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Favela (Ricardo) papers
CEMA 72  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Biographical / Historical
  • Scope Note
  • Arrangement
  • Preferred Citation
  • Immediate Source of Acquisition
  • Access Restrictions
  • Use Restrictions
  • Related Materials
  • Processing Information

  • Contributing Institution: UC Santa Barbara Library, Department of Special Research Collections
    Title: Ricardo Favela papers
    Creator: Favela, Ricardo, January 13, 1944 – July 15, 2007
    Identifier/Call Number: CEMA 72
    Physical Description: 50 Linear Feet; (33 cartons, 11 document boxes, 3 oversized flat boxes)
    Date (inclusive): 1970-2017
    Abstract: Personal and professional papers of Ricardo Favela, American artist, professor, civil rights activist, and founding member of the Chicano art collective group Royal Chicano Air Force.
    Physical Location: A portion of the collection is located at the Southern Regional Library Facility (SRLF).
    Language of Material: The collection is in English with some materials in Spanish.

    Biographical / Historical

    Born in the San Joaquin Valley to migrant farm worker parents, Ricardo Favela (January 13, 1944 – July 15, 2007) well understood the experience of American Mexican immigrants. He went on to attend college at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia, and then California State University Sacramento where he received his B.A. in 1971. It was during the pursuit of his first degree that he became a fixture of Chicano Art. Favela along with Rudy Cuellar, Jose Montoya, Juanishi Orosco and Esteban Villa founded the activist artist group the Rebel Chicano Art Front, which later became known as the Royal Chicano Air Force, or RCAF. The RCAF was best known for its paintings, murals and posters but the group established itself as a collective through its use of wry humor and biting wit to express difficult cultural dialectics. The RCAF managed to tackle the most difficult problems of the day, problems dealing with the unique placement of Chicano identity, while maintaining a forward looking optimism.
    The RCAF brought to light the fundamental contradictions of a society which ignored the obvious cultural symbols and underpinnings of the growing Mexican American population. Favela in particular highlights this dichotomy with pieces that often featured the calaveras in the place of primary figures. By doing so he seemed to intimate at the spirit of the Chicano just beneath the surface in everything we see. He often attached calaveras to items with familiar contexts such as in the 1970 piece Police Brutality where calavera policeman arrests a protestor or the Official RCAF Ashtray where three calaveras each one representing an individual artist in the collective, grace an emblematic ashtray. Later on in a 1975 piece El Centro de Artistas Chicanos, two calaveras stand in duty for two obviously Chicano artists who seem poised in some artistic discussion capturing the semiotic juxtaposition of the ancient symbols with the new.
    Ricardo Favela's professional teaching career began as director and art administrator during his tenure at el Centro de Artistas Chicanos in Sacramento. In 1982 he began teaching art professionally at CSU Sacramento. He received his Masters of Arts from CSU Sacramento in 1989 and began working in the art department as a professor. Ricardo Favela also traveled and gave lectures, organizing and curating various art exhibits and retrospectives. He was the senior artist for CEMA's Proyecto C.A.R.I.D.A.D (Chicano Art Resources, Information, Development, and Dissemination) and his exhibitions have shown at the Oakland Art Museum, San Francisco Museum of Art, the California State Capitol and the San Francisco Art Institute among many others. Ricardo Favela's death on July 15, 2007 was a major loss to the Chicano Art Movement.
    "For the most part, my works and those of the other Chicano/Indio artistas are not what the so-called experts call classic, or even technically brilliant. They are, however, works rooted in our concern for our people and culture, thus giving them a vibrant emotional life. The fact that, as a people, we are tied to the earth by our indigenous heritage and, ironically, by the great U.S. society's penchant for offering us nino farm worker occupation in our own occupied ancestral lands leads me to strive with my teaching and art to influence and ultimately give consequence to our present educational system, whether inside or outside the mainstream." –Ricardo Favela

    Scope Note

    The collection contains materials that span Favela's life as an artist, professor, activist, and community organizer. Favela's personal papers include correspondence, news clippings (including articles concerning the Royal Chicano Air Force), photographs, as well as reports and exhibition announcements. The professional papers include his teaching files from California State University, Sacramento, his papers related to various organizations and projects, and a collection of slides. The slides document his own work as an artist, and the work of his colleagues in the Centro de Artistas Chicanos, as well as the work of his students and community members in the Barrio Arte program.

    Arrangement

    The collection is arragned by topic into eleven series:
    • Series 1: Personal and biographical information
    • Series 2: Correspondence
    • Series 3: Teaching files
    • Series 4: Exhibits and events
    • Series 5: Organizations and projects
    • Series 6: Subjects
    • Series 7: Publications
    • Series 8: Personal office files
    • Series 9: Slides
    • Series 10: Photographs
    • Series 11: Audiovisual

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of Item], Ricardo Favela papers, CEMA 72. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library

    Immediate Source of Acquisition

    Donated by Ricardo Favela, 2002. Additions donated by Clara Favela, Ricardo's wife, in 2007 and 2010.

    Access Restrictions

    The collection is open for research. A portion of the collection is stored offsite. Advance notice is required for retrieval.

    Use Restrictions

    Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Research Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Research Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Research 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.

    Related Materials

    Royal Chicano Air Force Archives.  CEMA 8, Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library.

    Processing Information

    Originally proccessed by Callie Bowdish and Daisy Martinez. Supplemental material processed by Mari Khasmanyan and Kristen Villamor in 2018. Additional materials processed by Rebecca Vasquez in 2024.

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Mexican American art -- California
    Mexican American artists -- California
    Art, American -- California -- 20th century
    Exhibition announcements
    Photographs
    Slides (photographs)
    Centro de Artistas Chicanos