout his long and distinguished career as a scholar of the arts and humanities, documents the development of Chicano art in the United States. As community leader and scholar, Ybarra-Frausto played dual roles of active participant and historian in the Chicano movement, chronicling this unique political and artistic movement from its inception in the 1960s to the present day.
Deeply rooted in American history, "El Movimiento," the Chicano movement, evolved from Mexican-Americans' struggle for self-determination during the civil rights era of the 1960s. It began as a grassroots community effort that enlisted the arts in the creation of a united political and cultural constituency. Chicano artists, intellectuals, and political activists were instrumental in mobilizing the Mexican-American community for the cause of social justice, and the movement was shaped by the affirmation of a cultural identity that embraced a shared heritage with Mexico and the United States.
Just as "El Movimiento" aimed to instruct and inspire through the recollection and conservation of culture, Ybarra-Frausto's own career as scholar and historian helped to shape the intellectual discourse of the Chicano art. As a leading historian and theoretician in the field of Chicano Studies, he has written extensively on the subject, and has been instrumental in defining the canons of Chicano art. His papers are accordingly rich and varied, and they will be of great use to future scholars.
His research material, dating from 1965 to 1996, are arranged in subject files containing original writings, notes, bibliographies compiled by Ybarra-Frausto and others, exhibition catalogues, announcements, newspaper clippings and other printed material, as well as slides and photographs. Many of these files also include interview transcripts and correspondence with prominent figures in the movement. While this research collection contextualizes Chicano art within the larger framework of Latino and Latin-American culture, the bulk of the files relates specifically to Chicano visual culture. The collection also contains pertinent documentation of the Chicano civil rights movement, material on Chicano poets and writers, and research files on the wider Hispanic community, but these also appear within the context of Chicano culture in general.
Prominent among the bibliographies are the many notes and drafts related to the publication of A Comprehensive Annotated Bibliography of Chicano Art, 1965-1981 (University of California, Berkeley, 1985), which Ybarra-Frausto co-authored with Shifra Goldman. Ybarra-Frausto's files on Goldman, like other files in the collection, document his close associations and collaborations with scholars.
Art historians have traditionally found the categorization of Chicano art a difficult task. Unsure whether to classify the work as "American" or "Latin American," critics often ignored the work altogether. An outgrowth of this dilemma was the proliferation of artists, curators, and critics within the Chicano community, and the papers contain many original writings by Chicano artists about Chicano art, found in extensive files on artists that will be of particular significance to researchers. These often contain exhibition essays, dissertation proposals, and course outlines authored by the artists, along with the standard biographies, exhibition records, and reviews. Some of the files contain rare interviews conducted and transcribed by Ybarra-Frausto. Highlights include conversations with Carmen Lomas Garza, Amalia Mesa-Bains, and members of the Royal Chicano Air Force artist cooperative.
As a member of several Chicano art organizations and institutions, Ybarra-Frausto kept active records of their operation. The extensive files on the Mexican Museum and Galerie de la Raza/Studio 24, both in San Francisco, not only chronicle the history of Chicano art through the records of exhibitions and programming, but also offer case studies on the development of non-profit art institutions. The files on artist cooperatives, organizations, and exhibition spaces cover several regions of the United States, but focus on California, Texas and New York.
Two notable events in the development of Chicano art were the 1982 Califas: Chicano Art and Culture in California seminar at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and the 1990 traveling exhibition Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation, 1965-1985 (CARA), of which Ybarra-Frausto served as organizer and catalogue essayist. His records document the planning and development of these seminal events. Ybarra-Frausto's files on folk art, altars, posters, murals, performance art, border art, Chicana feminist art, and Southwestern and Mexican imagery (both urban and rural expressions) mirror the diverse forms and subject matter of Chicano art.
Spanning almost four decades of American culture from a Chicano perspective, these files have a unique historical value. The legacy of Chicano art and its contribution to the cultural landscape of this country, kept alive in Ybarra-Frausto's files, attests to the richness and diversity of American art.
Henry C. Estrada
Research Fellow, 1997.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged as a single series of subject files. The general contents of each folder have been listed. The subject files are arranged in alphabetical order. While no two files are alike, they may contain résumés, printed and digital material, letters, draft writings, and photographs. Unless otherwise noted, each listing represents one file folder. The abbreviation TYF was used to refer to the name Tomá Ybarra-Frausto throughtout the Series Description.
Autobiographical Note:
Papelitos (little bits of paper), whether rent receipts, paid bills, or piles of personal letters, can become layered bundles of personal history. I have always been a pepenador (a scavenger) and saver of paper scraps. Diary notes, scribbled annotations, and first drafts are often useful indicators of ideas and gestation. Papelitos are the fragments of every-day life that gain expanded meaning integrated into the larger historical events of a period.
