Chicana Research and Learning Center Records

The Chicana Research and Learning Center (CRLC) was conceptualized in 1972 and fully operational by 1974. It was a nonprofit, tax-exempt corporation that dealt directly with issues such as underemployment, poverty, and low educational achievement in the Hispanic women’s community. The CRLC provided community-oriented training and development activities for Hispanic women of all ages and also worked with various community and academic groups to facilitate the development of programs to benefit the Hispanic women’s community.

Federal funding was initially given to the organization from the Office of Economic Opportunity in 1972. These funds were allocated to meet the research needs for Chicanas on a national level. The CRLC was incorporated as a non-profit entity in 1973, and in 1974, the organizational structure and administrative personnel was appointed.

The CRLC was administered by Martha Cotera, Executive Director, and Adelle Freyman, Chairperson. The administrative staff included Mary Jo Galindo and Irene Dominguez. Throughout the organization’s existence, the CRLC maintained a center of operations in Austin, Texas.

Within the institute there were four initial program areas developed to help overcome issues that women in the Hispanic community faced. These programs were "Research," "Clearinghouse," "Technical Assistance," and "Publishing."

The "Research" program was designed as a two-pronged approach to dealing with these barriers. First, the program collected historical data and secondly, collected hard data concerning the status of Hispanic women, both socially and educationally. The CRLC used the collected historical information about Hispanic women to promote their presence by publishing booklets in Chicana studies and distributing information packets to community groups.

The "Clearinghouse" program sought to create a data bank of names, addresses, and areas of expertise for Hispanic women throughout the state of Texas in order to create a resource center for information dissemination into the Hispanic community. The program entitled "Technical Assistance" was aimed at providing information and resources to programmatic efforts for Hispanic women that sought to create educational conferences, provide fundraising and other resources, develop program activities, and disseminate information. The last major program, "Publishing Activities," published women's material geared towards the Hispanic community, in addition to creating nationwide networks with programs who could utilize the CRLC’s resources.

In addition to these four program areas, the CRLC enlisted trainers to assist Hispanic women with their communication skills and how to cope with cultural differences. Training in areas such as assertiveness, motivational support and bilingual-bicultural skills were provided based upon the manuals developed internally.

The CRLC is no longer operational and there is no clear date of dissolution. However, this collection contains paper records dated to 1994, and audiovisual material to 1999.