Jump to Content

Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Gamboa (Harry, Jr.) papers
M0753  
View entire collection guide What's This?
Search this collection
Collection Overview
 
Table of contents What's This?
Description
This collection of papers and items relating to the career of L.A.-based Chicano artist Harry Gamboa Jr. was purchased from the artist by Stanford University in 1995. The collection includes various materials dating from 1968 to 1995 and covering a broad range of Gamboa's personal and professional life. More than forty original manuscripts, both published and unpublished, produced and unproduced, represent Gamboa's work as a writer of fiction, prose, film, television, theater and performance scripts, interviews and essays. Manuscripts include "Jetter's Jinx," "Ignore the Dents" and many lesser known works. The collection also contains rare copies of Gamboa's mail art of the 1970s and other original art and miscellaneous (original drawings, art lay-out boards, buttons designed by Gamboa, etc.). Nine audio cassettes and thirteen video cassettes contain Gamboa and ASCO performances, productions and interviews, and more than 250 slides provide visual images of Gamboa's work in several media. Exhibition materials (fliers, posters, etc.), catalogues, and brochures document Gamboa and exhibitions and performances. Other publications (including various Chicano art/culture journals such as Raza Art and Media Collective, Regeneracíon, Caminos, Chismearte, and Neworld) contain artwork, photography and writing by Gamboa, as well as interviews and articles relating to Gamboa's work and that of other Chicano artists. Various publications, articles, and clippings discuss Los Angeles Chicano Civil Rights activities of the 1960s and '70s, in particular El Chicano Moratorium and the Garfield High School "Blowout" protests in which Gamboa was a key figure.
Background
Harry Gamboa Jr. was born in 1951, the first of five children born to Harry T. Gamboa and Carmen Gamboa, a working class Mexican American couple. He grew up in East Los Angeles California, an urban area tormented by poverty, violence and racial conflict. Despite these surroundings, the inadequacy of the East L.A. public schools and his parents' lack of education, Gamboa was encouraged to value education and did fairly well in school. As a teenager he was active in community organizations and politics. As a student at High School (graduated 1969) Gamboa was active in student government and as an organizer of various student-initiated reforms, most significantly the 1968 "East L.A. Blowouts" -a series of protests against the inferior conditions of public schools in poor, non-white areas.
Extent
40.76 Linear Feet
Restrictions
While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns.
Availability
Open for research. Note that material must be requested at least 36 hours in advance of intended use. Audiovisual materials are not available in original format, and must be reformatted to a digital use copy.