Royal Chicano Air Force. El Mercado De Las Flores, between 1976 and 1978. Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material on Chicano art, 1965-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Royal Chicano Air Force. El Teatro Campesino Fundraiser, 1978. Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material on Chicano art, 1965-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Royal Chicano Air Force Retrospective Poster Art Exhibition, 1989 Oct. 26. Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material on Chicano art, 1965-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Southside Park Mural by Juan Cervantes, 1981. Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material on Chicano art, 1965-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
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 Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. research facility.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material, 1965-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
(3 folders; see also: Centro de Artistas Chicanos; Goldman, Shifra; La Raza Bookstore; Montoya, José; Murals; Box 30)
Container:
Box 24, Folder 41-43
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1976-1998, undated
Scope and Contents note:
(TYF's notes on RCAF; clippings; photographs of works of art; flyers; Neighborhood Art Programs National Organizing Committee (NAPNOC) case study of the Centro de Artistas Chicanos; La Raza Bookstore publication catalog; exhibition announcements; Centro de Artistas Chicanos history; essay by Sam Rios, Dept. of Anthropology, California State University; photocopy of photograph of the RCAF group; letter to TYF from Sam Rios, 09/1981; oversized clippings from 1975 Calandario Chicano; letter to TYF from Mary Malit, Museum Secretary Crocker Art Museum, 04/29/1985, re. catalog/brochure on the 1983 Centro de Artistas Chicanos exhibition; typescript of essay by Shifra Goldman, "Chicano Art Looking Backward"; theater performance poster; letter to TYF from [?] Romo, 01/20/1978, re. TYF's participation in a poetry reading; booklet with short writings by Ricardo Favel, José Montoya, Luis Valdez; photocopy of poem by José Montoya; part of Ricardo Favela's Masters Thesis on the RCAF Retrospective Poster Art Exhibition)
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 Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material, 1965-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
(book of Chicano poetry and art: Poemasomenos De Sacra, La Raza Bookstore, Sacramento, California, 1973; TYF's notes: list of sources, handwritten introduction for "The Chicano Mural Movement"; Centro de Artistas Chicanos illustration, "Chicano Brain Cell En El Mar"; extract from an essay, "El Movimiento de Artista Chicano" by Olga M. Martínez)
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 Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
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 Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material, 1965-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
(clippings; booklet, "El Espejo del Movimiento" Centro de Artistas Chicanos, RCAF, 1977; TYF's notes on Centro de Artistas Chicanos)
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 Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material, 1965-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
(letter to Dr. Guy Bensusan, Associate Professor, University of Arizona, 07/22/1972; Con Safo organizational information: list of needs, meeting notes, mission statement - Brown Paper Report; "General Comments" [by Felipe Reyes?]; clippings; exhibition announcements; catalogs; photographs of Con Safo members; material for TYF's course on Chicano Culture)
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 Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
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 Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material, 1965-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
(photocopy of flyer; see also: Royal Chicano Air Force)
Container:
Box 10, Folder 4
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
undated
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 Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Tomás Ybarra-Frausto research material, 1965-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Mel Casas papers, 1963-1998. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
The processing and digitization of this collection received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center. Additional funding for the digitization of the papers was provided by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation.
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Mel Casas papers, 1963-1998. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
The processing and digitization of this collection received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center. Additional funding for the digitization of the papers was provided by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation.
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Mel Casas papers, 1963-1998. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
The processing and digitization of this collection received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center. Additional funding for the digitization of the papers was provided by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation.
This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Mel Casas papers, 1963-1998. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
The processing and digitization of this collection received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center. Additional funding for the digitization of the papers was provided by the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation.
Collection consists of posters featuring lowrider imagery.
Content Description:
Posters for fundraisers, social actions, and community events for the Latino community of Northern California; all prominently feature lowrider imagery.
Arrangement:
The collection is arranged into one series.
Series 1: Posters, 1975-2016
Biographical:
Rudolfo "Rudy" Ojeda Cuellar was born and raised in Roseville, California. Rudy graduated from Roseville High School where he learned about screen printing, linoleum block printing and a deeper understanding of what being an artist was about. He enrolled at Sierra College, three miles from his hometown, where he was exposed to ceramics and cultural sculptural images. A friend helped him transfer to Sacramento State University where he met professors Jose Montoya and Esteban Villa and many other members of the Royal Chicano Artist group. At Sacramento State, he learned mask making, mold making, and silversmithing. From 1971 to 1979 he worked for Centro de Artistas Chicanos teaching at risk kids from the local school district screen printing skills, art and design and how to get along with one another. While working at the Centro de Artistas he taught and helped the other Royal Chicano Art Front members with the silk-screening process, and creating prints, signs and posters for other community events.
