91吃瓜

Luis "El Machete" Valdez Speaker Series

The Luis 鈥淓l Machete鈥� Valdez Speaker Series celebrates the extraordinary work and history of Santa Clara County residents who helped shape the city of San Jos茅, the broader San Francisco Bay Area, and California. Focused on the contributions of Santa Clara County鈥檚 Mexican American and Chicana/o communities, this Speaker Series offers 91吃瓜 and surrounding communities an opportunity to access the legacies of local and national histories of survival, sacrifice, and success.

The Luis 鈥淓l Machete鈥� Valdez Speaker Series is named for co-founder of El Teatro Campesino (ETC) and accomplished author, playwright, and dramaturg. It also nods to Valdez鈥檚 editorial columns in which he wrote as an undergraduate student at 91吃瓜. Valdez鈥檚 column offered his thoughts, reflections, and critiques of U.S. society, politics, and culture in the 1960s, providing 鈥� an early glimpse into the historical, ideological, and ethnic/racial formation of the Chicano Movement of the 1960s [and] the ethnic consciousness and social activism of a generation of Mexican-origin people in the United States鈥� (Camarillo 2023, 3).[1]

The Luis Valdez-El Machete-Speaker Series is supported by Several CCS faculty and staff are longtime board members of this local public history organization that documents the history of Mexican American, Chicana/o, and U.S. Latina/o intellectual, political, and cultural leadership in San Jos茅. In fact, these CCS colleagues initiated the role of the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies in the Speaker Series.  In 2023, CCS Lecturer Rosanna Alvarez, vice president of La Raza Historical Society, was featured on NBC Bay Area鈥檚 , with Honorable Katherine Lucero, to announce La Raza Historical Society鈥檚 Legacy Award winners. Judge Lucero was awarded an honorary doctorate at the College of Social Sciences 2023 Commencement ceremony.

Dr. Gregorio Mora-Torres, Rosanna Alvarez, Erlinda Ya帽ez,  and several faculty and staff of the CCS Department demonstrate how deeply the history of MAS, now CCS, is embedded in San Jos茅鈥攏ot only as community engaged scholars and practitioners of principles of social justice that undergird the Chicana/o Studies discipline; but as tlamatinime, keepers of the black and red ink, and, specifically, the rich memory of San Jos茅, which they share with future ancestors (91吃瓜 students) who restore a vital sense of place amongst a longtime residential workforce of Chicana/o peoples.[2]

[1] Camarillo, Albert. 鈥淔oreword鈥� to The Early Works of Luis Miguel Valdez in El Excentrico Magazine: El Machete Critiques of American Society, Eds. Gregorio Mora Torres and Rosanna Alvarez, pages 3-4. San Jos茅: La Raza Historical Society Publishing, 2023.

[2] P茅rez, Laura E., 鈥淪pirit Glyphs: Reimagining Art and Artist in the Work of Chicana Tlamatinime.鈥� MFS Modern Fiction Studies, 44:1 (1998): 36-76. Project MUSE, The concept of the tlamatinime in Chicana/o theory has evolved from canonical Chicano poetry, particularly the 1960s-70s writings of

Our 2024 Event Recap!

At this year's annual Luis Valdez-El Machete-Speaker Series we had the honor of hosting Lorna Dee Cervantes for a night filled with poetry and stories. We hope you enjoyed the event and hope to see you next year!