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Guerrero (Dan) Collection on Latino Entertainment and the Arts
CEMA 78  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Conditions Governing Access
  • Immediate Source of Acquisition
  • Biographical / Historical
  • Preferred Citation
  • Related Materials
  • Scope and Contents
  • Series Description
  • Conditions Governing Use
  • Separated Materials

  • Title: Dan Guerrero Collection on Latino Entertainment and the Arts
    Identifier/Call Number: CEMA 78
    Identifier/Call Number: 198
    Language of Material: English .
    Contributing Institution: UC Santa Barbara Library, Department of Special Research Collections
    Physical Description: 38.09 Linear Feet (12 document boxes, 20 oversize boxes, 8 photo albums, 1 small card file box, and tapes)
    Date (inclusive): 1956-2017
    Abstract: The collection documents Latino cultural and entertainment history of recent years, focusing on Dan Guerrero's professional life in the world of entertainment as well as his personal family life. It includes video and audio tapes of selected programming, scripts, publicity items, programs, and posters relating to the Latino community. There are photographs relative to Mexican American art and culture, transcripts of interviews with various members of the Latino entertainment industry. A significant amount of correspondence, audio tapes, video tapes, color slides and other items concern his close friend, the late Carlos Almaraz, a veteran Chicano artist. Other notable celebrities represented are Vikki Carr, Lorenzo Lamas, Cheech Marin, Ricardo Montalban, Kenny Ortega, Paul Rodriguez, Cesar Romero, Lalo Schifrin, Edward James Olmos and Jimmy Smits. The collection is of great value to the study and understanding of Latino entertainment and the arts in the last decades of the 20th Century.
    Physical Location: Boxes 25-31: Stacks 1, Aisle 55 / Column 1/ Rows 5-6 Boxes 35-36, 38-39: Stacks 1, Aisle 56 / Column 3/ Row 1 Boxes 37: S1-A70-C3-R2 Boxes 1-8, 24: Stacks 1, Aisle 36 / Column 1/ Rows 4-5 Boxes 10-22: Stacks 1, Aisle 68 / Column 5/ Rows 1-2 (Boxes 13-22 are albums) Boxes 23, 32: Stacks 1, Aisle 69 / Column 1/ Row 8 (Box 23 is an album) Oversize Boxes 6, 9: Stacks 1, Aisle 74 / Column 2/ Row 4 Boxes 33, 34, 40: Stacks 1, Aisle 74 / Column 6/ Rows 6-7 Tapes (Performing Arts)

    Conditions Governing Access

    This collection is open for research.

    Immediate Source of Acquisition

    Donated by Dan Guerrero, 2002. This collection continues to grow periodically.

