Liberal Studies | Spotlight

Professor Viesca on KPCC ‘Civil Rights & Go-Go Boots’ panel

Campus community welcome to the April 13 Crawford Family Forum

Image from KPCC Crawford Family Forum promotional postcard.

Featuring Cal State L.A.’s Liberal Studies Professor Victor Hugo Viesca as a guest panelist, KPCC (89.3 AM) and About…Productions will present “Civil Rights and Go-Go Boots: A Groovy Evening of Theater, Live Music, and Chicano History,” as part of its Crawford Family Forum ongoing community series, on Wednesday, April 13, starting at 7 p.m.

To be recorded for KPCC’s video archives, the Wednesday program will introduce About…Productions’ upcoming original theater piece, Evangeline, the Queen of Make-Believe, to premiere in 2012. Set in the late 1960s, Evangeline has been described as a multi-media drama about “a young woman from East Los Angeles who is a devout daughter by day and a Hollywood go-go dancer by night.”

Following each theatrical excerpt of Evangeline, the audience in attendance that evening will be engaged in a discussion with the panelists to explore how the themes resonate with the racial, political and cultural issues still with us today. One of three panelists, CSULA’s Professor Viesca will join Alma Martinez of Pomona College and Josh Kun of USC to discuss the legacy of Chicano music of the 1960s and 1970s on the present day East Los Angeles music scene.

Viesca has also been serving as an adviser for this play, and in the past, has provided interns for the About…Productions company through the community engagement component of his class, “Multicultural Arts, L.A.” (Liberal Studies 234), offered on the CSULA campus.

Picture of Victor Hugo Viesca.
Victor Hugo Viesca

A Los Angeles native, Viesca’s research on contemporary Chicano music and culture has appeared in the American Quarterly, the British journal Cultural Values, and in a collection of classic and contemporary writings on popular culture titled Popular Culture: A Reader (Sage, 2005). He is currently revising his dissertation, “Eastside State of Mind: Race, Space and Chicana/o Youth Culture in Post-Industrial Los Angeles,” into a book.

The Evangeline project is a collaboration between About...Productions’ Artistic Director Theresa Chavez, Associate Director Rose Portillo, and Louie Perez of the famous East Los Angeles rock band, Los Lobos. The multi-talented Quetzal Flores of the band, Quetzal, has re-imagined the music of Los Lobos for the production of Evangeline.

The campus community is welcome to attend this free event at the Crawford Family Forum, located at 474 South Raymond Avenue in Pasadena. However, seating is limited and is on a first-come, first-served basis. An RSVP is required and can be made by calling (626) 583-5232 or registering online at http://www.scpr.org/events/forum.

Samples of work by CSULA Professor Victor Hugo Viesca:

“The Battle of Los Angeles: The Cultural Politics of Chicana/o Music in the Greater Eastside” (American Quarterly): http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/american_quarterly/v056/56.3viesca.html

“Straight out the barrio: Ozomatli and the importance of place in the formation of Chicano/a popular culture in Los Angeles” (Journal for Cultural World): http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/433837058-24547336/content~db=jour~content=a909631880

“‘Beneath the Surface’: Los Angeles Underground Hip Hop and the Myth of the Back-Latino Divide” (Experience Music Project’s 2008 Pop Conference): http://www.empsfm.org/education/index.asp?categoryID=26&ccID=127&xPopConfBioID=1040&year=2008

Learn more at the following links: