For those distant to campus, or who would like to experience the latest Main Library Gallery exhibition from home, a virtual tour of Building Our Own Community:50 Years of the Latino Native American Cultural Center, Founded by Chicano and American Indian Students in 1971 is now available online.
Image featuring the #DoesUIowaLoveMe section of the Building Our Own Community exhibit virtual tour, Main Library Gallery.
The tour features 360° photos of the Main Library Gallery, which allow the viewer to move from area to area. The text panels and the cases containing the items on display are clickable, meaning close-up views of the items are available along with narrative from curators Rachel Garza Carreón and Christopher Ortega.
The exhibition features a large number of carefully selected news articles from The Daily Iowan, all of which are linked to The Daily Iowan Archive and can be read in full with no access restriction.
Many materials are from the Latino Native American Cultural Center Records in the University Archives, digital versions of which can be read or viewed throughout the virtual exhibit or via the Iowa Digital Library. The exhibit also spotlights recent photographs from activism and activities supported by the Latino Native American Cultural Center. A special digital pamphlet containing personal notes from the curators is located near the gallery’s virtual front doors, and is also on the Main Library Gallery website.
An immersive reader option is readily available in each section of the virtual exhibit to read the detailed image descriptions for each piece on display out loud.
Chicano Conference ’74: Nuestra Realidad program. Latino Native American Cultural Center Digital Collection, Iowa Digital Library.
In April 1974, the Chicano Indian-American Student Union (later the LNACC) at the University of Iowa hosted a two-day series of lectures, workshops, and performances in Iowa City. Chicano Conference ’74 was held in the Iowa Memorial Union. The purpose of the conference was “to create an awareness of, and to eradicate, the educational policies and social attitudes in both public and private sectors which have denied Chicanos their full rights as citizens, their enjoyment of liberty as a people, and their freedom as human beings.” As part of this gathering, an exhibition of art by Manuel Unzueta was presented. Mr. Unzueta, an internationally acclaimed Chicano artist, traveled to Iowa City for the conference from his home in Santa Barbara, California, where his many murals even now continue to inspire conversation and have become an important part of the area’s history.
During his stay in Iowa City, Mr. Unzueta visited the LNACC’s new location at 308 Melrose Avenue. He decided to paint a wall mural as a gift to the LNACC.
Original mural by Manuel Unzueta, painted in 1974. Photograph from 1999, Latino Native American Cultural Center Digital Collection, Iowa Digital Library.
According to a Daily Iowan article from 2001, the mural was a “spontaneous product of a lively gathering at the center” in which students had an opportunity to meet with the artist. For years afterward, the mural was an energizing presence. It was the backdrop for crucial conversations, early activism on campus, social events, and community celebrations.
Over time, the mural began to show signs of deterioration. A local Chicano artist was hired in 2001 in an effort to restore it. The resulting changes, however, were polarizing. In the exhibition, Rachel Garza Carreón and Christopher Ortega explain that “these alterations were controversial because some community members felt that they changed the overall tone of the original mural.” During the restoration, “they altered the original in ways that had not been discussed beforehand, including changes in color and the removal of the original artist’s name and dedication (‘To all my carnales of Iowa. M. Unzueta, 1974’).” While many lamented the loss of the original mural, others in the community expressed gratitude to the artist working to improve its condition and help maintain the LNACC.
While the mural looks quite different today than it did in 1974, it continues to contribute to the atmosphere of community at the Center. Its story is an important part of LNACC history.
In the Main Library Gallery exhibition, the curators have placed a replica of the original mural in the center of the gallery. If visitors look closely, they will see that it consists of hundreds of photos from the LNACC over the years.
Updated mural, completed in 2001. Latino Native American Cultural Center Digital Collection, Iowa Digital Library.
Students planning the #DoesUIowaLoveMe campaign at the LNACC. Courtesy of the Latino Native American Cultural Center.
