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Favela (Ricardo) papers
CEMA 72
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Table of contents
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.
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
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.
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
[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.
The collection is open for research. A portion of the collection is stored offsite. Advance notice is required for retrieval.
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.
Royal Chicano Air Force Archives. CEMA 8, Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library.
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