Description
Administrative records, programs, subject files, correspondence, clippings, slides, photographs, serigraphs, posters, silkscreen
prints, ephemera and other creative materials documenting activities of the San Francisco Bay Area Chicano cultural arts center.
Includes work by many of the prominent Chicano(a)/Latino(a) artists, such as Juana Alicia, Rodolfo (Rudy) Cuellar, Alfredo
De Batuc, Ricardo Favela, Gilbert Luján (Magu), Ralph Maradiaga, Juanishi Orosco, Irene Pérez, Patricia Rodríguez, and René
Yañez. (CEMA 4).
Background
Galería de la Raza (GDLR) is a non-profit community arts organization that promotes Chicano and Latino art and culture in
the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Founded in 1970, the GDLR was, like many other such
centros, a product of the Chicano civil rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s. The movement called for artistic emphasis on everyday
lives and on community activities of the Chicano/Latino people. These principles guided the GDLR and set it apart from mainstream
art organizations in terms of philosophy and organization. Throughout its history, the GDLR has striven not only to make art
accessible to the community, especially in the largely Chicano/Latino Mission District of San Francisco, but also to involve
the public in the very creation of art works. The origin of the GDLR can be traced to a Spring 1969 exhibition in Oakland,
"New Symbols for La Nueva Raza," by the Mexican American Liberation Art Front (MALAF). Aimed at "integrating art into the
Chicano social revolution sweeping the country," MALAF brought together four Chicano/Latino artists, Esteban Villa, Manuel
Hernandez, Malaquias Montoya, and René Yañez. In 1970, a larger group established the Galería de la Raza as an artistic collective,
on 14th Street in San Francisco's Mission District. Members of that group included Rupert García, Peter Rodríguez, Francisco
Camplis, Peter Rodriguez, Graciela Carrillo, Jerry Concha, Gustavo Ramos Rivera, Carlos Loarca, Manuelo Villamor, Robert González,
Luis Cervantez, Chuy Campusano, Rolando Castellón, Ralph Maradiaga, and René Yañez. Later, Maradiaga became the administrative
director and Yañez the artistic director. In 1972, GDLR moved to its present location on 24th Street at Bryant Street in the
Mission District. In 1985, Humberto Cintrón became administrative director following Maradiaga's death. Enrique Chagoya succeeded
Yañez in 1987 as artistic director. In 1990, María Pinedo became executive director of the GDLR, and was succeeded in 1993
by Liz Lerma. She was followed by Gloria Jaramillo in 1995, and by Carolina Ponce de Leon in 1999. In its first decade, the
GDLR devoted itself to reclaiming the images and practices of popular Mexican/Latino traditions. It helped introduce and popularize
the Mexican artist and political activist Frida Kahlo and the celebration of
El Día de los Muertos ("The Day of the Dead"). In 1980, the GDLR started its second decade with the founding of Studio 24, a gift store. Studio
24 has served as a means to generate revenue for the GDLR in face of cuts in federal funds for arts, and as an experiment
in a new form of community art organization. During the 1980s, the GDLR expanded its international coverage, with exhibitions
on the crises in South Africa, the Caribbean, and Central America. The GDLR has in the early 1990s further expanded its commitment
to the Chicano/Latino community by focusing on not only race, but also gender and sexual identity. In 1995, the GDLR launched
the (Re)Generation Project with a variety of programs, to celebrate its 25th anniversary and to promote inter-generational
dialogs among Chicano(a)/Latino(a) artists. Also that year it mounted a retrospective exhibition "The Defiant Eye" at San
Francisco’s Yerba Buena Gardens, curated by Teresita Romo.
Restrictions
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.