In the decade of the 1960s, I started saving ephemeral material--exhibition announcements, clippings of individual artists and of organizations fomenting a Chicano art movement. The social scenarios of the period such as marches, strikes, sit-ins, and mobilizations for social justice all spawned manifestos, posters, leaflets, and other forms of printed material. I somehow managed to assemble and protect the evanescent printed information that recorded the birth and development of Chicano art.
As I started to research and write about Chicano art and artists of the period, I continued to clip, photocopy, and preserve material given me by Mexican-American artists from throughout the nation. My idea was to form an archive that would be comprehensive rather than selective. I knew that it was the offbeat, singular piece of paper with a missing link of information that would attract the scholar.
Today, several decades after the flowering of Chicano art, there is still a lamentable paucity of research and information about this significant component of American art.
It is my fervent hope that this compendium of information will function as a resonant print and image bank for investigators of Chicano culture. Perhaps contained within the archive are the facts that will inspire new visions or revisions of Chicano art and culture--this is my fondest dream.
Dr. Tomás Ybarra-Frausto
New York City, 1998
Related Materials:
Tomás Ybarra-Frausto Papers are located at University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin.
Provenance:
The collection was donated to the Archives of American Art by Tomás Ybarra-Frausto in 1997, and in 2004.
Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. research facility.
Rights:
The Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material is owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
(6 folders; see also: CARA; Garcia, Rupert; Gronk; Box 30; OV 32)
Container:
Box 15, Folder 32-37
Type:
Archival materials
Scope and Contents note:
(exhibition announcements; exhibition brochures; catalogs; resume; sales receipt; book by Lomas Garza, Papel Picado: Paper Cutout Techniques, Xicanindio Arts Coalition, Mesa, Arizona, 1984; TYF's notes on Lomas Garza; clippings; oversize materials; slides; note to TYF from Lomas Garza, undated; note to TYF and Dudley, from Lomas Garza, undated; typescript of essay on Lomas Garza by TYF, from the catalog, Carmen Lomas Garza: Lo Real Maravilloso: the Marvelous/The Real, The Mexican Museum, San Francisco, 1988; catalog, Mano a Mano: Abstraction/Figuration: 16 Mexican-American & Latin-American Painters from the San Francisco Bay Area, The Art Museum of Santa Cruz County and University of California Santa Cruz, 1988; Festival Internaxional de la Raza, "Los Artistas Chicanos del Valle de Tejas: Narradores de Mitos Y Tradiciones," 1991; Handwritten transcript of interview with Lomas Garza by TYF; polaroid photographs of Lomas Garza; memo to Dudley and TYF from Vincente M. Martinez, Acting Chief Curator Millicent Rogers Museum, 04/03/1995, re. invitations to exhibition opening and loan of piece)
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. research facility.
Collection Rights:
The Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material is owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material, 1965-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
(exhibition announcements; The Canadian Club Hispanic Art Tour call for entries, Martínez painting featured; letter to TYF from Martínez, 04/12/1985; resume; letter to TYF from Lynn Goode, 10/19/1992, re. TYF's purchase of a Martínez piece; ArtPace International Artist-In-Residence Program brochure, 1997; catalog; clippings)
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. research facility.
Collection Rights:
The Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material is owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material, 1965-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
(see above, and: letter to TYF from Gloria Jaramillo, Curator of Collections, 04/27/1983, re. TYF's purchase of a ceramic by Richard and Graciela [Rios] and sales receipt; photocopy of letter to "Compañeros", from TYF, 09/30/1983; photocopy of letter to Mariano and Linda, from TYF, 09/30/1983; TYF's notes on issues concering the museum's Board of Directors; "Annotated Bibliography of Mexican Folk Art" by Beverly Herzog and Dr. Joyce Bishop, 1985; letter to TYF from the museum, re. a lecture TYF would give for the "From Inside Out..." exhibition; administrative planning documents for "From Inside Out..." and "Lo Del Corazó", including artists' applications and booklet of artists' statements for "Lo Del Corazó"; "Bibliography for the Exhibit 'Folk Art of Michcacan'" by Susan Warren-Kunkler; "Assessment of the Mexican Museum, Museum Assessment Program, American Association of Museums"; "Communal Land Paintings From Central Mexico: An Overview" by Marion Oettinger, Jr., Curator of Folk Art and Latin American Art, San Antonio Museum Association; "But Is It Folk? Defining the Field" by Joyce M. Bishop, presented at "From the Inside Out..."; typescript of essay by Jim Griffith, no title; "Notes Toward An Interpretive History of California-Mexican Music" by Manuel Peña; "From the Inside Out..." symposium program; postcard to TYF from Aurelio and Cecilia Barrera, 10/27/1987; letter to TYF from David de la Torre, Director, The Mexican Museum, 02/08/1988, re. dinner to honor TYF; bound volume, From the Inside Out... Proceedings from the conference, ed. Karana Hattersley-Drayton, Joyce Bishop, TYF, 1989; NEH grant application materials; Christmas card to TYF from Marie Acosta-Colón; slides; letter to José Montoya, from Peter Rodriguez, 11/30/1990, (cc: TYF; photocopy; grant proposals; "The Mexican Museum Long Range Work Plan," CAC Multicultural Advancement Program, circa 1993; photocopy of letter to TYF from Jonathan [Yorba], 06/05/1996; note to Jonathan [Yorba] from TYF, 06/17/1996; artist biographies by TYF, undated: Daniel Salazar and José Alfredo Mendoza Arreguín; newsletter: vol. 7 Spring 1982; vol. 8 (Summer 1983); Winter and Spring 1988; Spring/Summer 1990; Fall/Winter 1990; Fall 1991; Winter/Spring 1992; Spring/Summer 1992; Fall 1992; Winter/Spring 1993; Fall 1993; Winter 1997; Fall 1998; Spring - Fall 1999; Winter 2000 - Summer 2001)
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. research facility.
