Center for Mexican American Studies Records
Scope and Contents Note
The Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) Records are arranged in the following eight series: 1) Administrative Files, 2) Programming, 3) Directors' Files, 4) Hopwood v. Texas, 5) Inter-University Program for Latino Research (IUPLR), 6) Printed Material, 7) Audiovisual Material, and 8) Oversize Material.
The first and largest series, Administrative Files, contains Center records documenting the different facets which made up the administrative branch of the unit. These files include correspondence among Center students, faculty, and staff, as well as correspondence with outside departments and university administration. The series also contains files on individual faculty, instructors, and staff members, along with records regarding student organizations and student support. The series documents faculty research through a collection of grant proposals as well as Mexican American studies curriculum through numerous course catalogs, descriptions, and schedules.
The Administrative series includes a collection of newspaper clippings, dating as far back as the early 1970s. These clippings cover the early foundation of the Center in addition to Mexican American student activism on campus and local community activism occurring at the time. The clippings come from a variety of newspaper sources, including the Daily Texan, Austin-American Statesman, and even some periodicals from Mexico.
The Programming series holds a range of material covering Center events, conferences, and organizations. This series includes material on CMAS Signature Events that still occur annually today: CMAS Graduation and the Americo Paredes Distinguished Lecture.
The Directors' Files, arranged in chronological order of their tenure. The directors include: Américo Paredes, Santos Reyes, Gilberto Cárdenas, Rodolfo de la Garza, David Montejano, and Jose Limón, and the files are comprised of correspondence, grant applications, published articles, and curriculum vitae.
The Hopwood v. Texas series, chronicles the landmark court case that ended the consideration of race as part of the admissions criteria for the University of Texas Law School and in effect ended affirmative action in the admissions process to public universities in Texas. The Hopwood decision was made by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and when the Supreme Court declined to review the ruling the Fifth Circuit's decision stood. There were ripple effects on the UT campus in the post Hopwood years, including racial discrimination incidents at two campus fraternities and within the UT Law School there was drop in minority enrollment. Records of these incidents are well-documented with clippings and correspondence, which date from 1990-2000.
The fifth series holds a diverse set of records focused on the Inter-University Program for Latino Research (IUPLR). Founded in 1983, the Inter-University Program for Latino Research became a national consortium of university-based centers dedicated to the advancement of the Latino intellectual presence in the United States. CMAS was a founding member of the consortium, served as the national headquarters from 1996 to 1999, and held the IUPLR national conference Siglo XXI in 2005. For more than 35 years, IUPLR has promoted core research on issues of importance to Latino communities and the broader US society. The IUPLR series documents consortium conferences and meetings, publications, grant competitions and proposals, records from a Latino political values project, and material from the Working Group on Higher Education. Also includes material related to the Hispanic Leadership Opportunity Program/Latino Leadership Opportunity Program (HLOP/LLOP) initiative to grow the pipeline of Latinos studies scholars at the undergraduate and graduate level.
The Printed Material, the sixth series is made up of printed material produced, collected, or distributed by CMAS. Most notably, the printed material series holds all of the CMAS publications records, which include copies of their long-running newsletter series Noticias, the CMAS-sponsored student newspaper Tejas, and documentation related to the in-house publishing unit CMAS Books. Files on CMAS material such as brochures, logos, and pamphlets can also be found within this series.
The Audiovisual Material series includes photographs, video recordings, and audio recordings that document the Center's programming activities (lectures, conferences, symposia) and CMAS graduation. The photographs include images of faculty, staff, and students from the 1970s-2007. This series includes a set of oral history recordings compiled to celebrate the Center's 35th anniversary. The recordings were gathered as part of a J349T Oral History as Journalism class taught by Dr. Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez, then CMAS associate director.
The Oversize Material series includes posters for different CMAS events, oversize CMAS publications, collected publications, clippings, some protest signs, and a couple of art prints. One art print has the word Radio! but the artist is unidentified. The other one is an untitled print by Malaquias Montoya and is dated 2004. The Montoya print has the words Scholarship Activism Justice and the image was used for the Abriendo Brecha/Opening a Path conference.
