ARCHIVAL BODY/ARCHIVAL SPACE

453 Pages·2011·1.73 MB·English

by  Matthew Hill

ABSTRACT

Title of Document: ARCHIVAL BODY/ARCHIVAL SPACE:
QUEER REMAINS OF THE CHICANO ART
MOVEMENT, LOS ANGELES, 1969-2009.

Robert Lyle Hernandez, III, Ph.D., 2011

Directed By: Associate Professor Mary Corbin Sies,
American Studies

This dissertation proposes an interdisciplinary queer archive methodology I
term ―archival body/archival space,‖ which recovers, interprets, and assesses the
alternative archives and preservation practices of homosexual men in the Chicano Art
Movement, the cultural arm of the Mexican American civil rights struggle in the U.S.
Without access to systemic modes of preservation, these men generated other archival
practices to resist their erasure, omission, and obscurity. The study conducts a series
of archive excavations mining ―archival bodies‖ of homosexual artists from buried
and unseen ―archival spaces,‖ such as: domestic interiors, home furnishings, barrio
neighborhoods, and museum installations. This allows us to reconstruct the artist
archive and, thus, challenge how we see, know, and comprehend ―Chicano art‖ as an
aesthetic and cultural category. As such, I evidence the critical role of sexual
difference within this visual vocabulary and illuminate networks of homosexual
Chicano artists taking place in gay bars, alternative art spaces, salons, and barrios
throughout East Los Angeles.
My queer archive study model consists of five interpretative strategies: sexual
agency of Chicano art, queer archival afterlife, containers of desire, archival
chiaroscuro, and archive elicitation. I posit that by speaking through these artifact
formations, the ―archival body‖ performs the allegorical bones and flesh of the artist,
an artifactual surrogacy articulated through things. My methodological innovation
has direct bearing on how sexual difference shapes the material record and the places
from which these ―queer remains‖ are kept, sheltered, and displayed. These heritage
purveyors questioned what constitutes an archive and a record, challenging the biased
assumption that sexuality was insignificant to the Chicano Art Movement and leaving
no material trace.
The structure of my dissertation presents five archive recovery projects,
including: Robert ―Cyclona‖ Legorreta, Joey Terrill, Mundo Meza, Teddy Sandoval,
and VIVA: Lesbian and Gay Latino Artists of Los Angeles. The restoration of these
artists also reveals the profound symbiosis between this circle of artists, Chicano
avant-gardism, and the burgeoning gay and lesbian liberation movement in Los
Angeles. My findings rupture the persistent heterosexual vision of this period and
reveals a parallel visual lineage, one which dared to picture sexual difference in the
epicenter of Chicano art production.
ARCHIVAL BODY/ARCHIVAL SPACE: QUEER REMAINS OF THE
CHICANO ART MOVEMENT, LOS ANGELES, 1969-2009.

By

Robert Lyle Hernandez, III

Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the
University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
2011

