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Acknowledgments
- University of Texas Press
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While taking credit for the successful completion of a first book is something most scholars relish and anxiously await, none of us can truly say that we took this journey alone. So in the spirit of collectivism and mutual recognition of the Chicana/o mural movement, I would like to acknowledge those colleagues, mentors, organizations, friends, and familia who provided me with critical support—intellectual, institutional, emotional , spiritual, and otherwise—so that I could make Walls of Empowerment a reality. The work that went into this book spanned nearly ten years and included my tenure in three wonderful institutions of higher learning, namely the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; the University of California, Santa Barbara; and Ohio State University. At Illinois I counted with the tireless guidance and support of numerous mentors who patiently directed me through the early stages of this project. Jordana Mendelson (Art History ), with a combination of kindness and professionalism, offered me vital insights into my work while always encouraging me to be rigorous in my scholarship. I am eternally grateful to Rolando Romero (Spanish and U.S. Latina/oStudies)forhavingintroducedmetothedisciplineofU.S.Latina/o studies. His creative and visionary intellect irreversibly transformed the way Iinterpretculturalproduction.HistorianMattGarcía—whoatthetimewas a junior professor at Illinois and has since become a major scholar at Brown University—thoroughly trained me in Chicana/o history, thus allowing me to build a complex social context for Chicana/o mural production. In the process, both Matt and Jordana have become dear friends who continue to mentor and guide me to this day. Other brilliant and committed scholars at Illinois were instrumental to the intellectual development that eventually led me to write Walls of Empowerment: Alejandro Lugo (Anthropology), Angharad Valdivia (Communications), Oscar Vazquez (Art History), and Cynthia Radding (History). After I completed my studies at the University of Illinois, an amazing Acknowledgments x A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S dream came true: I was hired by the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to teach Chicana/o art. Working side by side with pioneers in the field of Chicana/o studies has been nothing short of astounding and exhilarating, not to mention humbling . Their support and encouragement have taken my scholarship to new heights of critical inquiry, something that is manifestly reflected in Walls of Empowerment. While every single faculty member of this renowned department directly or indirectly contributed to the intellectual impetus that drovemybookproject,IwouldspeciallyliketothankMaríaHerrera-Sobek, Chela Sandoval, Gerardo Aldana, Francisco Lomelí, and Horacio Roque Ramírez for their love and caring support, that is, for becoming my second familia away from home. I would never have been able to complete this project without the combination of intellectual and emotional reinforcement they provided during the past five years. While Chicana and Chicano Studies was my intellectual home at UC Santa Barbara, I cannot neglect to mention the help and direction of colleagues from other departments on this campus whose nurturing guidance always kept me grounded and focused, in particular, Claudine Michel (Black Studies) and Anna Everett (Film and Media Studies), who saw potential in me that I never realized I possessed. To my wonderful colleagues and compañeras/os at UC Santa Barbara : I will never forget you! As I write these words of gratitude, acknowledgment, and recognition, I find myself at a critical crossroads in my career as I prepare to bid farewell to UC Santa Barbara and venture into a new scholarly terrain and personal journey with the Department of Women’s Studies at Ohio State University, where I will become a new faculty member in the fall of 2007. I look forward to the intellectual coalitions and personal alliances I will forge with my new colleaguesasIreturntotheMidwest.Itwastheirrecognitionofmyscholarly work, including Walls of Empowerment, as well as their deep commitment to women-of-color scholarship that persuaded me to join this illustrious group of feminist thinkers. As I conducted research for Walls of Empowerment, several institutions and individuals assisted me along the way. During the early phases of my investigation, Christina Ochoa, from Self-Help Graphics & Art, happily made available to me the visual arts center’s archives and allowed me to view the prints from its 1999 atelier. Francisco García-Ayvens patiently guided me through the collections of the UCLA Chicano Studies Library. Lillian Castillo-Speed, in the UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies Library, assisted me in finding the proper materials within their Chicano...