Part 2: Raza Unida Party Women's Oral History Project
Part 2 of the collection includes oral histories with women involved in the Raza Unida Party (RUP), a third party active in Texas politics in the 1970s. Dr. Emilio Zamora, a history professor and an affiliate with the Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) at The University of Texas at Austin, led the oral history project. The Raza Unida Women’s Oral History Project was a collective research project which included students enrolled in a Spring 2004 graduate course titled Memory, History, and Oral Narratives: Mexican American Politics in Texas History. In 2017 Dr. Zamora published an article about the oral history project titled "Raza Unida Party Women in Texas: Oral History, Pedagogy, and Historical Interpretation" in the US Latina & Latino Oral History Journal. The oral histories were transferred to the archive in 2022.
Dates
- Creation: 1959-2011
- Creation: 2019
Language of Materials
English, Spanish
Access Restrictions
Unrestricted.
Use Restrictions
Standard copyright restrictions apply.
Historical Note
Chicano students' demands in the 1960s contributed to the foundation of the Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS). Student activism through organizations such as the Mexican American Student Organization (MASO) demanded equitable representation and resources to reflect the demographics of the state of Texas which has a large population of Mexican Americans, other U.S. Latino groups, and communities of color. MASO famously published their 10 demands in the Daily Texan in 1969. The Center began offering classes in fall 1970 under the leadership of Dr. Américo Paredes.
In 1983, CMAS together with the Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños at Hunter College (City University of New York), the Chicano Studies Research Center of the University of California at Los Angeles, and the Stanford Center for Chicano Research, Stanford University, formed the Inter-University Program for Latino Research (IUPLR). The idea for IUPLR was developed at a 1982 meeting of four Latino research directors. IUPLR founding members include Frank Bonilla (Hunter College, CUNY), Albert Camarillo (Stanford), Rodolfo O. de la Garza (UT Austin), and Juan Gómez-Quiñones (UCLA). At that meeting they discussed the status of Latino research and agreed to work together to encourage collaboration among Latino scholars and centers.
In the 1990s, CMAS worked with KUT and other units on the UT campus to develop a radio program idea. The program was originally known as A Tiempo and later developed into Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture. Latino USA was produced at UT from 1993 until 2010 when production moved to the Futuro Media Group.
The Center's programming activities includes an annual spring lecture series featuring nationally renowned scholars and community leaders. The series culminates with the Américo Paredes Distinguished Lecture. This annual event, established in 1987, honors Dr. Américo Paredes, the Center's first director. Other activities include Platicas, informal afternoon talks by CMAS faculty or visiting scholars, and PlaticArtes, presentations by regional or visiting visual and literary artists. In addition, the Center often sponsors conferences and symposia relevant to Mexican American and Latino studies.
The Center operated a scholarly press from 1975 through 2003. The press was originally known as CMAS Publications and later adopted the name CMAS Books. A major component of the publications unit was a monograph series. A book was usually published either under the University of Texas Press (UT Press) imprint, as part of a Mexican American studies series, or under the CMAS Books imprint. In both cases, UT Press handled the book's warehouse storage, publicity, and distribution. The first seven monograph titles in the series were published by CMAS and distributed by UT Press. Starting in 1983, CMAS and UT Press co-published the monograph series. From 1980-circa 1993, CMAS Books operated with only one full-time editor with the assistance of part-time student editorial assistants. In spring 1994, CMAS Books added a full-time assistant editor. Editors included José Flores (circa 1980s) and Víctor J. Guerra (circa 1990-2003).
The Center's newsletters include El Chisme (early 1970s), Mexican American Studies Newsletter (1976-1977), Boletín del tercer piso (1979), Noticias de CMAS or simply Noticias (September 1992- circa 2011). Several issues of Noticias included a CMAS Calendario insert. The newsletter transitioned from print to digital distribution approximately in 2012. CMAS news and announcements are now included in the Latino Studies digital newsletter.
In addition to official CMAS publications (books, journals, newsletters), the Center also helped with sponsored publications that support UT students and their work. Sponsored publications included the Survival Guide, Tejas, and 35 years: The Center for Mexican American Studies, The University of Texas at Austin. The Survival Guide for new African American and Mexican American students, published in 1993 was a collaboration between CMAS and the Center for African and African American Studies (CAAS) — now the John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies. The Guide was distributed on the UT campus and it included articles by students, faculty profiles, information about CAAS and CMAS, a list of Mexican American/Latino and Black student organizations as well as a directory of minority faculty and staff. Tejas was a quarterly publication of J352/MAS 379: Latino Community News, a course taken for credit in Journalism or Mexican American Studies. Tejas sought to encourage Latino and other student interest in minority community news and opinion, and to attract students to the journalism profession. Tejas won the 1996 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award in the student category for "From Fields to Campus," a four-part series exploring the experiences of young farm workers in search of a college education. 35 Years published for the Center's 35th anniversary was compiled by a group of J349T Oral History as Journalism students.
