New Online -- The Vogue Archive

The library has recently acquired The Vogue Archive. This online resource contains the entire run of Vogue magazine (US edition) from 1892 to the present day, reproduced in high-resolution color page images.  More than 400,000 pages are included, constituting a treasure trove of the work from the greatest designers, photographers, stylists, and illustrators of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Vogue is a unique record of American and international popular culture that extends beyond fashion.

The Vogue Archive is an essential primary source useful for subjects like:

• Fashion history
• Gender studies
• Marketing and advertising
• Photography and graphic design
• Popular culture
• Textiles and dress

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE VOGUE ARCHIVE

Now Collecting Materials for The Student Life Collection!

Women’s History Month

          Women’s History Month, occurring annually throughout March, is dedicated to acknowledging and celebrating the contributions of women to historical events and present-day society. Women’s History Month originated from the very first International Women’s Day in 1911, which is now celebrated on March 8.

          Dr. Ángela Vergara from the History Department curated a collection of books to display for Women’s History Month. The books in this collection focus on women’s lives as immigrants and explore topics such as women’s agency, gender liberation, assimilation, and the navigation of foreign social, cultural, and political spaces. The Special Collections and Archives Department and Student Assistant Nancy Escalante helped to assemble this display with books courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library.

Come see the display in Library-South on the 2nd Floor. For more information about Women's History Month go here.

Insights From Cal State LA Intern: Staphany

Figure 1: "Ethnic Simplicity" 
Mural by Elliott Pinkney (1977)
Photograph by Willie Ford (u.d.)

Compton Communicative Arts Academy Collection 

John F. Kennedy Memorial Library, 

California State University, Los Angeles

I am a few weeks into my internship position at CSULA’s very own John F. Kennedy Memorial Library. Prior to my assignment as an intern in Special Collections and Archives, I decided to work on the Compton Communicative Arts Academy (C.C.A.A.) collection. This collection is very dear to me, since I myself am a native of the city of Compton, CA. Personally, I did not know this collection existed, until I saw an old image of the famous Compton mural by Elliott Pinkney named “Ethnic Simplicity” on the Special Collections and Archives website. Since then, I have gone through every negative, photograph, brochure, and pamphlet available in the archive.  

Figure 2:  “Ethnic Simplicity” 
Mural by Elliott Pinkney (1977)
Photograph by Staphany Bravo Garcia (2016)

Working with this collection entailed my placement in “archival processing” since my material although curated years ago needed upkeep. I have been trained by Library Archivist Azalea Camacho to arrange, describe, and catalog every single item in the collection. Many updates have been made. For example, the collection was originally dated from 1970-1976 however through close inspection we have widened the collection to date from 1968-1988! We have also alphabetized and/or arranged items in chronological order with titles for your convenience!

Figure 3: C.C.A.A. Negatives Photograph by Staphany Bravo Garcia (2017) Compton Communicative Arts Academy Collection  John F. Kennedy Memorial Library,  California State University, Los Angeles

Figure 3: C.C.A.A. Negatives
Photograph by Staphany Bravo Garcia (2017)

Compton Communicative Arts Academy Collection 

John F. Kennedy Memorial Library, 

California State University, Los Angeles

For those of you wondering, what exactly is in the archive. . .  the visual archive documents the black experience in Compton and its surrounding cities (Watts and South Central) through the literal lens of photographer Willie Ford. He was involved in C.C.A.A. and throughout his time there, was able to capture the dancers, sculptors, muralists, conferences, festivals, youth, community centers, writers workshops, etc. that took place in Compton. This is groundbreaking material, because it portrays the counter-narrative of Compton that is not reflected by the mainstream. Compton was and continues to be a place with autonomous agents of change creating narratives for and by them.

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, Chicana/o Literature, Auto-historia Teoría, Counter-Narrative, Testimonio, SWAPA, Art as Resistance, Black and Brown Relations, Community Autonomy, Epistemic Disobedience 

Insights from Cal State LA Intern: Gladys

My name is Gladys Garcia, I am a graduating senior in the Latin American and Asian American Studies BA programs. As a Spring 2017 intern, I have the immense fortune of working on a collection from the Latin American Studies center that contains documents and visual media produced by Central American solidarity networks in Los Angeles, CA during the 1980’s. Since the collection came from the Latin American Studies (LAS) center, it is very telling of what role the LAS program played during such a politically charged decade.

The collection itself spans from the late 1970’s through the early 1990’s, however the bulk of the material comes from the decade in between; the 1980’s. The conflicts in Central America over this span of time mainly took place in the countries of Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras; each with its own period of conflict and intensity. However, neighboring countries in this region were affected due to refugees coming into the countries, the countries served as launching pads and base camps for US military and US trained forces, and the ARIAS peace plan for all of Central America.

One document in particular that very much sparked my interest was a page from the January 1981 issue of ¡Guatemala!, a newspaper based in California printed in both Spanish and English. On the Spanish side of the issue , page 2, it details the disappearance of Guatemalan journalist Irma Flaquer and the death of U.S. citizen Kaiyutah Clouds.  After reading the article, I learned that the Reagan administration and Guatemalan government were complicit in their demises. It is an ugly history to learn. Yet, these types of murders and disappearances throughout the internal conflict of Guatemala, or any other country from the region that was experiencing military dictatorship and US intervention as a result of Cold War policies, had become quotidian.

Another periodical that I was surprised to find and learn from was an April 1991 publication from Costa Rica called Our Search. Our Search was a journal/newspaper dedicated to bringing to light the disappearances and murders of citizens and foreigners throughout Central America under political oppression. The disappearances in the issue are mostly from the year before, but it highlights cases from the anterior decade and whether or not advancements had been made in bringing about justice for each case.

As a Latin American Studies student, I find working on the collection extremely timely given the political context that the U.S. is in under the Trump administration, and what this means for Central American (C.A.) immigrants, undocumented refugees, and their children born here in Los Angeles. As I have worked with the collection, themes that I see still being dealt within the C.A. community are reconciliation with trauma, being a part of a diaspora, instability of government and economy due to U.S. intervention, and the continued tension between the Mexican and C.A. community. As I continue to work with the collection, my eventual hope is to further visibilize the Central American experience as a result of the diaspora and the aid that networks here in Los Angeles provided for these refugees.

Exhibit - Transcultural Dialogues: The Books of Mesoamerica and Colonial Mexico, Reception April, 22, 2017

For more information about Cal State LA's Art History Society go here.

Exhibit - Student Power: InnerCity Struggle's Legacy of Activism