UT Collections
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Bob Sanchez was a civil rights activist and attorney who focused his work on the rights of Mexican Americans. He helped to found the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and Texas Rural Legal Aid during the 1940s. Subsequently, Sanchez became involved with the American GI Forum, the National Council of La Raza and various migrant farm worker organizations. Sanchez was also active in Democratic political campaigns at the local, state and national levels, supporting candidates whose platforms on social justice and the civil rights of Mexican Americanss corresponded to the needs of Mexican Americans as Sanchez saw them. The collection includes materials from each of Sanchez's organizational involvements, his written works, collected materials of interest to him and photographs corresponding to various events sponsored by his organizations.
1921-2005 -
Raúl Valdez was known for murals painted in Austin, Texas, with Mexican American themes. He was also active in veterans' groups supporting peace in Central America. Slides in this collection show Valdez' murals, paintings and painted sculptures with themes that emphasize Chicano heritage and human rights.
1976-1984 -
The Raza Unida Party (RUP) was a political party founded in Crystal City, Texas, in 1970. As an alternative to the two-party system in Texas, RUP sought social, economic, and political self-determination for Chicanos, other minorities, and the disenfranchised through local and, later, state politics. Although RUP saw some success in local politics, and particularly in counties with large Chicano populations, it never successfully entered state electoral politics as a strong player. Nevertheless, RUP served as a forum for expressing the political views and priorities of Chicanos throughout the state. Materials in the collection include documents related to the founding of the Party, campaign ephemera from elections around Texas and related audio-visual materials.
1969-1979 -
The Rethinking Power and Resistance: Gender and Human Rights from Texas to the Transnational Americas Conference Footage collection contains edited footage from the 2012 conference, including several panel discussions, a radio segment aired on KOOP 91.7 fm, and a post-conference promotional video produced by Andrea Zarate. The conference was sponsored by the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, University of Texas at Austin as part of its Embrey Women’s Human Rights Initiative. The Rethinking Power & Resistance organizing committee envisioned a conference that would bring organizers and activist scholars together and foment collaborative work beyond the conference. As such, the conference centered around three community-university collaborations with the Transgender Jail Project, Conspire Theatre, and the Polochic Evictions Counteraction and foregrounded the themes of arts as advocacy, pedagogies of alliance and resisting criminalization. Videos are in English, Spanish and Portuguese, with some videos featuring consecutive translation into English.
Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, Gender and Sexuality, Immigrant Rights, Indigenous Rights, Prisoner Rights2012-2013 -
The collection of writer, historian, and professor Ricardo Romo contains correspondence, manuscripts, research papers, publications, clippings, programs, and photographs related to his activities and interests, such as East Los Angeles: History of a Barrio and New Directions in Chicano Scholarship, Mexican American athletes, mural painting, immigration and urbanization, discrimination in education and employment, Mexican American theater, and prominent Mexican Americans.
1967-present -
Silkscreens, lithographs, and watercolors comprise this collection of art prints by Mexican American and other artists produced at Self-Help Graphics studio in Los Angeles, CA, and Coronado Studios in Austin, TX.
1981-present -
Tejiendo la Memoria is a weekly radio program produced by the Museo de la Palabra y la Image / Museum of the Word and Image (MUPI). Each program is between five and seven minutes and relates an aspect of the social, cultural, or political history of El Salvador. The program was originally broadcast by the news program, Voces en Contacto, by the Association of Participatory Radio and Programs of El Salvador (ARPAS). The program currently airs on Conexión Comunitaria.
Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, Ethnic Conflict and Genocide, Gender and Sexuality, Indigenous Rights, War Crimes2009-present -
The Texas After Violence Project (TAVP) is an independent, Austin-based, nonprofit organization. TAVP’s oral history archive documents the effects of murder and capital punishment in Texas and aims to serve as a resource for public dialogue on alternative ways to prevent and respond to violence. The TAVP collection includes video testimonies and transcripts from survivors of violence; religious actors; law enforcement officials; legal actors; media witnesses; and activists and scholars.
Civil Rights, Segregation, and Apartheid, Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, Gender and Sexuality, Prisoner Rights2008-present -
The Texas Farm Workers Union (TFWU) was established in August 1975 under the leadership of Antonio Orendain. Wanting a union that was accountable to them, a core of Rio Grande Valley farmworkers supported the foundation of the TFWU. Despite the financial problems it faced, the TFWU was able to focus the media spotlight on the plight of farmworkers. They campaigned for the establishment of a Texas Agricultural Board and the right of farmworkers to vote on union representation, but legislation died in subcommittee. In 1977 union members started a 420-mile march from San Juan to Austin. To gain more public support for their cause, Orendain led forty union members on a historical 1,600-mile march from Austin to Washington, DC. However, unable to maintain firm financial backing, the union continued to have a sporadic existence until its demise in the mid-1980s. In addition to the correspondence of TFWU labor organizer Orendain, the collection includes promotional materials such as the newspaper El Cuhamil, a half-hour film titled Los Trabajadores Agricolas de Tejas and several phonodiscs of songs for TFWU written by Esteban Jordan. Other items found in this collection are posters, buttons, bumper stickers, and banners.
1977-1980 -
The Transcription Centre began its brief but significant life in February 1962 under the direction of Dennis Duerden (1927-2006), producing and distributing radio programs for and about Africa. The organization was created with funding provided initially by the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) to foster non-totalitarian cultural values in sub-Saharan Africa in implicit opposition to Soviet-encouraged committed political attitudes among African writers and artists. The records of the Transcription Centre comprise scripts and manuscripts, correspondence, legal documents, business records, ephemera, photographs, and clippings. Particularly noteworthy is a large file of scripts and script fragments arranged topically as a broadcast and publishing resource, including material not represented elsewhere in the papers. Making up about a quarter of the papers, the correspondence series contains significant evidence of the Transcription Centre's efforts on behalf of African art, writing, and scholarship through broadcasting, conferences, and cultural festivals. The correspondence files include artists (Jimo Akolo, Julian Bienart) and writers (Chinua Achebe, Ezekiel Mphahlele, Rajat Neogy, David Rubadiri), as well as academics and other scholars (Ulli Beier, Sillaty K. Dabo, Gerhard Kubik, Margaret Laurence, Ivan van Sertima). The extensive body of correspondence with Wole Soyinka is especially noteworthy.
Civil Liberties and Censorship, Civil Rights, Segregation, and Apartheid, Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights1979-1983, (bulk: 1960-1977)
