Instagram story viewer> @ucla_csrc> Posts

Chicano Studies Research Ctr.

@ucla_csrc

5K

followers

1747

following

UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, est. 1969. A library, archive, and academic press, plus public programs and collaborative projects.

POSTS STORIES REELS

¡Que viva Dolores Huerta en nuestro corazón y en nuestra lucha!

(To read this statement in its entirety, visit chicano.ucla.edu)

I am deeply saddened by the news of Dolores Huerta’s passing, even as I feel profound gratitude that we as a nation benefited from decades of her tireless work for social justice. Her legacy reaches far beyond the farmworker movement for which she is best known.

Dolores was one of the most widely recognized Latina labor and civil rights leaders in US history. She fought for workers’ rights, immigrant rights, voting rights, educational justice, women’s equality—including the Equal Rights Amendment—and LGBTQ+ rights.

Throughout her life, she connected these struggles through a broad vision of social justice and a steadfast commitment to empowering communities.

I first met her around 1995 or 1996 when I was a college student at Harvard University. In the aftermath of California voters’ approval of Proposition 187, the 1994 initiative designed to deny undocumented immigrants access to public services, including K–12 education, Dolores encouraged my peers and me to keep fighting for immigrant rights and standing up for working-class communities. She reminded us that students, too, had the power to shape the future.

We must also recognize the obstacles and sacrifices Dolores faced as a woman leader. The difficult choices she faced deserve thoughtful reflection, including the personal costs of dedicating oneself to a cause.

Dolores spent her life reminding us that ordinary people, when they organize and act collectively, can bend the arc of history towards justice. Now it is our responsibility to carry that work forward.

¡Sí, se puede!

—Veronica Terriquez, Professor and Director, UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center

Photo credits: Courtesy of Veronica Terriquez and the UCLA CSRC. by @ucla_csrc

Since 1969, the Chicano Studies Research Center has preserved Chicano and Latinx histories, advanced research that informs policy, and engaged with communities.

Director Veronica Terriquez takes us inside.

[Video description: A woman speaks to the camera from several indoor locations. The video cuts to close-ups of artwork, photographs, books, and displays in the space. Blue boxes with white subtitles appear throughout.] by @ucla_csrc

🗳️ VOTE 🗳️ VOTA 🗳️

Young people have always played pivotal roles in this country’s elections. Tuesday, November 3, 2026 will be no different.

Veronica Terriquez, UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center director and professor of urban planning and Chicana/o and Central American studies, documents this in her new book, Learning to Lead: Youth Organizing in Immigrant Communities.

Learning to lead offers unprecedented insight into how young people — especially those from immigrant backgrounds — are actively learning how to organize, lead, and drive political change.

Terriquez draws from more than 105,000 voting records, over 5,000 surveys, and more than 600 semi-structured interviews to explore how youth organizing groups promote civic and political engagement among young people from immigrant backgrounds.

“The young people I interviewed were eager to engage and ready to act, but they needed spaces where they could develop their voice, understand the historical context shaping the issues impacting their communities, and learn how to take action,” Terriquez said. “Youth organizing groups provide that foundation by helping young people build civic awareness, work across differences, and mobilize others. When that happens, even a small group can have a big impact.”

For more information on State elections, visit: www.sos.ca.gov

UCLA Bruins, follow @BruinsVote to find vote centers, ballot drop boxes, and voting hours at UCLA and around Westwood for the 2026 midterm elections.

#vote #vota by @ucla_csrc

*NEW ISSUE*

Volume 51, Number 2
Fall 2026

The Fall 2026 issue opens with an Editor’s Commentary by the journal’s editor in chief, Joshua Javier Guzmán, discussing the historical necessity of a critical Chicano studies. In the essay section, Natalie Aikens utilizes the dual lenses of “eco-narrative” and “junk” to view Jaime Hernandez’s “Maggie the Mechanic” (2007) and “Love and Rockets” (early 1980s) comics to argue these works’ affirmation of Chicanx queer and female individuals and a radical acceptance of difference. Micah Donohue examines Rodolfo Anaya’s “The Adventures of Juan Chicaspatas” (1985) as a utopian alternative to the colonial violence recorded in Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá’s “Historia de la Nueva México” (1610). Christopher Mendez uses Helena María Viramontes’s “Their Dogs Came with Them” (2007) and Brando Skyhorse’s “The Madonnas of Echo Park” (2011) as case studies for how contemporary Chicanx literature represents gentrification and urban displacement as forms of neocolonialism.