In 1980 Cuellar started Centro Screen Print & Associates with Louie "the Foot" Gonzalez (another founding member of RCAF). Rudy taught silk screening at Folsom State Prison and Louie became a rural mail carrier. His work as printer and as artist has been in numerous exhibits and publications such as Triumph of our Communities, Posada's Mexico 1979, CARA Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation, 1965-1985 Wight Art Gallery – University of California, Los Angeles. Design in California and Mexico 1915 – 1985 and Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965 to Now. Cuellar was deeply influenced by his trips to Mexico and especially art teachers, counselors, and friends such as George Lem and Mr. Otis, John Adams, Juan Cervantes, and Stephan Kaltenbach that each taught him to never put boundaries on his quest to create Mexican and pre-Colombian images.
Historical:
The Rebel Chicano Art Front was created in 1969 by art professors José Montoya and Esteban Villa along with many other artists, activists, community organizers, poets, and teachers while at California State University, Sacramento. As artists and art students, they often loosely worked to support community events with creative endeavors. The group eventually came together under Joe Serna and was managed by Ricardo Favela in 1972 to form the Centro de Artistas Chicanos, an organization that provided much needed community space and support for after school arts programs, a library and bookstore, training programs, family and child programs such as Día de Los Muertos festivals, acting classes, and even an auto body repair training program. As part of the after-school arts program (and print shop), RCAF artists came together to teach community children about history and culture through art.
To supplement the meager city and private funds for the Centro, the artists organized art and gallery shows, art auctions, and sale of prints in the bookstore. As this collective of artists started having art shows, they would shorten their name to the "RCAF," often being confused with the Royal Canadian Air Force. Being a creative bunch, they changed their name from the Rebel Chicano Art Front to the Royal Chicano Air Force. They embraced this new identity/confusion, getting Army surplus clothing, and creating "ranks" of general or "creative mechanicos comsimcos" [cosmic mechanics] for everyone. They created a mythical origin story that states that they flew here from the mythical homeland of Aztlán in adobe airplanes. This playfulness broke down many social barriers in the barrio as well as within the larger Sacramento community and helped them tackle serious subjects through their programs and art.
The 1960's and 70's ushered in a wave of political and social awareness for communities of color. Community organizations around the country began advocating and organizing for more political and social empowerment as a counter to the discrimination, oppression, and neglect that many Chicanos (and other Latino communities) encountered. The GI Bill sent many Chicanos to college, opening young Chicano eyes to new ways to fight injustice. Many young social reformers started to take advantage of funds from the War on Poverty programs to establish community service organizations. Chicano and Latino artists were very aware of neglect and lack of representation in mainstream galleries and art institutions and started to rethink and reinvent cultural spaces. The RCAF was formed as a way to creatively instill pride, dignity, and respect for the Chicano community of Sacramento (Los Angeles Times, July 22, 1979 "Chicano Air Force Flies High").
In addition to the RCAF, other Latino groups and organizations formed during the late 1960's and 1970's in the Bay area such as the Mexican American Liberation Art Front, La Raza Graphics Center, and Artist Sies that cultivated artist collectives and artist support networks. Galleria de La Raza, the first Mexican American "museum" in the Bay area opened to encourage Chicano and Latino art within their own community. Throughout the country, Latinx artists and activists formed organizations and galleries such as Self-Help Graphics in Los Angeles. The East coast also saw their share of organizations develop such the Taller Puertorriqueño in Philadelphia in 1972. In New York, the Taller Boriqua and El Museo de Barrio saw the Puerto Rican activist community grow and build their own galleries, arts spaces, and educational spaces to reach Latino communities in ways that traditional art and cultural centers did not.
Art, and the inexpensive silk screen process, became one of the fronts in the fight for community self-empowerment and advocacy. The traditions of mural and poster art in California were already very strong by the time RCAF was formed. In the 1930's, 40's, and 50's, African American and labor organizations had formed art workshops developing poster woodcut technique both as an art form and a way to advance political awareness. Art schools and colleges in California (and New York) organized artistic workshops to help combine art with social movements. The RCAF members also drew artistic and activist inspiration from a long tradition of printmaking in Mexico such as political and cultural artist José Posada in the 1890's and the Taller Grafica Popular in the 1930's. The reliance on silk screen poster art created a whole new movement and vocabulary of artistic forms, colors, and representations that drew from Mexican heritage but was also quick and easy to replicate. Artists like Montoya and Favela used these posters as their canvas to create a body of work that was bought and sold like other traditional art pieces, but was inexpensive to create and could relate and engage with the community not accustomed to gallery shows.
