Source: Palos Verdes Magazine With over 1,600 alumni residing in Palos Verdes today, California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) continues to leave a lasting impact on the community—one that began right here on the Peninsula. Few people realize that this thriving institution of higher learning was originally envisioned as California State College, Palos Verdes, with its roots firmly planted in the rolling hills of the Peninsula. That same year, the institution formally adopted the name California State College at Palos Verdes. With just 40 students, 11 faculty members, and a handful of administrators, it was a modest beginning. However, the course of the college’s future ... Read More
History
L.A. Times: In 2024, Books by and about Southern California Latinas Shined
Source: L.A. Times My home office looks like a Jenga game of nonfiction books I read about Southern California Latino life this past year — and almost none were duds. They ranged from a history of gangs in East L.A. to a gorgeous coffee table tome about the cult classic “Blood In Blood Out” to a delightful children’s tale on the late Los Angeles Dodgers legend Fernando Valenzuela. As I devoured them all, one theme kept popping up: Latinas. As authors. As subjects. As both. Latinos don’t have enough of a presence in the Southern California literary canon, and that exclusion is even more pronounced for Latinas. That’s why I was excited to see so many voices, new ... Read More
Los Angeles Free Press Collection Now Available at CSUDH’s Gerth Archives
The Art Kunkin Los Angeles Free Press Collection is now available for research at the Gerth Archives and Special Collections at CSUDH, after three years of work and valuable assistance from the National Historical Publications and Record Commission and the Haynes Foundation. The collection spans 1928 to 2020 and contains 551 boxes of business records and personal papers of Kunkin and the Free Press. Archives staff have generated a 380-page finding aid/collection guide. Although Kunkin (1928-2019) has largely faded from the history of journalism in California, he is an important figure in the rise of the U.S. underground press. Kunkin was a promoter, socialist, ... Read More
Community History-Making at Forefront of Archives Event
History isn’t bound by the walls of a university, library, or museum. It can be created, examined, and rewritten by the individuals and communities who have too often been misrepresented or excluded from institutional narratives. That was the central message of the “Our Memory, Our Stories: Reimagining Histories of a Multicultural Los Angeles” event on Sept. 17, a collaboration between the CSUDH Gerth Archives & Special Collections, Black Resource Center, and Latinx Resource Center. Students heard from a panel of Black and Latinx scholars and curators about how they can contribute to that crucial work of sharing unknown histories. The panel included Rose Mitchell, former librarian ... Read More
Unveiling Untold Stories: Professor’s New Book Explores Chicana Liberation and Mexican American Women’s Activism in L.A.
Growing up in East Los Angeles in the 1970s, Marisela Chávez had a front-row seat to the grassroots activism of the Chicano movement. Her parents, who had immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico as children, brought Chávez with them to meetings, marches, and political organizing events. “The organization was like an extended family,” says Chávez, now a professor of Chicana and Chicano studies at CSUDH. “I was little at the time, but seeds were planted in me. I saw very strong women who were speaking publicly and being active leaders.” Chicana Liberation: Women and Mexican American Politics in Los Angeles, 1945-1981 (University of Illinois Press, April 2024), is Chávez’ new book, and the ... Read More