The Center together with the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies (MALS) and the Latino Research Institute (LRI) provides intellectual leadership for the development of Mexican American and Latina/o studies in Texas and the nation. Together the three units form Latino Studies at UT.
- 1970-1972
- Américo Paredes
- 1972-1973
- José E. Limón
- 1973-1974
- Antonio Ugalde
- 1974-1976
- Santos Reyes, Jr.
- 1976-1977
- Efraím P. Armendariz
- 1977-1978
- Américo Paredes
- 1978-1981 (Summer)
- Arnoldo C. Vento
- 1981-1984 (Spring)
- Rodolfo O. de la Garza
- 1984 (Fall)-1985 (Spring)
- Ramon Saldívar
- 1985 (Fall)-1986
- José E. Limón
- 1987-1990
- Rodolfo O. de la Garza
- 1990-1996
- Gilberto Cárdenas
- 1996-2000
- Davíd Montejano
- 2000-2011
- José E. Limón
- 2011 (Fall)
- Deborah Paredez
- 2012-2015
- Domino R. Pérez
- 2016-2021
- John Morán González
- 2021-2026
- Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez
- 1997
- Neil Foley
- 1997-1998
- Yolanda C. Padilla
- 1998-2000
- Barbara Robles
- 1998-2000
- Richard R. Flores
- 2000-2001
- Angela Valenzuela
- 2003-2004
- Richard R. Flores
- 2004-2007
- Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez
- 2008-2009
- Domino R. Pérez
- 2009?-2010 Spring
- Deborah Paredez
- 2011 January-2014 August
- Nicole M. Guidotti-Hernández
- 2011 (Spring-Summer)
- John Morán González
- 2015-2016
- John Morán González
- 2019-2021
- Cary Cordova
The list of Directors and Associate Directors was compiled from documents in the collection, announcements in Noticias de CMAS, and faculty curriculum vitae.
Sources:
CMAS Mission Statement, accessed January 10, 2020, https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/cmas/about/mission_statement.php
IUPLR homepage, accessed January 10, 2020, https://iuplr.org/
IUPLR About page from the WayBack Machine, accessed January 13, 2020, https://web.archive.org/web/20150926112047/https://iuplr.uic.edu/iuplr/about/history
Noticias de CMAS. Austin, TX: Center for Mexican American Studies, University of Texas at Austin, 1992-2011. Print.
Full Extent
75.5 linear feet
Abstract
Records of the Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) founded in 1970 at The University of Texas at Austin. The collection documents the Center's programming activities (lectures, conferences, and symposia), CMAS publications, and its involvement with the Inter-University Program for Latino Research (IUPLR). Records include material from former directors, files on the Hopwood case and Texas' Top 10 Percent law, and audiovisual material documenting the Center's activities.
Acquisition Information
Donation.
Accession numbers: 1984-101, 1990-03, 1990-06, 1990-07, 1990-22, 2001-27, 2001-28, 2001-41, 2004-02, 2004-45, 2005-35, 2017-63, 2019-28, 2022-26
Additions
Further materials are expected for this collection.
Alternative Form Available
Audiovisual Material from Box 152-153 and Box 158 has been digitized and an access copy is available. Access copies available in Box 153A.
Processing Information
Collection processed by Alexandrea Pérez Allison (2018-2019) and Carla O. Alvarez (2019).
Part 2 of the collection processed by Carla O. Alvarez, July 2022.
Genre / Form
Geographic
Topical
- Title
- Center for Mexican American Studies Records
- Status
- Edited Full Draft
- Author
- Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection
- Date
- 2020
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard (Dacs)
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Revision Statements
- 2020 September: Edited by Carla O. Alvarez to fix compliance check errors to prepare for the migration to new TARO website.
- 2021 November: Edited by Devon Murphy to update control access terms and formatting based on the TARO Control Access List.
- 2022 July: Part 2 inventory added by Carla O. Alvarez.
- 2025 July: Revised by Ryan Sullivant to fix validation errors prior to ingestion into ArchivesSpace.
- 2026: Edited by Carla O. Alvarez.
Repository Details
Part of the Benson Latin American Collection, The University of Texas at Austin Repository
2300 Red River Street
Austin Texas 78712 United States
(512) 495-4578
bensonspecialcollections@austin.utexas.edu