Media note: To schedule an interview with Gloria Arellanes or to request images and photos from the archive, please contact the CSULA Public Affairs in advance at (323) 343-3050.
Library Archive pays homage to the history of East Los Angeles, Chicano Studies
Gloria Arellanes to keynote East Los Angeles Archive
reception at Cal State L.A. Nov. 18
Los Angeles, CA -- On Thursday, November 18, the University Library at Cal State L.A. will host a reception to celebrate the establishment of its East Los Angeles Archive and to honor Gloria Arellanes, the first donor to this collection.
The 6 p.m. reception, which is open to the public, will take place in the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library, Conference Room B530, on the CSULA campus.
Picture from an El Barrio Free Clinic protest in September 1969.
An East Los Angeles activist, Arellanes has been a member of various community organizations since the early 1960s, including serving as the minister of finance and correspondence of the East Los Angeles chapter of the Chicano Brown Berets. She also served as administrator of El Barrio Free Clinic, a member of the National Chicano Moratorium Committee, and she organized the women’s group, Las Adelitas de Aztlan, among other activities. Arellanes will be the event’s keynote speaker.
University Librarian Alice Kawakami said, “The goal of the East Los Angeles Archive is to advance scholarship in Chicano/Latino studies and Los Angeles history through its varied collection of primary research materials.”
This unique archival collection will document the lives and events of a historical community central to the social, political, and cultural history of the Chicano/Latino community in the United States. It will collect, preserve, display, and disseminate documents, artifacts and other materials related to the social and political life of the East Los Angeles region.
According to Kawakami, “This collection will focus on materials documenting the Chicano/a Civil Rights Movement in the East Los Angeles region during the 1960s and 1970s. Cal State L.A.’s proximity to and involvement with this community during this era makes it an ideal location to house this collection.”
The University Library is seeking additional collections for this archive. For more information about the archive or for those wanting to donate collections or funding to benefit the East Los Angeles Archive, please contact Romelia Salinas, librarian (323/343-2019, [email protected]) or Renee James, special collections (323/343-4435, [email protected]).
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