The silk screen process was eventually replaced by the screen print process, a technologic change that cut reliance on harmful chemicals, but still retained the "look and feel" of a DIY silk screen. However, what was crucial among RCAF were all the commissioned pieces, like these lowrider posters, that showcased how the artistic forms melded with community activism and documentation. While some of the artworks were bought and sold and made for art spaces, most art was primarily displayed in storefronts, restaurants, and community centers. The community and street space became the gallery that advertised United Farm Worker events, social justice gatherings, health initiatives, etc. The Chicano Civil rights movement succeeded and was sustained in part, by posters like these. The poster "transcended" the advertisement of events into a production of art. More importantly, these posters help document the Chicano movement, bridging community activism, art, advertisement, and social formation.
Source
Historical content note courtesy, Steve Velasquez, Curator, Division of Cultural and Community Life, National Museum of American History, August 13, 2020.
Related Materials:
Materials at the Smithsonian Institution
Archives of American Art
Roberto Sifuentes papers, circa 1988-2006, bulk 1993-2000. The papers document Chicano performance artist and educator Roberto Sifuentes.
Philip Brookman Papers, 1977-1993. The collection documents Brookman's exhibition, writing, and filmmaking projects in the form of artist files, exhibition files, professional files, and subject and research files. Much of the material concerns the production and distribution of Brookman's 1988 video documentary about Chicano art in California, Mi Otro Yo (My Other Self), that grew out of the exhibition and conference "Califas: An Exhibition of Chicano Art and Culture in California," held at University of California, Santa Cruz in 1981 and 1982.
National Museum of American History
Tomas Ybarra-Frausto Calendar Collection, NMAH.AC.0660
Lowrider "Dave's Dream," 1982. See accession: 1990.0567.
Smithsonian Institution Archives
Exhibition Records, circa 1983-1994 and undated. Accession 00-002. INcludes records for the exhibition American Encounters
Exhibition Records, 1970-1995. Accession 01-097. INcludes documentation for American Encounters Lowriders, 1992.
Productions, 1991-1994, 1997-1998. Accession 02-123. Includes Smithsonian Productions video program entitled, ""Spreading Beauty Wherever I Go," on the lowrider cars of New Mexico, 1992.
Productions, 1987, 1989, 1991-1993, 1997. Accession 02-202. Includes video footage for "Spreading Beauty Wherever I Go," on the "lowrider" cars of New Mexico.
Productions, 1991-2000. Accession 05-231. Includes video footage from the exhibit American Encounters Lowrider show, 1978 from the Museum of Fine Arts.
Materials at Other Organizations
Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library
University of San Diego, San Diego Lowriders Archival Project
The San Diego Lowrider Archival Project documents the history of lowriding in San Diego and the surrounding borderlands, from the 1950s through today. The project includes photographs, car club documents and memorabilia, official records, meeting minutes, dance posters and lowrider art.
University of Southern California, Boeckmann Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies
Lowrider magazine collection 0589
A collection of 56 issues of Lowrider magazine, along with three issues of Q-VO: A National Lowrider's Magazine -- all spanning from 1977 to 2003
UC Santa Barbara, Special Research Collections
Royal Chicano Air Force Archives, CEMA 8
Extensive collection of slides and silkscreen prints, along with administrative records, news clippings, correspondence, exhibition descriptions and flyers, photographs, creative writings, and miscellaneous publications of the Sacramento-based artists collective. Founding members of the RCAF include José Montoya, Esteban Villa, Juanishi V. Orosco, Ricardo Favela, and Rudy Cuellar.
UCLA Chicano Research Center
Alturas Films Records, CSRC.2018.009
Alturas Films is a film production company based in Emeryville, Californis. Founded by Rick Tejada-Flores, it specializes in documentaries that focus on overlooked topics in Latino and Latin American culture, many of which were broadcast on public television. Among its films are Low 'n Slow, Rivera in America, and Elvia.
Provenance:
Fifteen posters were purchased from Rudy Cuellar in 2021.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Collection Citation:
Rudy Cuellar Lowrider Posters, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