Letters to the Editor. (2001). ‘In defense of the original Chicano House mural’ and ‘Support mural work’, The Daily Iowan, 19 July. Available at: https://dailyiowan.lib.uiowa.edu/DI/2001/di2001-07-19.pdf (Accessed: 16 March, 2021, The Daily Iowan Archive).
From the Building Our Own Community: 50 Years of the Latino Native American Cultural Center, Founded by Chicano and American Indian Students in 1971 exhibition.
“El Teatro Zapatista at the University of Iowa was based on El Teatro Campesino, a Chicano guerilla theater troupe created to support Cesar Chavez’ United Farm Workers. In El Teatro Zapatista, actors presented socially-pointed skits, or actos, to radicalize, educate, mobilize, and motivate the target audience to become more involved in issues within their own communities or to question long-held beliefs. The skits also inspired pride in Chicano history and identity.
Along with El Teatro Zapatista, there was also an affiliated student group of baile folklorico dancers called Los Bailadores that also sought to expose audiences to Chicano art, music, and ideals.
These two groups would often work together to help inspire Latino and Native American students in Iowa and its neighboring states to pursue higher education.
The performativity of Los Bailadores and El Teatro Zapatista presented a transformative, living, engaged, multi-purpose, and multi-layered activism within the Chicano Indian American Student Union, and it represented a resistance to negative images of what it meant to be Chicano. Those involved in them were not just presenting a message to their audiences. They were also empowering themselves through creative thought processes that honored their cultural and ethnic identities as well as their political and activist identities.
– Adapted from ‘To Preserve our Heritage and our Identity,’ Sandra Solis”
The University Archives holds the Latino Native American Cultural Center Records, which are comprised of several boxes of original scrapbooks, carefully assembled photo albums, newspaper clippings from The Daily Iowan and other local papers, meeting minutes, mementos from events such as powwows and protests, and more. The collection holds a treasure trove of compelling photographs that help tell the story of the LNACC, and the story of Latinx and Native American student struggles and successes at the University of Iowa.
The curators selected several photos for this portion of the exhibition that they felt represented the spirit of El Teatro Zapatista and Los Bailadores in the 1970s and 1980s, some of which are featured here in this blog post. A large canvas painting by Marco Raya, an artist from Chicago whose works were often exhibited at the LNACC, is also on display in the Main Library Gallery. The painting depicts the Chicano struggle for justice in the United States, and was often used in recruitment efforts as a backdrop to student speeches and performances.
To see more photos, and to view the original canvas painting by Marco Raya, visit the exhibition in the Main Library Gallery through June 25, 2021. Find visiting hours and information below.
Recruitment trip, 1970s. Latino Native American Cultural Center Records, University Archives.Recruitment trip guitar performance, 1970s. Latino Native American Cultural Center Records, University Archives.High school performance, 1970s. Latino Native American Cultural Center Records, University Archives. Note the painting by Marco Raya in the background.
Rachel Garza Carreón is the Outreach & Research Librarian at the University of Iowa Libraries. She serves as the subject liaison for Classics, Philosophy, and Religious Studies, and is the UI Libraries liaison to the Latino Native American Cultural Center. Christopher Ortega is an Undergraduate Engagement Librarian at the University of Iowa Libraries. His mission is to support undergraduate success and make students feel welcome and empowered on campus and in the Libraries.
In this Q&A with the curators, they share more about their desire to celebrate the LNACC by creating an exhibit for the University of Iowa Libraries’ Main Library Gallery.
What inspired you to organize an exhibition about the LNACC?
Rachel: “I think many of us have heard the expression about a campus building being ‘the heart of the campus’. I had never felt that way about a building until the LNACC. For many it brings a sense of home to our lives. I want people to understand that the LNACC is not just a physical building. It stands for something because of its history. To me, it is home.”
Christopher Ortega.
Chris: “When I first came to work at the University of Iowa Libraries a year ago, I heard of the LNACC and became interested in learning more about it. I also wanted to learn more about the history of Latinxs here at the University of Iowa. When Rachel approached me with the opportunity to work on this exhibit and learn about both subjects, I was happy to say yes.”
