Art Talk #9- Humanities Scholar Lecture by Dr. Emilio Zamora

What: Art Talks – Humanities Scholars Lecture Series in conjunction with the exhibition, Chicano/a Art, Movimiento y Más en Austen, Tejas 1960s to 1980s highlights Chicano and Chicana artists in Austin, Texas during “El Movimiento” (The Chicano Civil Rights Movement).

Title: “The Chicano Art Movement in Austin, Texas”
“I will examine the history of the Chicano art movement in Texas within its local regional and national context, paying particular attention to Austin´s Chicano cultural arts centers, La Peña Gallery, Mexic-Arte Museum, and the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center. I will also focus on the 2022 exhibition, “Chicano/a Art, Movimiento y Mas en Austin, Tejas, 1960 to 1980,” as a valuable retrospective that informs the history of the arts movement with important visual and documentary materials as well as presentations by artists, activists and art historians and their interchanges with the public.”

Who: Dr. Emilio Zamora – Emilio Zamora is the Clyde Rabb Littlefield Chair in Texas History at the University of Texas at Austin, a Fellow of the George W. Littlefield Professorship in American History, Department of History, and an affiliate with the Center for Mexican American Studies and the Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies at the same institution. He writes and teaches on the history of Mexicans in the United States, Texas history and oral history, and focuses on the working class and transnational experiences of Mexicans in Texas during the twentieth century. Zamora has prepared or collaborated in the production of eleven books, including three single-authored books, a translated and edited WWI diary by José de la Luz Saenz, a translated and edited, 2 volume work by Alonso Perales, three co-edited anthologies, a co-edited eBook, and two Texas history texts. He has received seven book awards, a best-article prize, a Fulbright García-Robles fellowship with a one-year residency at the University of Guanajuato, Mexico, and an additional twelve scholarly and thirteen professional service recognitions. Zamora´s latest awards include: the 2017 Scholar of the Year Award from the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS), the 2017 NACCS Tejas Foco Premio Estrella de Aztlán Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2019 Ruth A. Allen Pioneer in Texas Working Class History Award from the Texas Center for Working-Class Studies, Collin College, the 2021 Roy Rosenzweig Distinguished Service Award from the Organization of American Historians, and the 2023 William C. Powers Jr. Lifetime Service Award from the University of Texas at Austin.
Zamora is a lifetime member of the Texas Institute of Letters and a lifetime Fellow with the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), a past-President of TSHA (2019-20), and has served on TSHA´s Executive Committee and Board of Directors. As an officer of TSHA, he served as an intermediary between Association and the Department of History at the University of Texas, the official host of the organization. Zamora has served on the Advisory Committee of the University of Texas Voces Oral History Project, the Advisory Board of the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Project at the University of Houston and a member of the Editorial Board of the U.S. Latino Oral History Journal. He serves as the editor of the journal´s section entitled “Special Community Projects” and a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Mexican American Studies at Texas A&M University Kingsville.
His community engagement record includes current membership in the Patronato of the Mexican American Civil Rights Institute at Our Lady of the Lake University at San Antonio and past membership on the Advisory Board of Austin´s Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center (ESB-MACC) and the Hispanic/Latino Quality of Life Commission. Zamora is also a founding and continuing member of Nuestro Grupo, the sponsor of Academia Cuauhtli / Cuauhtli Academy, a Saturday morning language and cultural revitalization program in Austin sponsored by the ESB-MACC and the Austin ISD. He is a leader in the national Ethnic Studies campaign as an advocate for Ethnic Studies in the nation´s public schools. Zamora has authored articles on community engagement and has served as an advisor to the NACCS Tejas Foco (state affiliate) K-12 Mexican American Studies Committee, a consultant to Historias Americanas (a multi-year, Department of Education-funded teacher development project with 55 teachers from the Edinburg and Brownsville ISDs), and a convener of Academia Cuauhtli with curriculum-writing responsibilities.
He holds a PhD Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin, U.S. History, specializing on Mexicans in the United States, a Master´s from Texas A&I University in Kingsville in U.S. History, Latin American Literature, Education, and a Bachelor´s degree from Texas A&I University in Kingsville, U.S. History, Spanish, Education.