University Advancement

Public Relations and Strategic Communications

NEWS RELEASE

Student Documentary Chronicles the Historic Birth of Chicano Studies at CSUN

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Sept. 28, 2006) -- One of the largest academic departments of its kind in the nation, Cal State Northridge’s Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies grew out of the tumult and upheaval that swept across university campuses in the late 1960s.

Many of its founding faculty are considered leaders in the field. Yet many of the university’ current students know little about the department’s rich history and the impact it has had on similar programs across the country.

A team of Chicana/o studies students are hoping to rectify that with their documentary, "UNREST: Founding of the California State University, Northridge Chicana/Chicano Studies Department", that features historic footage and interviews with some of the department’s founders.

The film premiers at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 18, in the Northridge Center in the Sol Center on the west side of campus off Zelzah Street.

"‘UNREST’ was born in the hallways and conference rooms of the Chicana/o studies department when informal meetings between faculty and students led to the realization that not everyone working or studying in the department knew the struggles the previous generations went through to create the department," said Chicana/o studies instructor Gerard Meraz, who served as an advisor to the project. "The idea of creating a teaching tool that could connect the roles of Chicana/o students, the civil rights movements and CSUN history led to the decision to make a documentary."

Senior Miguel Duran, who is double majoring in art and Chicana/o studies, was enlisted by Meraz and fellow faculty advisor Maria Elena Fernandez to work with other faculty and students to create the film. Duran, who has been making his own movies since high school, admitted he is a little nervous as the premier approaches.

"It’s really a mixture of emotions. I’m very happy but at the same time really nervous," said Duran, who served as the film’s director and editor. "I was asked to do something that has never been done since the department began--tell its story on film. The people who actually lived through its creation are going to be there. The generations since, including myself, had no idea what went on when the department was created. My job was to tell an old story through new eyes."

The film chronicles how CSUN’s Chicana/o studies department came to be in the late 1960s. The campus, then known as San Fernando Valley State College, was located in what was then a semi-rural area. Its faculty and students were mostly white. Students of all colors joined in a call for increasing diversity on campus, at times clashing with administrators and police. Their protests and the aftermath led to the creation of the university’s Pan-African and Chicana/o studies departments and paved the way for other programs such as Asian American, American Indian and Armenian studies.

"A handful of black, Chicana/o and progressive white students united over several issues: the war in Vietnam, injustice on campus and educational relevance and diversity," Meraz said. "Their struggles eventually led to CSUN housing the largest Chicana/o studies department in the world."

Duran said working on the film taught him not to take Cal State Northridge and its history for granted.

"There is so much I didn’t know," he said. "Sudents and faculty were arrested and beaten, just for trying to explore the basic knowledge of their cultures. I am hoping that all students, when they see this, learn not to take ethnic studies departments--Pan African studies, Asian American studies, American Indian studies, Chicano studies--for granted. We have to take advantage of what we have now; so many other schools don’t have this."

The premier of "UNREST" is free and open to the public.

The evening will begin with a reception at 6 p.m., featuring performances by Conjunto Hueyapan and cliChé, a group formed by Chicana/o studies instructor Antonia Garcia-Orozco, who wrote and recorded the music for the documentary’s soundtrack.

For more information about the premier, call CSUN’s Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at (818) 677-2734.

California State University, Northridge has 33,000 full- and part-time students and offers 62 bachelor’s and 50 master’s degrees as well as 28 teaching credential programs. Founded in 1958, CSUN is among the largest single-campus universities in the nation and the only four-year public university in the San Fernando Valley. The university serves as the intellectual, economic and cultural heart of the Valley and beyond.