Chicana/o Studies

You can search for archival collections using the UC Library Search! Tip: In the advanced search, select the option UCSB Special Research Collections and type the name of the collection you are looking for!

Special collections are different from libraries. To materials in special collections do not circulate outside the archive. Instead, they need to be viewed on site. For that you need to make an appoint to see the material. At SRC, you need to create a research account. Follow this link to learn more about how to create your very own research account and set up an appointment to visit SRC!

The archives of El Teatro Campesino are the largest archival collection on Chicano theater. They include a variety of formats, dating from the Teatro's founding in 1965. Some of their content has been digitized and it is available at the Internet Archive

The collection contains studio audio and video recordings for KQED (San Francisco, Calif.) television special "Corridos." The performance was a dramatization of Mexican American folk ballads put on by El Teatro Campesino, a renowned Chicano theater group started by Luis Valdez. Tip: If you want to see the collection at SRC click on the link titled Request Item

Playwrights' Arena is a non-profit organization founded in 1992 by its artistic director Jon Lawrence Rivera and Steve Tyler. It is an organization dedicated to diversity and inclusivity among its writers and artists. The collection consists of 6 boxes containing playwright materials including scripts, internal organizational files, contracts, some photographs, and other ephemera.

This collection contains original scripts by various playwrights including Anthony (Tony) Curiel, Luis Valdez, Josefina Lopez, Carlos Morton, and others. There are records and production files produced by El Teatro Campesino. Also within the collection are Curiel's personal research notes and files, production files, photographs, and audiocassettes of music used for Curiel's productions.

This collection is comprised of collected publicity materials concerning film festivals, Chicano punk rock shows, Punk bands and art exhibitions in Los Angeles from the 80's to early 2000's.

Centro Cultural de la Raza records (CEMA 12): San Diego artists' collective, co-founded in 1970 by Chicano poet Alurista and artist Victor Ochoa. Known as a center of indigenismo (indigenism) during the Aztlán phase of Chicano art in the early 1970s. Organization supported cultural performances and events featuring music, theater and dance.

Eduardo “Lalo” Guerrero (December 24, 1916 – March 17, 2005), known as the “Father of Chicano Music,” entertained lovers of Chicano music for six decades. The Guerrero Collection is rich in photographs, videos, interviews, correspondence, phonograph records, audiocassettes, scrapbooks, and ephemera, and ranges from photographs autographed by the President and Hillary Clinton to music and lyrics sheets for his comedic “Elvis Perez” and his “El Hustle de las Ardillitas” (the “Chipmunks’ Hustle”). It also includes recordings of his popular boleros, parodies such as “I Left my Car in San Francisco,” as well as “La Canción Mexicana” (unofficial Mexican national anthem), in addition to taped interviews and performances on the Univisión television show “Cristina”.

The collection documents Latino cultural and entertainment history of recent years, focusing on Dan Guerrero's professional life in the world of entertainment as well as his personal family life. It includes video and audio tapes of selected programming, scripts, publicity items, programs, and posters relating to the Latino community. There are photographs relative to Mexican American art and culture, transcripts of interviews with various members of the Latino entertainment industry. A significant amount of correspondence, audio tapes, video tapes, color slides and other items concern his close friend, the late Carlos Almaraz, a veteran Chicano artist. Other notable celebrities represented are Vikki Carr, Lorenzo Lamas, Cheech Marin, Ricardo Montalban, Kenny Ortega, Paul Rodriguez, Cesar Romero, Lalo Schifrin, Edward James Olmos and Jimmy Smits. The collection is of great value to the study and understanding of Latino entertainment and the arts in the last decades of the 20th Century.