Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Lopez, Enrique Hank
- Abstract:
- Enrique Hank Lopez (1920-1985) was a Chicano writer, teacher, attorney, and actor born in Chihuahua, Mexico. The collection is primarily comprised of manuscripts for novels, short stories, essays, plays, screenplays, and articles written by Lopez, both published and unpublished. It includes several clippings of articles by Lopez published in magazines and newspapers, as well as some photographs and correspondence. The collection also contains books from Lopez's personal library, such as various editions of his published works, and books inscribed to Lopez by various authors. The 2018 addition to the collection includes 1/4 inch audiotapes of interviews by Enrique Hank Lopez of Katherine Anne Porter for the book Conversations with Katherine Anne Porter, Refugee from Indian Creek (1981).
- Extent:
- 13 Linear Feet (29 boxes, 1 carton)
- Language:
- English and Materials are primarily in English, some materials in Spanish.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Enrique Hank Lopez papers (Collection 1519). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The collection is primarily comprised of manuscripts for novels, short stories, essays, plays, screenplays, and articles written by Enrique Hank Lopez, both published and unpublished. This includes an early manuscript of The Harvard Axis, which would later become The Harvard Mystique (1979). Several of the screenplay drafts are adaptations of Lopez's books, such as The Hidden Magic of Uxmal (1980) and Conversations with Katherine Anne Porter, Refugee from Indian Creek (1981). Some of the unpublished works include Chicano in Limbo, a Memoir, Primal Scenes: a Comedy in Three Acts, and Doña Consuelo's Diary, among others. The majority of these works are undated. The collection also includes several clippings of articles by Lopez published between 1967 and 1983 in magazines and newspapers, such the Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, and Harper's Magazine. The collection also includes photographs of Lopez taken during his campaign for California Secretary of State in 1958. There is also correspondence, which includes a telegram from John F. Kennedy and other papers such as resumes, certificates, transcripts, and programs for various meetings and presentations attended by Lopez. The collection also contains books from Lopez's personal library, such as various editions and translations of his published works and books inscribed to him by various authors.
The 2018 addition to the collection contains 1/4 inch audiotapes of interviews conducted in 1966 by Enrique Hank Lopez with writer Katherine Anne Porter for the book Conversations with Katherine Anne Porter, Refugee from Indian Creek(1981).
- Biographical / historical:
-
Enrique Hank Lopez was a Chicano writer, teacher, attorney, and actor. He was born on May 28, 1920 in Chihuahua, Mexico but grew up in Denver, Colorado after his father, a soldier of the Mexican Revolution, moved his family to the US when Lopez was a toddler. Throughout his life, Lopez lived in Los Angeles, Boston, New York City, and Mexico City.
Lopez received his BA from the University of Denver and did some graduate study at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México before going to Harvard Law School for his JD. He also earned an MA from Harvard University's Graduate School of Economics.
Lopez entered a private practice as a trial lawyer in Los Angeles, where he moved after graduation in 1948. He later practiced international law in Mexico City from 1960 to 1966. Lopez served as a consultant to the Ford Foundation on Latin American projects, while also directing Latin American investments for a New York City firm (1967).
Lopez was co-editor of the Mexican literary journal, Revista Diálogos (1962-1967), which was devoted to the original works of leading Latin American writers. Lopez contributed several of his essays to this journal, including a Spanish translation of his widely published autobiographical essay, "Back to Bachimba" in 1966.
In the 1970s, Lopez left the practice of law to write and teach. He wrote and published several books, including 'La Balsa' to Australia: The Longest Raft Voyage in History (1973); The Seven Wives of Westlake: Eavesdropping on the Ladies (1973); The Highest Hell: The First Full Account of the Andes Air Crash (1973); Eros and Ethos: A Comparative Study of Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant Sex Behavior (1977); and The Harvard Mystique: The Power Syndrome that Affects Our Lives from Sesame Street to the White House (1979). Lopez also collaborated with other authors in My Brother Lyndon (1969), Expedition Balsa (1975), and Conversations with Katherine Anne Porter, Refugee from Indian Creek (1981). Porter was a journalist and fiction writer best known for her short stories.
Lopez wrote articles for the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Denver Post, Life Magazine, Life en Español, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Atlantic, The Nation, American Heritage, and more. His articles covered a range of topics, such as Mexican politics, US-Mexico relations, petroleum politics, police brutality, immigration, and poverty and starvation in Latin America.
In 1959 and again throughout the 1970s, Lopez lectured at many colleges and universities: Universidad Nacional de Mexico; the Institute of Politics at Harvard University; SUNY Purchase; Northeastern University Law School; as regents' professor of the Mexican-American Studies Division at the University of California, Riverside; and as Poynter Fellow at Yale University. He taught courses on writing, bilingual education, law, and Chicano and Puerto Rican politics and culture. He also conducted writers' workshops in Mexico City.
Lopez also had a career in television as an actor and screenwriter for the CBS show, The Verdict is Yours, a courtroom drama on air from 1963 to 1965. He was associate producer of Viva Azurra (1969), a television film directed by Bud Boeticher and filmed in Mexico. He was producer and narrator of Chicanos in Action (1984), a documentary for KCET.
Lopez was working on his autobiography until his death in West Hollywood on October 20, 1985. He was survived by his two sons, a daughter, and two grandchildren.
- Acquisition information:
- Greg Lopez; Gifts; 1987, 2018.
- Processing information:
-
Processed by Manuscripts Division staff in 1987. Online finding aid edited by Josh Fiala in 2002. Finding aid revised in 2019 by Carolina Meneses in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), with assistance from Courtney Dean.
- Arrangement:
-
This collection has been arranged in the following series:
- Series 1: Personal materials, 1947-1985
- Series 2: Writings, 1964-1982
- Series 3: Books, 1948-1985
- Series 4: Interviews by Enrique Hank Lopez with Katherine Anne Porter, 1966
- Physical / technical requirements:
-
COLLECTION CONTAINS AUDIO MATERIALS: Audio materials in this collection will require assessment and possible digitization for safe access. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Physical location:
- Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Terms of access:
-
Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Enrique Hank Lopez papers (Collection 1519). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
- Location of this collection:
-
A1713 Charles E. Young Research LibraryBox 951575Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
- Contact:
- (310) 825-4988