Curated by Rachel Garza Carreón and Christopher Ortega, Building Our Own Community: 50 Years of the Latino Native American Cultural Center, Founded by Chicano and American Indian Students in 1971 is an exhibition celebrating the many ways in which the Latino Native American Cultural Center (LNACC) is important. In one section of this Main Library Gallery exhibit, Rachel and Chris highlight El Teatro Zapatista and Los Bailadores Zapatista. 

From the 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.

 

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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.

A brand new exhibition opened on February 8 in the Main Library Gallery. Building Our Own Community: 50 Years of the Latino Native American Cultural Center, Founded by Chicano and American Indian Students in 1971 was curated with care by Rachel Garza Carreón and Christopher Ortega. Their work honors the past, present, and future of the UI’s Latino Native American Cultural Center (LNACC) and the students who made it possible.

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.” 

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.”     

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.” 

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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.

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).

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.

More information about this exhibition and the Main Library Gallery: http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/gallery/

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

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.

Timothy Shipe, curator of the International Dada Archive and co-curator of the Sackner Archive exhibition in the Main Library Gallery, has some stories to share about poet artist Kurt Schwitters and his Merz publications in this new video.

Merz no. 2 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 and will be on display through December 11, 2020.

To learn a bit more about Kurt Schwitters and about Merz as an art style, check out these websites:
The Art Story – Kurt Schwitters and his work
Tate Modern, London – Merz and Dada as art terms
Smithsonian Magazine – A Brief History of Dada

Learn more about the International Dada Archive here:
dada.lib.uiowa.edu

More information about this exhibition, the Main Library Gallery, and how to schedule a visit: lib.uiowa.edu/gallery