Why is this exhibition so important, and what is the primary message you’d like visitors to come away with?
Rachel: “The LNACC exhibit tells the story of three individuals, Rusty Barceló, Ruth Pushetonequa, and Antonio Zavala, who put it on their shoulders to create a home on campus not only for them, but any other Latinx and Native American who happened to come to the UI. They could have easily put their heads down, because that’s a lot. Instead they said, ‘No, this isn’t right. We should do something about it.’ The courageous actions of these three people still affect the lives of students, staff, and faculty 50 years later. To me, this is a story that needs to be told and one that the University community should know about.”
Chris: “The history of the LNACC and the impact that Latinxs and Native Americans have had on this institution and this community are powerful stories that need to be told and need to be heard.I hope visitors come away from the exhibit better understanding the experiences of Latinx and Native American students past and present here at the University. I hope that increased understanding can also lead visitors to appreciate the necessity of spaces like the LNACC.”
What is a personal favorite item on display in the exhibition?
Rachel: “The wall depicting the original mural composed of images of students, staff, and faculty starting from the 70’s until now holds a place in my heart. I’ve envisioned the wall from the beginning stages of exhibit planning. The image is a powerful representation that the community served by the LNACC and the LNACC are one.”
Chris: “My two favorite items in the exhibit are the original mural, reconstructed with photos from various eras of the LNACC, and the poem ‘Carta de Iowa’ in the Newsletters section. The mural is great because it allows visitors to see an aspect of the LNACC that hasn’t been visible to this extent for over a decade now. I like the poem so much because it’s so heart-wrenchingly honest. It was left purposefully untranslated, and I hope it inspires visitors to ask fellow visitors about what it means and what it makes them feel.”
Two students making dinner, 1990s. Latino Native American Cultural Center.
What has being involved at the LNACC meant to you?
Rachel: “I’ve seen students, staff and faculty come and go through the center for many years. I’ve seen Latinx and Native American students be upset, worried and angry as they prepare to protest the many injustices we face. I’ve also seen these same communities laugh, dance and celebrate our successes. Through it all I have always felt comfortable and safe at the LNACC. For me, having the LNACC reminds me that I wasn’t born here, I didn’t go to school here, but when I am in the LNACC I know that I belong here, too.”
Chris: “I truly appreciate the fact that there is a place on campus con personas que entienden some of the things you might feel here.”
Is there any key advice you’d give to new Latinx and Native American students on campus?
Rachel: “Visit the LNACC. Meet the students in the various groups. Don’t be afraid to go to social events and meet new people. The LNACC is a safe zone. Hopefully it will bring you a sense of home and familiarity as it has for so many students, faculty, and staff in the past.”
Chris: “Look for groups on campus that sound interesting or relevant to you and reach out to them. There are other people here that are going through things similar to those you’re going through, and most likely they’re in or around those groups as well.”
From Building Our Own Community: 50 Years of the Latino Native American Cultural Center, Founded by Chicano and American Indian Students in 1971 in the Main Library Gallery, University of Iowa Libraries.
In 1971, three University of Iowa students, Nancy “Rusty” Barceló, Ruth Pushetonequa, and Antonio Zavala, established what is now the Latino Native American Cultural Center (LNACC) on campus. In 2021, the LNACC is celebrating 50 years of creating community and a home-away-from-home for Latinx and Native American students at the University of Iowa. An exhibition in the Main Library Gallery at the University of Iowa Libraries is now open to share and honor the history of this important cultural house.
“I think many of us have heard the expression about a campus building being ‘the heart of the campus.’ I had never felt that way about a building until the LNACC,” says Rachel Garza Carreón, exhibit co-curator and outreach and research librarian at the University of Iowa Libraries. “For many, it brings a sense of home to our lives.”
