Last month, we celebrated the opening of our exhibition Hope and Dignity: The Farmworker Movement, and we want to share it and invite you to visit it (it will be open until January). In addition, we are preparing three performances of Las Dos Caras del Patroncito, one of the early actos (skits) of Teatro Campesino that, according to Luis Valdez, has been staged in Latin America, Europe, and Africa, always connecting with workers. Keith Rice publishes the second and final installment of his summer adventure in the French Riviera, where he attended an international photo exhibition at the Arles Les Rencontres De La Photographie and a panel featuring Ericka Huggins and photojournalist Stephen Shames for the opening of his exhibition Camrade Sisters: Women of the Black Panther Party. Also, we are happy to recommend Dr. Giovanni Batz’s book published in English by the University of California Press, The Fourth Invasion: Decolonizing Histories, Extractivism, and Maya Resistance in Guatemala. You can listen to our interview with him when the book was published originally in Spanish here.
Opening of “Hope and Dignity”
By José Luis Benavides
The exhibition Hope and Dignity: The Farmworker Movement opened at the Museum of Social Justice last August 17 and will remain there until January 26, 2025. The Museum is open Thursday to Sunday from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm. We invite everyone to come and visit. If you are an educator, organize a group visit with your students during the Hispanic Heritage and Filipino History months. The Museum has created educational materials for your students. Also, via the Bradley Center’s Farmworker Movement website, you can request the digital panels of the do-it-yourself exhibition, so you can print and display them in your school (we have versions in English, Spanish, and Italian). Below you can watch a video of the opening created by Mario Hernández for El Pueblo de Los Angeles.
Teatro performances at the Museum and CSUN
We are working with professors Doug Kaback, Shally Juárez, Joe Bautista, and Marta Valier in the production and taping of one of Teatro Campesino’s early actos (skits) titled Las Dos Caras del Patroncito (The Two Faces of Little Boss). The acto was created as a response to the growers trying to destroy the spirit of the grape strikers in the fall and winter of 1965–1966 by showing the two faces of the boss. “Too poor to afford La Causa,” wrote Luis Valdez, “many of the huelguistas left Delano to work in other areas; most of them stayed behind to picket through the winter; and a few returned to the field to scab, pruning vines. The growers started trucking in more esquiroles from Texas and Mexico.”
The acto will be performed by actor Rubén Garfias and CSUN acting students, and directed by Professor Kaback on October 5th at the Museum of Social Justice’s Tardeada and two presentations on November 13 at CSUN’s Little Theatre with a lecture by Dr. Jorge Huerta—the foremost expert on Teatro Campesino. In the meantime, you can watch Luis Valdez talking about the impact of this acto with Marta Valier and José Luis Benavides.
Photography in the French Riviera (Part 2)
By Keith Rice
The Arles Les Rencontres De La Photographie International Photography Festival takes place annually in Arles, France a two-hour drive from Mougin. I took Marie up on her offer to show me the beautiful city of Marseille on the way to Arles. It was a chance for me to capture the energy of that city through my newfound passion for taking photographs with my trusty secondhand Canon EOS 5D MKIII. Marseille did not disappoint. Unlike what I found to be the reserved, quiet, and emotionless beachfront of Cannes, Marseille’s beaches are alive with the laughter and boisterous activity of common folk of all ages, backdropped by breathtaking views of the Mediterranean coastline. Thanks to France’s 10:30 pm summer sunsets I was able to spend hours taking photographs before heading to Arles. One afternoon was not enough to capture all that Marseille had to offer visually so a few days later Marie and I returned to Marseille to continue to discover and capture more of its visual beauty.
The South of France is extremely hot and humid in the summer and Arles was all of that including vexatious mosquitos. Despite the mosquitos, the village was abuzz with attendees for Les Rencontres De La Photographie. Arles is a beautiful city on the Rhône River in the Provence region of southern France. It is a former provincial capital of ancient Rome, known for its many remains from that era, including the Arles Amphitheatre. Arles is also famous for its history as the home of artists Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso. I had planned to only stay two days but stayed for six because there was so much to see and do. I visited several exhibitions with various subject matter and themes and attended workshops and film screenings. I found myself most attracted to the exhibitions that featured the work of photojournalists who documented underserved communities, which is the scope of the collections in the Bradley Center.
I was captivated by the work of Mary Ellen Mark, who I am ashamed to say I was unaware of until going to Arles. It was apparent in the exhibition of her work that Mark was especially drawn to photograph those individuals overlooked or otherwise marginalized by society. Some of Mark’s projects included institutionalized women in the Oregon State Hospital, street children in Seattle, as well as sex workers in Mumbai, the needy and dying in Mother Teresa’s charities and traveling circus families in India. Mark was so committed to her subjects and using the camera as her visual recorder that she documented some subjects over decades. In addition to photographs taken by Mark, the exhibition included rare archival materials such as the photographer’s contact sheets, personal notes, and official correspondence, which provided insight into the origins of her long-term series. I am now on a mission to study the work of this extraordinary photographer in hopes of figuring out how to capture the soul of my photographic subjects, whether they are human, animal, landscape, or architecture.
I attended a panel featuring Ericka and Stephen that was standing-room only at Arles. Almost sixty years after the founding of the Black Panther Party the thought of a group of young African American men and women in uniforms comprised of everyday clothes accessible by youth of that time still captures the imagination of people around the world. Ericka Huggins possesses the aura of a saint when she discusses how the State intentionally set out to violate the lives of American citizens who happen to be members of the Black Power movement. Young people, who like the founding fathers of this nation set out to end the abuses committed against their communities by the State.
I would like to thank Marie Baronnet for suggesting that I go to Mougins and Arles and giving me that occasional nudge that I needed to make sure I attended both the opening of Comrade Sisters: Women of the Black Panther Party and Arles Les Rencontres De La Photographie international photography festival. Although this was not a traditional vacation of relaxing on a beach and/or visiting tourist sites it was just enough vacation with a touch of work thrown in the mix. I can’t think of anything better than engaging in what you love to do both professionally and personally in one of the most beautiful locales on the planet. I look forward to going back to Arles, France next year and attending the Arles Les Rencontres De La Photographie International Photography Festival.
The Fourth Invasion by Giovanni Batz
We were lucky to learn about Dr. Giovanni Batz’s work a few years ago through Carlos and Sandra Spector. Dr. Batz was helping them in cases of Mayan refugees who were seeking asylum in El Paso. We had the opportunity to interview him for our podcast about his new book: La cuarta invasión, which now appears in an English edition, with a Foreword by B’o’q’ol Q’esal Tenam K’usal (La Alcaldía Indígena de Cotzal). As described by UC Press, “The Fourth Invasion examines an Ixil Maya community’s movement against the construction of one of the largest hydroelectric plants in Guatemala. The arrival of the Palo Viejo hydroelectric plant (built by the Italian corporation Enel Green Power) to the municipality of Cotzal highlighted the ongoing violence inflicted on Ixils by outsiders and the Guatemalan state. Locals referred to the building of the hydroelectric plant as the ‘new invasion’ or ‘fourth invasion’ for its similarity to preceding invasions: Spanish colonization, the creation of the plantation economy, and the state-led genocide during the Guatemalan armed conflict.”
You can also browse Richard Cross's photos of Chajul, Guatemala, in 1982 and the Mayan refugees in Chiapas, Mexico, in 1983, escaping genocide. Visit the Center's digital collections and our curriculum website.