Final Insights From Cal State LA Intern: Staphany

Since my last blog post titled “Insights from Cal State LA Intern: Staphany,” I have co-curated an exhibit by the title of “Lxs de abajo: Latinx Performative Text from Below in the Los Angeles Area,” attained a permanent position at CSULA’s Special Collections and Archives as an Archival Student Assistant, have interviewed a new batch of Archival Student Assistants for the of Fall 2017, and rekindled my interest in the arts specifically with photography and painting. To the list, I could have added the completion of a Finding Aid for the “Compton Communicative Arts Academy” (C.C.A.A.) archive . . . unfortunately (or fortunately for potential researchers and the preservation Compton’s historical memory) a folder was found with fifty negatives during the remodeling process of Special Collections and Archives this summer.  I am looking forward to reviewing the new material and preserving it for future generations to come.

Lxs de abajo: Latinx Performative Text from Below in the Los Angeles Area

Flyer by: Jaime Zeffery (2017)

Beyond the tangible accomplishments, I feel as though my experiences at Special Collections and Archives have offered me “grounding.” My experiences have served tactfully as a “link” (if you will) from theory to action. As someone whose academic trajectory has leaned towards “interdisciplinary studies,” I often longed for something to assure me that my studies correlated with my community in a sensible manner. Special Collections and Archives has served as a space that mediates between both of these worlds. Further, it does so in a matter that is not intrusive because the overall purpose is aimed at the preservation and amplification of narrative regardless of the format, stage, time, place or people.

Lxs de abajo: Latinx Performative Text from Below in the Los Angeles Area

Social Spaces 

Photograph by Staphany Bravo Garcia (2017)

My part of the exhibit “Lxs de abajo: Latinx Performative Text from Below in the Los Angeles Area,” that I participated in collaboration with Gladys Garcia encapsulates the link between academia and my community. If I can describe it in a few sentences it would be an exhibit that demonstrates counter-narratives on behalf of Compton’s Black and Latinx community in the midst of symbolic and material erasure produced by mainstream narratives. My half of the exhibit focuses on “The Communicative Arts Academy,” murals, social spaces, music and poetry.

"Black is Back" 
Photograph by Willie Ford (u.d.)

Compton Communicative Arts Academy Collection 

John F. Kennedy Memorial Library, 

California State University, Los Angeles

While my initial designs of the exhibit centered in the re-framing of a Latinx counter-narrative in Compton, I was constantly marveled by the grassroots efforts of Compton’s Black community (that continue to this day).  I noted how often both communities worked in tangent in the face of dismissive laws and policies sanctioned by the state. We have more in common than imagined, a one-sided counter-narrative would not do justice. The Communicative Arts Academy is an important factor in narrating solidarity efforts, for even C.C.A.A contributed to workshops in Bilingual expression and the murals still prevalent in Compton and more importantly my own identity formation as a Latinx. 

It is on this note that I conclude my last post as “intern” at Special Collections and Archives . . . with work ahead and shifts in my own configurations on the meaning of “counter-narrative,” “origins,” “identity formation” and so forth . . . but very much “grounded.”

Photograph by Nancy Escalante (2017)

Staphany Bravo García

B.A. Chicana/o Studies, and Latin American Studies, 2015
University of California, Santa Barbara

M.A. Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies, 2018
California State University, Los Angeles

A first year Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies M.A. student, Staphany Bravo García is interested in the production of counter-narratives specifically as they apply to people of color. She is currently analyzing the creative ways Compton’s “un-recorded” Latinx residents resist symbolic and material erasure within mainstream narratives through what she identifies as “communal text.”

Research Interests: Decolonial Theory, Xicanx Theory, Chicanx Literature, Counter-Narrative, Testimonio, Art as Resistance, Black and Brown Relations, Community Autonomy, Epistemic Disobedience