Collection Rights:
The Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material is owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material, 1965-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. research facility.
Collection Rights:
The Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material is owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material, 1965-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
(issue of the journal Contemporary Political Analysis & Left Dialogue)
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. research facility.
Collection Rights:
The Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material is owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material, 1965-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
(lists of artists; clippings; letter to TYF from Charles Richard Carlisle, Southwest Texas State University, 08/01/1980; catalogs; press release; generic letter to members of Xochil Art Institute from Xavier Gorena, 03/1982; letter to TYF from Ida Rodríguez Prampolini, 08/05/1982; letter to TYF from Ricardo Rodríguez Burgess, 08/25/1982; letter to TYF from Jaime Labastida, 08/13/1982; event and exhibition announcements; catalog, New Works By Austin Artists with inscription to TYF from Santa Barraza; catalogs: Houston Hispanic Artists: New Views, The Glassell School of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, 1987; and Arte Entre Nosotros: Mexican American Folk Art of San Antonio, San Antonio Museum of Art and Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, San Antonio, Texas, 1986; catalog, Tejanos: artistas Mexicano-norteamericanos, 1990, with text by Jacinto Quirarte; letter to TYF from Harwood Hinton, Editor, Texas State Historical Association Handbook of Texas; essays)
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. research facility.
Collection Rights:
The Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material is owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material, 1965-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. research facility.
Collection Rights:
The Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material is owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material, 1965-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. research facility.
Collection Rights:
The Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material is owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material, 1965-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
(exhibition list; note to TYF from Carmen Lomas Garza, 04/1984)
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. research facility.
Collection Rights:
The Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material is owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material, 1965-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
(organization, also called La Raza Galeria Posada, Sacramento, California. Clippings; catalogs; exhibition announcements; color copy of art pasted on board; membership form; flyers; El Cantero, quarterly newsletter: Jan.-March 2003, June-Sept. 2003, Sept.-Dec. 2003 and Jan.-March 2004; 2003-2006 Programming Presentation; "A Collective Vision" Presentation)
Collection Restrictions:
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. research facility.
Collection Rights:
The Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material is owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material, 1965-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. research facility.
Collection Rights:
The Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material is owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
Collection Citation:
Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material, 1965-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
An interview of Benito Huerta conducted 2004 Feb. 29-Mar. 2, by Cary Cordova, for the Archives of American Art, in Arlington, Tex.
Huerta speaks of his early childhood; interest in art; attending graduate school at New Mexico State University; the exhibition "Hispanic Art in the United States: Thirty Contemporary Painters and Sculptors," 1987; interest in music and planning programs while attending undergraduate school at the University of Houston; his relationship with artist Mel Chin; his exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; the Lynn Goode Gallery and an exhibition entitled "Aneurism"; criticism of his artwork; living in San Francisco for two years; Galería de la Raza; painting on black velvet; the exhibition "Chulas Fronteras (Beautiful Borders)" 1986; his chalupas series; the value of curating versus making his own art; "Seen and Unseen" at Diverse Works 1983; "Cowboys, Cadillacs, and Computers" Lawndale Art and Performance Center, University of Houston, 1985; his installation pieces; maps and global images in his work; his co-founding of the art Magazine "Artlies"; public commissions; connections to North Carolina; the Serie project; and the artists he has worked with since arriving at University of Texas, Arlington. Huerta also recalls David Caton, Jane Livingston, John Beardsley, René Yañez, Carmen Lomas Garza, John Hernandez, Kathy Vargas, Victor Zamudio Taylor, Bonnie Pitman, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Beniton Huerta (1952-) is an artist from Arlington, Tex. Interviewer Cary Cordova (1970-) is an art historian.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Restrictions:
Transcript available on the Archives of American Art website.
Topic:
Hispanic American artists -- Texas -- Interviews Search this
This interview is part of the series "Recuerdos Orales: Interviews of the Latino Art Community in Texas," supported by Federal funds for Latino programming, administered by the Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives.
The digital preservation of this interview received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center.