“The history of the LNACC and the impact that Latinxs and Native Americans have had on this institution and this community are powerful stories that need to be told and need to be heard,” says Christopher Ortega, exhibit co-curator and undergraduate engagement librarian.
This exhibition, Building Our Own Community: 50 Years of the Latino Native American Cultural Center, Founded by Chicano and American Indian Students in 1971, shares the history of the center in depth. It explores its establishment in the 1970s, campus activism, and the many ways in which the LNACC has supported students over the years. Co-founder Antonio Zavala once said that the LNACC “has provided shelter, friends, music, theater, dance, poetry, books, and many, many discussions that were useful to balance the one-sided education most Chicanos and Native Americans received elsewhere.”
The LNACC continues to be an active advocate, supporter, and resource for Latinx and Native American students at the University of Iowa.
Building Our Own Community: 50 Years of the Latino Native American Cultural Center, Founded by Chicano and American Indian Students in 1971 will be on display in the University of Iowa Libraries Main Library Gallery from February 8 through June 25, 2021. Admission is free.
Visits to the Main Library Gallery by the general public are by appointment only at this time due to COVID-19. Appointments are available Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and guests must book at least three days in advance. Campus visitors with Iowa One Card access to the Main Library may visit without an appointment Wednesday through Friday between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. during walk-in hours.
Guests can visit https://www.lib.uiowa.edu/gallery/ for additional information about the exhibition and about planning a visit. All are welcome, including classes, individuals, and small groups. Masks are required in all campus buildings.
Visit the Exhibition
Spring 2021 Main Library Gallery Hours: UI Campus Community (Students, Staff, Faculty)
Monday: By appointment only Tuesday: By appointment only Wednesday: 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (walk-in) Thursday: 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (walk-in) Friday: 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (walk-in) Saturday: Closed Sunday: Closed
For campus community appointments on Mondays and Tuesdays, or if you are a member of the general public who would like to visit the exhibit, please contact the Main Library Gallery.
Image from the Sackner Archive exhibition virtual tour, Main Library Gallery.
For those who did not get a chance to visit the Sackner Archive exhibition in the Main Library Gallery during the Fall 2020 semester, you’re in luck! The virtual tour of the exhibit is now ready to view.
The tour features 360° photos of the Main Library Gallery, which allow the viewer to move from area to area. The text panels and the cases containing the objects on display are clickable, meaning close-up views of the items are available along with narrative from the curators. Blog articles and videos relating to the works in the exhibit are also included, such as curator commentary and short recordings of a few of the pieces in motion. A clickable exhibition guide is located near the gallery’s virtual front doors, and also on the Main Library Gallery website.
An immersive reader option is readily available in each section of the virtual exhibit to read the detailed image descriptions for each piece on display. Videos with sound include closed captions.
In this short video, Margaret Gamm, Head of Special Collections and co-curator of the Sackner Archive exhibition in the Main Library Gallery, gives insight about the correspondence between Marvin and Ruth Sackner and the artists whose work they admired, commissioned, and joyfully collected. The personal correspondence archive within the Sackner Archive is something of a roadmap to how their “home sweet museum” came to be.
Items featured in this video appeared in the Fall 2020 Main Library Gallery exhibition. Objects on display in Sackner Archive were from the Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, Special Collections, The University of Iowa Libraries.
The Sackner Archive exhibition was curated by Timothy Shipe, Peter Balestrieri, and Margaret Gamm.
Additional information about this past exhibition and the Main Library Gallery, including additional videos, curator highlights, guide, and much more can be found here: http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/gallery/
In this short video, Peter Balestrieri, curator of popular culture and science fiction in Special Collections and co-curator of the Sackner Archive exhibition in the Main Library Gallery, shares his take on work by German poet artist Hanne Darboven (1941 – 2009).
Portrait of Hanne Darboven, 1968. Copyright: Angelika Platen. Source: StudioInternational.
The featured work from 1973, Kunst und Pangeometrie, appears in the Fall 2020 Main Library Gallery exhibition.
Objects on display in Sackner Archive are from The Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, Special Collections, The University of Iowa Libraries.
