Title: Dan Guerrero Collection on Latino Entertainment and the Arts

Identifier/Call Number: CEMA 78

Contributing Institution: University of California, Santa Barbara, Davidson Library, Department of Special Collections, California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives

Language of Material: English

Physical Description: 14.0 linear feet Containers: 5 document boxes, 1 oversize, and tapes

Date (inclusive): 1972-2008

Location note: Boxes 1-5 (Del Norte); Box 6 (Del Norte oversize); tapes (Performing Arts)

Donated by Dan Guerrero, 2002

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.

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Dan Guerrero began his eclectic career in New York where he was a successful theatrical agent with clients in countless Broadway musicals and plays. He returned home to Los Angeles for an equally successful time as a casting director for stage and television before turning to producing. He has been widely-acclaimed as a highly creative independent producer of diverse programming for network and cable television in both English and Spanish. At the same time, he has produced, written and directed non-broadcast live events at such prestigious venues as the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, the House of Blues in West Hollywood and the Cite de la Musique in Paris, France. Guerrero is considered an early pioneer in the U.S. Latino market and has been twice honored by the distinguished Imagen Foundation for bringing positive Latino images to the screen. Hispanic Magazine also recognized him as "one of the 25 most powerful Hispanics in Hollywood." Guerrero began his production career in 1990 at Guber Peters Television as one of the original team that developed the weekly talk/variety program, El Show de Paul Rodriguez. The landmark show aired nationally on Univision and internationally throughout Latin America bringing the biggest U.S. and Latin American stars together in a ground-breaking bilingual format. Guerrero was brought on as head writer and was named co-producer after the first 13 shows and continued in that capacity for the three year run. He eventually headed Paul Rodriguez Productions with two El Show colleagues where the team produced four "docu-comedy" specials for FOX starring the comic actor: Paul Rodriguez: Behind Bars, Crossing Gang Lines, Back to School and Born to Ride. The highly-rated programs were a unique mix of documentary footage of gangs, bikers and multi-cultural issues inter-cut with music and comedy taped at locations from San Quentin prison to the Black Hills of South Dakota and the barrios of East LA and South Central. As a partner in There Goes the Neighborhood Productions, Guerrero produced Loco Slam, a series of half-hour Latino stand-up comedy shows for HBO and co-produced the PBS Kennedy Center Concert of the Americas for Quincy Jones/David Saltzman Entertainment. President Clinton and 34 leaders of Western Hemisphere countries attended the star-driven concert celebrating the Summit of the Americas conference in Miami. The event at the James L. Knight Convention Center boasted the biggest name artists from the U.S., Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean. Under his own banner, Guerrero produced the Vida Awards, an NBC nationally-aired special that honored Latinos in education, business, entertainment, sports, science/medicine and the arts. He also produced the CNBC J.D. Power Global Automotive Awards hosted by Tim Allen and taped at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. His multi-faceted career took a new direction in 1999 when he was named Vice President of Talent and Specials for the Telemundo Network under the new Sony ownership, a position especially created for his varied skills. Prior to joining Telemundo for the year on a corporate level, Guerrero was executive producer of their Al Dia con Maria Conchita, a daily talk/variety show hosted by Maria Conchita Alonso. During the same time, he produced and co-wrote the PBS national pledge special, Vikki Carr: Memories/Memorias for KCET. The bilingual concert also featured Arturo Sandoval, Pepe Aguilar and Jack Jones. The critically-acclaimed program included a CD and video release. An earlier bilingual Christmas special produced for Buena Vista International also created a best-selling CD that hit #8 on the Billboard Top 50 Latin Albums chart. Navidad en las Americas was taped at Disneyland and aired on Univision with Ricky Martin, Chayanne, Celia Cruz, Jose Feliciano, and Luis Enrique among the TV guest performers.

Guerrero has also produced and directed major non-televised events including the 2002 Inaugural NCLR Alma Awards Gala at the Biltmore Hotel hosted by Roselyn Sanchez where awards were presented in fourteen categories prior to the national ABC-TV telecast taping at the Shrine Auditorium. He also produced and directed the spectacular AmericArtes Gala at the Kennedy Center to launch the multi-year AmericArtes Festival. The gala featured performances by the Costa Rica Youth Symphony Orchestra, Brazil's Deborah Colker Modern Dance Company, Julio Bocca and Ballet Argentino, Mexico's Tambuco Percussion Quartet, Colombia's Cimarron musicians and the indigenous Danzaq de Ayacucho dancers from Peru among other distinguished Latin American artists. Guerrero produced and staged a Chicano et Tex-Mex concert at the Cite de la Musique in Paris, France featuring his father, the legendary Lalo Guerrero and Tejano superstar Flaco Jimenez. He also created the first-ever all Latino stand-up comedy night at the Los Angeles Theatre Center (1989). The English-language Noche de Risa y Susto: Die Laughing was produced annually for the next seven years as a fundraiser for the Latino Theatre Company. Other non-broadcast live events include the Opening Ceremonies for the city-wide Artes de Mexico Festival featuring more than 300 musical performers and costumed participants on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall, the Imagen Awards at the Beverly Hilton and the First Los Angeles International Latino Film Festival for Edward James Olmos at Universal Studios in Hollywood. Guerrero has served on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, addressed special events on a national level including the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce National Convention and often speaks on panels and at seminars throughout the country. He is a member of the Writers Guild of America and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

The collection documents Latino cultural and entertainment history of recent years, with both video tapes of selected programming, scripts, publicity items and programs relating to the Latino community, photographs relative to Mexican art and culture, transcripts of interviews with various members of the Latino entertainment industry, and a significant amount of correspondence, audio tapes, video tapes, color slides and other items concerning his close friend, the late Carlos Almaraz, a veteran Chicano artist. Among the notable celebrities represented in the collection are Vikki Carr, Lorenzo Lamas, Cheech Marin, Ricardo Montalban, Kenny Ortega, Paul Rodriguez, Cesar Romero, Lalo Schifrin, and Jimmy Smits. The collection is of inestimable value in the study and understanding of Latino entertainment and the arts in the last decades of the 20th Century.

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, Ricardo Montalban, Cheech Marin, Lalo Guerrero, Carmen Zapata, Paul Rodriguez and Edward James Olmos. Video of the event is also available.

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 Angles, 1945-1985: A Study in Maintenance, Change, and Adaptation and programs of cultural events.

Series IX: Audio and Visual Materials contains 113 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.

Lalo Guerrero Collection (CEMA 024) Mark Guerrero Collection (CEMA 086)