    Biographical / Historical

    Dan Guerrero began his multi-faceted career in New York where he moved from East Los Angeles at age twenty to pursue studies in musical theater. He performed off-Broadway, in regional theatre, summer stock and in musical revues at Manhattan's most fabled cabarets including the Bon Soir in Greenwich Village.
    He later became a successful theatrical agent with clients in the original casts of countless Broadway musicals in the years from A Chorus Line to Cats, representing Tony Award winners and future Hollywood stars. He returned home to Los Angeles for an equally successful time as a casting director for stage and television before turning his talents to producing and directing.
    Television credits include the PBS Concert of the Americas co-produced with Quincy Jones, the NBC Vida Awards, a ground-breaking bilingual talk show for comic Paul Rodriguez that aired internationally on Univision, the HBO Latino stand-up comedy series Loco Slam and Navidad en las Americas , a bilingual Christmas special for Buena Vista International that included a best-selling CD release with Ricky Martin, Jose Feliciano and Placido Domingo among the international artists.
    Live concert events include multiple productions at the Kennedy Center; Arabesque: Arts of the Arab World in the Opera House; the AmericArtes Gala in the Concert Hall; Pablo Neruda: A Centenary Celebration in the Terrace Theatre; and Japan! Culture + Hyper Culture in the Rooftop Gallery.
    Other non-broadcast events; the world premiere of Concierto para Mendez for the Los Angeles Opera; the San Jose Mariachi and Mexican Heritage Festival for artistic director Linda Ronstadt; The Maravilla Concert to inaugurate the Roy E. Disney Performing Arts Center at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, the Placido Domingo Awards at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, a Dia de Los Muertos Celebration at Davies Hall with the San Francisco Youth Symphony and Chorus and the Concerte Chicano et Tex Mex at the Cite de la Musique in Paris, France.
    Guerrero also produced Lalo Guerrero: The Original Chicano, an award-winning documentary on his late father, Chicano music legend Lalo Guerrero. The film aired nationally on PBS stations in the Voces series hosted by Edward James Olmos and included a DVD/CD release. It continues to screen at national and international Film Festivals including the Turks and Caicos International Film Festival where the film garnered awards for Best Documentary, Best Director and Best Song. The Spanish-language subtitled version has screened in Latin America in a nine-week run at Cineteca Nacional Mexico in Mexico City.
    At the same time, Guerrero has crossed the country with his critically acclaimed solo show ¡Gaytino! following the 2006 world premiere run in Los Angeles produced by the Center Theatre Group. He has performed the autobiographical play with music at commercial venues that include the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, New York's Zipper Theatre, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the historic Lensic Theatre in Santa Fe where his performance was introduced by Governor Bill Richardson. ¡Gaytino! is also a favorite on the university circuit, playing on campuses from Northwestern to North Dakota State, the University of Maryland, UC Santa Barbara, and UCLA.
    Guerrero is an influential activist, speaking out in print, television and radio interviews in English and Spanish on both Latino/Chicano and LGBTQ issues. He is a popular figure on the speaking circuit and has addressed groups and organizations including the National Council of La Raza in Washington, DC, the Southern Arizona LULAC Youth Leadership Conference in Tucson, the California Teachers Association Conference in Palm Springs and the National Education Association conference in Washington, DC among many others.
    His most recent presentation, Activism and the Arts: A Life Journey has been hailed for its portrayal of the interconnected lives of artists and activists who fueled the civil rights struggles of the past several decades. The talk has been presented at the University of CA Santa Barbara, UCLA, University of Texas, Austin, the Herberger Theater Center in Phoenix, and a LULAC conference in Dallas. The Smithsonian Latino Center and the Human Rights Campaign recently brought it to the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC.
    He has been recognized for his activism and career achievements by the California State Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the National Council of La Raza, the California Legislature and the County of Los Angeles Board of Supervisors. Industry honors include an Imagen Award, an Honorary Local Emmy Award and an Alma Award nomination. The LA City Council also declared Dan Guerrero Day in the city of Los Angeles for his contributions to the city and he was recently honored at the LA Times Latinos de Hoy awards at the Dolby Theater with the inaugural LGBT Ambassador Award.
    Guerrero is a Distinguished Community Scholar at UCLA's Cesar E Chavez's Chicana/o Studies Department where he created a course based on his solo show ¡Gaytino! Performance and the Power of One. The latter led to his appointment as a Regents' Lecturer jointly in the UCLA Cesar E. Chavez Department of Chicana/o Studies and the LGBT Departments.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of Item], the Dan Guerrero Collection on Latino Entertainment and the Arts, CEMA 78. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library

    Related Materials

    Lalo Guerrero Collection (CEMA 024). Mark Guerrero Collection (CEMA 086).
    The Dan Guerrero Research Collection is housed at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center and includes his oral history.
    The Dan Guerrero Gaytino collection is located at USC Libraries' ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives.

    Scope and Contents

    The collection spans 20 linear feet, ranges from 1959-2016 and includes documents on Latino cultural and entertainment history of recent years, focusing on Dan Guerrero's professional life in the world of entertainment as well as his personal family life. It includes video and audio tapes of selected programming, scripts, publicity items, programs, and posters relating to the Latino community. There are photographs relative to Mexican American art and culture, transcripts of interviews with various members of the Latino entertainment industry. A significant amount of correspondence, audio tapes, video tapes, color slides and other items concern his close friend, the late Carlos Almaraz, a veteran Chicano artist. Other notable celebrities represented are Vikki Carr, Lorenzo Lamas, Cheech Marin, Ricardo Montalban, Kenny Ortega, Paul Rodriguez, Cesar Romero, Lalo Schifrin, Edward James Olmos and Jimmy Smits. The collection is of great value to the study and understanding of Latino entertainment and the arts in the last decades of the 20th Century.