Advisory Committee:
Associate Professor Mary Corbin Sies, Chair
Associate Professor Jennifer Gonzalez
Associate Professor Angel David Nieves
Professor Martha Nell Smith
Associate Professor Psyche Williams-Forson
© Copyright by
Robert Lyle Hernandez, III
2011
Dedication
This is dedicated to my parents Robert and Debbie Hernandez
for their unwavering faith and love.
In memory of Carlos Ibanez y Bueno (1941-2001),
Mundo Meza (1955-1985) and Teddy Sandoval (1949-1995).
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Acknowledgements
Earning a Ph.D. was a goal I had never imagined for myself. Growing up in a
small trailer park in Boulder, Colorado my perception of the world was bound to the
walk to Crest View Elementary, Saturday morning visits to Grandma‘s house, and the
endless span of park stretching far behind our home. My journey here was an unusual
one spurred by curious escapes into television, creative writing, and my father‘s
extensive VHS library--each tape meticulously registered, inventoried, and indeed,
archived in a small notebook kept on the living room coffee table. His collection was
a surprising but resonating influence, one of the first image archives I came in contact
with.
The other was the collection of stories shared between the women in my
family sitting around grandma‘s dining room. Chisme, as I would come to
understand it later, was the convoy to the Chicano family‘s historical records. It was
here that photographs would manifest from a closet storage box. The same box that
would surface the night grandma died. Her passing on New Year‘s Eve of 2003 sent
us reeling from Boulder Community Hospital. Our return to her empty house would
be the last time we would talk through her things. This deeply emotional ritual sifting
through her personal affects was a powerful and indescribable moment for me. It was
a connection that would intensify as her private belongings were adopted between
family members and her long-time home was sold to a California real estate
developer.
Today, the plum tree orchard I remember so fondly is no more and the family
garden is a paved parking lot. I grieve this loss and with it, my connection to
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Boulder--a place where the majestic university on the hill was the only school I ever
wanted to attend as well as the setting for grandma‘s employment. For 35 years she
cleaned school classrooms, lab buildings, and the prized alumni house. Before she
died, she attended my graduation and rightfully claimed a seat in the auditorium as
my guest. I was her first grandson to graduate Magna Cum Laude with dual degrees
from CU-Boulder. She smiled and called me her ―John Boy.‖ As I cross this final
threshold in my graduate studies, I can‘t help but think of her, her laughter after
picking up my bulging backpack of books, and her enthusiasm over every school
achievement.
My path to Ph.D. competition may not have happened without the fortuitous
meeting and support of key mentors, scholars, and friends that went beyond the call
of duty and directed me along this life course. This began in 2003 with my
enrollment in the Critical Studies M.A. Program in the Department of Film,
Television, and Digital Media at UCLA. Key seminars with Professors John
Caldwell, Kathleen McHugh, Chon Noriega, Rafael Perez-Torres, and the late Lisa
Kernan and Teshome Gabriel were pivotal by introducing me to cultural criticism,
media industries, and technologies. Moreover, my instantaneous bond with a cohort
of film and television scholars including Elena Powell Beecher, Crystal Lemaire
Bailey, Hye Jean Chung, Priscilla Espinoza Kaiserman, Burcu Melekolgu, Colin
Gunkel, Laurel Westrup, and Maria Munoz Chacon made the intense conditions of
graduate school less daunting and worthwhile.
From the moment I stepped foot on campus, Dr. Chon A. Noriega and his
staff at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center formed an immediate intellectual
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outlet. Chon‘s initiative, vision, and mentorship provided countless opportunities
including an encounter with a man named ―Cyclona‖ in 2004. Little did I realize that
this initial meeting would radically alter my initial research aspirations and introduce
me to a profound set of questions and concerns intensifying my search for the names
of artists scattered in Legorreta‘s private collection. Names that would later have
direct bearing on how Chicano art history is written, interpreted, and taught. True to
his namesake, Robert ―Cyclona‖ Legorreta opened Pandora‘s Box spurring new
questions and lines of investigation and for that, I am forever grateful.
To accomplish this ambitious research agenda, I needed a new set of
interdisciplinary skills. Fortunately, my interests in archive theory, Latino cultural
heritage, visual culture, and art history found a home in the Department of American
Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park and under the tutelage,
mentorship, and rigor of Dr. Mary Corbin Sies. It is no coincidence that much of my
training was cultivated under her watch and leadership. In fact, many of this
dissertation‘s nascent ideas were cultivated in Mary‘s seminars on museum research,
cultural landscape studies, and American studies theory and method, where a cohort
of young scholars like Gina Callahan, Kirsten Crase, Patrick Grzanka, Doug Ishii,
Bettina Judd, Tiffany King, Beck Krefting, Ana M. Perez, Maria Vargas, and Amelia
Wong, shaped the contours of my work. Indeed, Mary is an invaluable asset to
Maryland providing an unprecedented level of student mentoring, commitment, and
engagement unmatched by any other American Studies faculty in the U.S.
Additionally, my supplementary studies in the areas of race, American art, and
museum culture led me to the Department of Art History. In particular, seminars with
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Dr. Renee Ater created a welcoming environment for a visual culture studies
provocateur opening new lines of aesthetic and cultural inquiry, always with her
encouraging words that Chicano art does have a place in the American art classroom.
Her courses fueled my bond with a cluster of art history graduate students. Sybil
Gohari, Eowyn Henry, Jennifer Quick, Megan Rook-Koepsel, Jonathan Walz, and the
fabulous Breanne Robertson continued to ask me the hard questions and
acknowledged me as one of their own.
From the moment I arrived at College Park much of my time outside the
seminar room was dedicated to the development, advocacy, and planning of the U.S.
Latina/o Studies Program (USLT), the first in the Mid-Atlantic region. From my
involvement in the initial program proposal to Provost William Destler in 2006 to my
role as the program coordinator in our pilot year (2007-08) and in the American
Studies department (2009-10), I attained a rare glimpse into program building and
curricular design. I was afforded the unusual opportunity to teach the first Latina/o
Studies courses in American Studies including a class on Latino art and Museum
Studies, and a senior capstone course on Latino cultural landscapes. Several
undergraduates were instrumental in not only the success of my courses but in the
institutionalization of the USLT program. Kristin Bergery, Pamela Cervera, Colleen
Esper, Eddie Gamero, Arelis Hernandez, Janine Hernandez-Diaz, Evelyn Lopez, and
Manny Ruiz believed in the Latina/o experience as an inextricable part of the
American story. You stir my passion for social justice and remind me why Latina/o
Studies matters.
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In addition several graduate students and faculty honored my calls for
―Latina/o Studies Working Group‖ meetings and even helped organize the
groundbreaking ―Disrupting Latinidad‖ Latino studies conference in 2006 and
―Semana de la Latina‖ in 2010. Fernando Benavidez, Leandro Benmurgi, Maritza
Gonzalez, Paula Halperin, Jessica M. Johnson, Ana M. Perez, Cristina Risco, and
Tina Zarpour were stalwarts creating a graduate community for emergent U.S.
Latina/o studies scholarship. As I close this chapter in my life, I hand the reigns off
to my Chicana feminist colleagues, Ana M. Perez and Maria Vargas, with the belief
that USLT must continue to grow and realize its potential within American studies
and the University of Maryland.
A fortuitous conversation with Angel David Nieves led to my first seminar in
Museum Scholarship co-taught by curators at the Smithsonian Museum of American
History. This transformative seminar unleashed a hidden passion for not only
archival and art-historical exhibition research but expanded my view on curatorial
method, exhibition design, and display. This course facilitated my enrollment into the
University of Maryland‘s Certificate Program in Museum Scholarship and Material
Culture Studies as well as my participation in the Smithsonian Latino Museum
Studies Program in the summer of 2006. LMSP‘s emphasis on the representation,
interpretation, and preservation of U.S. Latina/o cultural heritage led me down an
unexpected course of professional aspirations.
Much of this would not have been possible without the unwavering friendship,
confidence, and support of Joanne Flores, who risked hiring a museum studies novice
to coordinate LMSP in 2007 and 2008. Due to her trust in my vision, the
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