The Dossier, curated and introduced by Chris Zepeda-Millán, employs the fiftieth anniversary of the 1975 special issue of Aztlán titled “Labor History and the Chicano,” edited by Luis Leobardo Arroyo and Victor B. Nelson Cisneros, as a point of departure for taking stock of the present-day subfield of Latinx labor studies, especially in regard to examinations of class, and consider possible future directions. Contributors are Juan De Lara, Emir Estrada, Glenda M. Flores, Shannon Gleeson, Arianna Gonzalez, Teresa M. Mares, Magally “Maga” Miranda, Christian O. Paiz, Adolfho Romero, and Salvador Zárate. The work of Brooklyn, New York–based artist Miguel Martinez is featured on the cover and in the Artist’s Communiqué.

Cover image: Dancer wearing Tinieblas mask, Mexican Independence Day Parade, September 2025, Sunset Park, Brooklyn, New York. Polaroid, 3.48 × 4.23 inches. Copyright 2025 by Miguel Martinez.

Aztlán is published by UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press (@ucla_csrc) in collaboration with University of California Press (@uc_press)

For more information, to access the journal online, and to subscribe, visit: https://online.ucpress.edu/aztlan (link in bio). by @ucla_csrc

Joins us! The Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies would like to invite you to a talk, "Straight Outta Panama: The Black Panamanian Diaspora in Compton and Los Angeles," with writer and researcher Jenise Miller. She will share stories, images, and personal histories from her research and oral history project on the Black Panamanian diaspora in Compton and surrounding cities. ✨️

To RSVP, scan the QR code or click the link in our bio.

Co-sponsors: Chicano Studies Research Center

#UCLA #UCLACCAS #CentralAmericanStudies #Panama #Compton by @ucla_csrc

📚 BOOK TALK AND A LONG-AWAITED WELCOME 🎉 🌼

On October 26, 2026, the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC) and its campus partners gathered for a book talk by Dr. Veronica Terriquez, who presented on her publication, Learning to Lead: Youth Organizing in Immigrant Communities (Russell Sage, 2026).

Drawing on 15 years of research, Terriquez shared insights she gained regarding how young people develop the capacity to exercise political power and drive change in their communities.

The event also served as Terriquez’s long-awaited official CSRC welcome as the center’s first female director. A celebration upon her hire in 2021 was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This past summer Terriquez was reappointed to serve as CSRC director for a second five-year term.

The event was cosponsored by the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, the UCLA Labor Studies, the UCLA Center for the Study of International Migration, the UCLA Latinx Success Center, the UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, the Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies, and Latina Futures 2050 Lab.

Congratulations to our fearless leader! ¡Enhorabuena, Dr. Terriquez! by @ucla_csrc

Join us as CRSC Director Veronica Terriquez, professor of urban planning and Chicana/o and Central American studies discusses her new book, Learning to Lead: Youth Organizing in Immigrant Communities!

Learning to Lead draws on Terriquez’s 25 years of working alongside youth, including multiple sources of data she collected over the past decade. Her work as a professor, researcher, and community organizer, led Terriquez to understand the power young people have in their communities.

Join us at the CRSC Library, Haines Hall, Room 144 on Monday, October 26

Doors open & Registration: 3:30 - 4 PM
Book Talk & Short Reception: 4 PM - 7 PM by @ucla_csrc

IN THE NEWS 📺
Veronica Terriquez, director of the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC) and professor of Chicana/o and Central American studies and urban planning, speaks to @telemundo about civic engagement among Latinx youth. The interview features her new book, Learning to Lead: Youth Organizing in Immigrant Communities.

Start watching at the 4:30 mark. https://www.youtube.com/live/QtH7XV_0EYE by @ucla_csrc

On September 4, 2026, student leaders in the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center’s California Freedom Summer (CFS) Participatory Action Research Project concluded a 30-week program that included a 10-week summer component. Paid summer internships incorporated research and youth voter registration and outreach efforts across California.