    Series Description

    Series I: Biographical includes articles related to Dan Guerrero's life and work.
    Series II: Original Work includes material relating to There Goes the Neighborhood Press, a company formed by Dan Guerrero, Michael Dagnery and Lisa Rosales following working together on 'El Show de Paul Rodriguez'; the company produced TV programming over a two-year period before it dissolved. These files are arranged alphabetically.
    Series III: Events includes material related to events produced or directed by Dan Guerrero. The materials are grouped into three sub series: Programs, Scripts, TV Productions/Scripts, and Film Festivals. Each of these sub series is arranged chronologically.
    Series IV: Lalo Guerrero contains correspondence from the White House to Lalo Guerrero (Dan wrote the response), and a program for Canción Mexicana, performed at UCLA's Freud Playhouse.
    Series V: Gaytino includes various promotional materials and articles about the show.
    Series VI: Carlos Almaraz includes correspondence from Almaraz which Guerrero states are "personal letters and post cards sent to me by Carlos thru the 70s and early 80s before I returned to LA… including following his first trip to the Teatro Campesino, his marriage, birth of his daughter, while painting the Zoot Suit mural and then from his wife Elsa Flores who took up dropping notes and postcards." Also included are exhibition pamphlets, articles about his exhibits, articles concerning his passing in 1989 and materials collected from a Memorial Event held at the Los Angeles County Museum of Contemporary Art. Guerrero and Almaraz met in grammar school when they lived one block apart in East Los Angeles. The two graduated one year apart (Guerrero graduated in 1959) from James A. Garfield High School, after which the two traveled to New York City for the first time where they shared a one room apartment in the upper Westside 90s. Almaraz left New York within the year and Guerrero left in 1982 to return to Los Angeles. The two remained best friends until Almaraz's passing in 1989.
    Series VII: Photographs contains, at this point, images from the Artes de Mexico Festival in Los Angeles celebrating Mexican art and culture. The event was produced and written by Dan Guerrero, an effort that was completely voluntary for all who participated, performers and technical assistants included. Of particular interest are images of celebrities and prominent figures such as Appolonia, Linda Ronstadt, Ricardo Montalban, Cheech Marin, Lalo Guerrero, Carmen Zapata, Paul Rodriguez and Edward James Olmos. Video of the event is also available. Digital photographs ranging from years 1990-2013 are located in the library digital repository.
    Series VIII: Miscellany includes materials related to various productions, such as show schedules and rundowns (for such productions as El Show de Paul Rodriguez and Al Dia Con Maria Conchita [Alonso]). Also included is a special issue of Time Magazine about Hispanic culture, a dissertation entitled Musical Life of Mexican/Chicano People in Los Angeles, 1945-1985: A Study in Maintenance, Change, and Adaptation and programs of cultural events. Included within the series are documents and files regarding Cesar Chavez and his efforts to support the farm workers movement.
    Series IX: Audio and Visual Materials contains over 100 audio and videotapes. The series is divided into seven sub series as follows: El Show de Paul Rodriguez ran from 1990 to 1992; El Nuevo Show de Paul Rodriguez ran from 1992 to 1993; Fox Television Specials includes four titles, all but one of which aired in 1991 to 1992; Television Specials includes episodic programming and one time events such as Loco Slam, Navidad En Las Americas (a Behind the Scenes video of this event is also available in English and Spanish), the 1995 Vida Awards and a concert honoring Latin music in the United States in the 1940s and 50s entitled Vicki Carr, Memories, Memorias; Live Non-Broadcast Events includes footage of the Artes de Mexico Festival opening ceremonies at Los Angeles City Hall (photographs are also available of this event in Series VI), the Imagen Awards, Lalo and Amigos and video of Noche de Riza; Carlos Almaraz contains interviews of Almaraz by Mark Guerrero in 1976, footage from a KCET show "Life and Times" and extensive footage of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art tribute to Almaraz including video of the event, video salutes by Luis Valdez and Cesar Chavez and two songs written by Mark and Lalo Guerrero separately that were performed at the event; Miscellany includes awards ceremonies (Alma Awards, Nosotros Golden Eagle Awards, Hispanic Heritage Awards), Dan Guerrero on a number of shows speaking about his life and show business (appearances on Al Dia Con Maria Conchita, on Café California, and on Vista L.A.), video his father, Lalo Guerrero (appearance on Al Dia Con Maria Conchita, appearance on Vista L.A, backstage at the Orpheum Theatre after a stage show, and a concert in Paris, France titled Cité de la Musique, a video presentation by Nancy Montoya for an event in Tuscon, Arizona entitled Lalo and Dan Guerrero in Lalo's Tuscon Barrio) as well as stories written and events produced by Dan Guerrero that have aired on a variety of programs.
    Series X: Posters, at this point, contains 15 offset posters varying in size and subject. Included are the works of Carlos Almaraz and Patssi Valdez, several posters are signed in pen and marker.

    Conditions Governing Use

    Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.

    Separated Materials

    Archived links to the Dan Guerrero Happy Hour are available in the Manuscript Collections and Faculty Sites collection on the UCSB Internet Archive.