Research Highlights
Ralph Armbruster-Sandoval's current projects include writing a book on globalization and cross-border labor organizing, tentatively titled, Globalization and Cross-Border Labor Organizing in the Americas. He is also working on an article with Oscar Fierros, an undergraduate major in the Department of Chicano Studies, on the involvement of Chicanas/os in the Black Civil Rights Movement. Working on a project that explores the complex roles of the Chicano Movement and the Chicana/o Left.
Edwina Barvosa-Carters' research is interdisciplinary in character extending to the domains of political science, political philosphy, Chicano/a and Latina/o studies and Feminist theory. Her current research draws both a theoretical and empirical sketch of multiple identity -- an understanding of the self as comprised of not one, but many interpenetrating identity frames. Her project is to explore the implications of multiple identity for democratic politics. She is particularly concerned with the implications of multiple identity for coalition building, political judgment and the skills of citizenship critical to the well-functioning of a diverse democractic polity.
Norma E. Cantú works in a variety of humanities and creative arts areas. This year as a Visiting Scholar for Research, she continued her ongoing research on traditional cultures especially her ethnographic manuscript on matachines, Soldiers of the Cross, and her work on quinceañeras. This year, she submitted and published an article in Southern Folklore. She also served on the National Endowment for the Arts panel on Folk and Traditional Arts, and was named by the Librarian of Congress to the Board of Directors of the Library of Congress American Folklife Center. In addition to her work on cultural traditions, Prof. Cantú continued her literary criticism in the area of Chicana Theater, prestning her research at two national conferences. She also served as Chair of the Modern Languages of America Chicano/a Literture Discussion Group. She continues to write and publish her creative work.
Mario T. García is working on a biography of Ruben Salazar, the most prominent Latino journalist of the 1960's. As a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, Salazar reported on the Mexican American community during the tumultuous 1960's and was also one of the first Latino foreign correspondents sent to cover the U.S. invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965. While covering the Chicano Moratorium -- a demonstration against the Vietnam War, Salazar was killed at the hands of the L.A. County Sheriffs who had disrupted the march. He became an instant martyr of the Chicano Movement. This book unravels the complicated life and shifts in identify of this renowned figure.
Carl Gutiérrez-Jones' research examines the rhetorical moves that typify the current debate on affirmative action (personal testimony, anecdote, newspaper articles, legal categories, scholarly books and essays.) He is also completing a book-length project titled "Injury by Design." In terms of "virtual publication," the "Affirmative Action and Diversity: A Web Site for Research," (on-line May, 1996) has been expanding, and has recorded 40,000 hits in the last 6 months (the site's address is: http://humanitas.ucsb.edu/aa.html).
Barbara Herr Harthorn's research in the past year has focused on three projects. Two are on issues of farmworker health, the first on contemporary and historical studies of the diagnosis and treatment of infectious disease among farmworkers, and the second, funded by the Center for Chicano Studies, a pilot study of maternal and newborn health among farmworkers. A third project is a study of environmental health complaints over pesticide drift in Lompoc. The farmworker health research is moving into the analysis and dissemination phase, and she hopes to publish a number of papers on the research in the coming year.
María Herrera-Sobek's research explores the popular culture production of Mexican immigration via film, literature, art, and folklore and songs. She is currently working on oral histories of Mexican immigrant women. She works with graduate students to analyze this data. Moreover, as the Principal Investigator and coordinator of the Chicana Art Project, she trains graduate and undergraduate students to do the background research for this project as well as the Chicano interdisciplinary dialogue summer institute. Professor Herrera-Sobek is currently completing a book manuscript on Chicana artist/muralist Santa Barraza.
Raymond Huerta continues to research, write and present on the topic of his book manuscript,"Los Derechos Humanos de Los Chicanos en Los EU, 1948-1998." He was invited by the Universidad Autónoma de Queretaro, Facultdad de Derecho during their "Semana Del Conocimiento" present two papers in Spanish. He continues as Interim Director of the Queretaro Program for undergraduate UCSB students. Also as part of UCSB's outreach program to the Mexican Community,Prof Huerta was instrumental in the Center's sponsorship of a talk, "Alianza Y Mestizaje," by the Governor of the Mexican state of Tlaxcala, Dr. Alfonso Sanchez Anaya.
Luis Leal, Professor Emeritus and Visiting Professor at UCSB in Chicano Studies received the National Humanities Medal from President Clinton in 1997. In 1998, he was made a member of the Academic Norteamericana de la Lengua Espanola, and in 1998-1999 he was the object of a number of Homenajes in Arizona, Mexcio City and Monterrey, NL. His current research uncovers the authorship of the first novel published in Spanish in the United States (Jicotencal, Philadelphia, 1926). He also has a book in press about the literature on Joaquin Murrieta and another in progress on Mexican novelist Mariano Azuela (author of Los de abajo/The Underdogs). In association with Professor Victor Fuentes of UCSB's Department of Spanish & Portuguese, he edits the literary periodical, Ventana Abierta: Revista Latina de Literatura, Arte y Cultura sponsored by the Center for Chicano Studies.
Francisco Lomelí's research on Mexican cultural forms with an emphasis on popular artistic forms utilized by recent immigrants (music, corridos, art, storytelling) has resulted in a number of publications. As the Chair of the Department of Chicano Studies, he has also sponsored several collaborative ventures (lectures, workshops, seminars, programming and coordination of student internships) with other units in the Unviersity, faculty, the Center for Chicano Studies and the SCR43 Research Program including a series of performances and readings by leading Chicana and Chicano artists and writers. His current research entails extensive interviews with Chicana/o writers as he explores the creative process and the writers' own processes.
Fernando López-Alves' continues his research on immigrants and minority-group workers into the ranks of organized labor in the U.S. He is developing a comparative framework to contextualize relations that draws on the micro-macro dynamics that characterize immigrants in California, South Africa, Argentina, Spain and Hungary. He continus to work on a project he initiated; a research exchange program with the University of Eotvos Lorand, Hungary and the University of Belgrano, Argentina as part of the immigration project under development: "Immigrants, Citizenship, and the Nation: Comparing the United States, Argentina, Hungary and South Africa." Prof. López-Alves' book, "The Origins of Democracy and State Formation in the Americas," is now in press at Duke University Press.
Denise A. Segura is writing a book manuscript on Chicana/Latina white collar workers based on results from her study of 152 working women and preparing a series of technical reports and scholarly articles based on findings from her study of the "Quality of Life" of Latino residents in Isla Vista. Major findings include severe insect and rodent infestation in apartments Latinos live in, diverse forms of educational participation by Latino parents, barriers to employment and political empowerment and strategies to enhance the well being of local Latino residents.
Stephen Trejo began a long-term study of the economic and social mobility of Hispanic workers during the academic year 1998-1999. This project is being done in collaboration with Frank Bean of the University of Texas, with funding from the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute. Professor Trejo also continued his research on intergenerational patterns of economic and educational progress for Mexican-origin workers in the U.S. labor market. This research received funding from the Public Policy Institute of California. Finally, in collaboration with colleagues in Australia and Canada, Professor Trejo is studying whether the immigration "point systems" used in these countries to screen for workers with special skills or high levels of education are successful in raising the average skills of Australian and Canadian immigrants relative to U.S. immigrants. This research began several years ago with a seed grant from the UC Pacific Rim Research Program.