Eighty university, community college and high school students interned with 26 nonpartisan community-based organizations. Together, CFS interns conducted 450 interviews with young people across the state to learn more about their understanding of local government and priorities for community wellbeing and civic engagement.

The internships provided students with multiple opportunities to connect with local youth and work together to increase youth voter participation, improve environmental and worker conditions in students’ hometowns, support immigrant communities, and advance local transportation options, among other concerns. In collaboration with nonprofit organizations, CFS participants also led youth conferences across the state, in Delano, Los Angeles, Fresno, Santa Barbara, and Stockton.

Students have now completed their paid summer internships. Several remain involved in publishing and disseminating research findings at the CSRC.

CFS is spearheaded by the UCLA CSRC in partnership with the ethnic studies research centers within the UCLA Institute of American Cultures. This year CFS was generously supported by @calendow @calwellnessfoundation , @stuartfoundation @latinocommunityfoundation, @uclaiac , The McCune Foundation, Gold Shield Alumnae, the CSRC’s Latina Futures 2050 Lab, and individual donors. We thank the various community partners across the state that made this summer program possible.

Special thanks to @fresnocitycollege for hosting our closing gathering at their campus. We also thank speakers from @loud4tmrw , @powercanow , @chirla_org , @ylinstitute , @unidos805 , and @futureleadersofamerica_1982 for informing our students about their organizations’ ongoing community campaigns.

Photo credits: CSRC/Sandra Baltazar Martínez and Mandy Martínez by @ucla_csrc

Equal pay is about more than a paycheck.

HOPE, Latina Future 2050 Lab, and UCLA LPPI are partnering this Latina Equal Pay Day to connect what the data shows with the work to advance pay equity.

Over the course of a career, earnings disparities can shape a Latina’s ability to save, buy a home, start a business, and build wealth. HOPE estimates that the average Latina working full-time, year-round, can lose more than $1.2 million over a 40-year career compared with the average white man. California Latinas experience the largest lifetime wage gap in the country.

LPPI’s research shows how these disparities can extend into entrepreneurship. Self-employed Latinas in California earn a median of $18 per hour, compared with $29 per hour for self-employed white women and $41 per hour for self-employed white men. Among Latina entrepreneurs surveyed by LPPI, 63% used personal savings as their primary source of startup funding, while 45% reported difficulty accessing capital.

Data can identify where disparities persist. Policy can address some of the structures behind them. HOPE’s advocacy has focused on stronger pay transparency and enforcement, including clearer salary ranges, stronger pay-data reporting, accountability for noncompliance, and workers’ ability to recover lost wages.

On Latina Equal Pay Day, the data help us understand the gap. Our collective work is turning that evidence into action. by @ucla_csrc

Where are Latinas on Equal Pay Day?

Latina Equal Pay Day is October 8, and HOPE, Latina Futures 2050 Lab, and UCLA LPPI are coming together to bring research, data, and advocacy into one conversation about equal pay. Our latest analyses show both progress and persistent disparities.

In 2025, Latinas working full-time, year-round earned 60 cents for every dollar paid to non-Hispanic white men. When all Latina earners are included, including part-time and seasonal workers, that figure falls to 53 cents.

New trend analysis from LPPI shows Latinas now account for more than 1 in 5 working-age women, up from less than 1 in 10 in 1990. Although earnings have risen relative to those of white men since 1990, Latinas continue to face one of the widest and most persistent wage gaps among women. In California, Latinas earn higher hourly wages than Latinas nationally, but face a wider gap with white men in the state. LPPI also finds that higher educational attainment increases Latina wages but does not eliminate the disparity.

These analyses use different measures of earnings and populations, but together they illustrate a consistent reality: Latinas are an increasingly important part of the U.S. workforce, while substantial pay disparities remain.

An analysis by Latina Futures 2050 Lab, an initiative of the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, finds that women-dominated professions such as nursing, teaching, and social work tend to be more equitably compensated.

Tomorrow, on Latina Equal Pay Day, we look beyond the paycheck at how these disparities can affect wealth building, entrepreneurship, and the policies designed to address them. by @ucla_csrc