The Sackner Archive exhibition was curated by Timothy Shipe, Peter Balestrieri, and Margaret Gamm.
By Timothy Shipe
Curator, International Dada Archive
Co-Curator, Sackner Archive exhibition
Mary Ellen Solt is the only poet in the Sackner Archive exhibition who is also part of the UI Libraries’ Iowa Authors Collection. Born in 1920 in Gilmore City, Iowa, Mary Ellen Bottom graduated from Iowa State Teachers College (now UNI) in 1941. She married Leo F. Solt in 1945 and received her M.A. in English Literature from the University of Iowa in 1948. In 1955 the couple took up teaching positions at Indiana University: Leo in History, Mary Ellen in Comparative Literature.
Mary Ellen Solt. A Trilogy of Rain. Urbana: Finial Press, 1970. Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries.
In the 1960s Mary Ellen Solt began writing concrete poetry, and came into contact with most of the early figures in the worldwide movement. She is best known for her series of flower poems, which have frequently been included in anthologies, and for Concrete Poetry: A World View, which she edited with Willa Barnstone, and which (with Emmett Williams’s Anthology of Concrete Poetry) is considered one of the two defining anthologies of the movement.
Mary Ellen Solt. Concrete Poetry: A World View. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1969. Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries.
During the era of the Vietnam War, Solt created a series of anti-war graphics that drew on the principles of concrete poetry. She was also known for her scholarly study of William Carlos Williams.
Mary Ellen Solt. Vietnam. Circa 1970s. Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries.Mary Ellen Solt. Change. Circa 1970s. Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries.
After spending a year teaching at the University of Warsaw, she became director of Indiana’s Polish Studies Center. Solt died in 2007.
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Sackner Archive will be on display in the Main Library Gallery through mid-December 2020. The Main Library Gallery is available to visit by appointment. To learn more about the exhibition and see online resources, including videos and a small virtual exhibit, please visit the Main Library Gallery page for Sackner Archive.
By Timothy Shipe
Curator, International Dada Archive
Co-Curator, Sackner Archive exhibition
In former Czechoslovakia, concrete poets were at the heart of dissident movements seeking to reform or overthrow the Communist regime. Two of these poets are included in the Czech section of our exhibition.
Foreground: Jiří Kolář. Evidentní Básně. Prague, 1966. Background: Václav Havel. Vernisáž. Prague, 1975. Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries.
Jiří Kolář was a poet and visual artist best known for his work with collage techniques. (Coincidentally, his surname is pronounced “collage.”) After joining the Communists at the end of World War II, he soon left the Party, and his work was frequently banned. While he became more publicly active during the Prague Spring, his work was again prohibited following the 1968 Soviet invasion. After signing Charter 77, a manifesto calling upon the Communist government to guarantee basic human rights, Kolář was forced into exile. Kolář’s collages frequently incorporate written or printed text. Like many of the artists featured in our exhibition, it may be difficult to draw a line between his literary and his artistic work.
Left: Václav Havel. Vernisáž. Prague, 1975. Right: Jiří Kolář. Evidentní Básně. Prague, 1966. Upper right: Jiří Kolář. Improvisation Offset. Paris: Revue K, 1991. Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries.
As with Kolář, I first encountered Václav Havel’s name in Emmett Williams’s Anthology of Concrete Poetry. A generation younger than Kolář, Havel became a leading dissident playwright whose works were also banned. He was a signer of Charter 77 and was frequently imprisoned. As founder of the Civic Forum Party that spearheaded the 1989 Velvet Revolution, Havel became the first (and only) president of post-Communist Czechoslovakia, and later, of the independent Czech Republic. Now if you fly to Prague, you will arrive at Václav Havel Airport! Our exhibition includes examples of Havel’s concrete poetry as well as a rare samizdat (illegally self-published) edition of one of his banned plays.
Václav Havel. Antikódy. Prague: Odeon, 1993. Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries.
