Memorial Service: Guillermo Hernández

As I noted on Monday, I’d received several e-mails with some very sad news: Professor Guillermo Hernández died in Mexico City yesterday. He was serving as the program director/instructor for UCLA’s travel study program based in Puebla. Prof. Hernández was the past director of the Chicano Studies Research Center, and one of the longest serving in the center's 37 year history (1992-2003). UCLA News has posted an obituary which is well-worth reading. It notes, in part, that:

"Hernández, a leading scholar on corridos, or Mexican ballads, and Chicano literature, was best known for his leadership efforts on the Arhoolie Foundation's Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American Recordings at UCLA. With more than 30,000 digitized recordings, the Frontera Collection is the largest and most diverse collection of Mexican and Mexican American music. The archive, housed in the UCLA Music Library, includes the earliest recordings of corridos and many other popular genres. "

I've also received the following notice of a memorial service set for this Friday. I reprint it in its entirety:

It is with great sadness that the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center announces that Guillermo E. Hernández, professor in the UCLA Department of Spanish and Portuguese and former CSRC Director, passed away on July 16, 2006, in Mexico City.

A viewing will be held on Friday, July 21, from 3:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Holy Cross Mortuary, 5835 W. Slauson Ave., Culver City. Mass and burial services are scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on Saturday at the mortuary.In lieu of flowers, the Hernández family has requested that donations be made to the Guillermo E. Hernández Memorial Scholarship Fund at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center. Checks should be made out to the UCLA Foundation/The Guillermo E. Hernández Memorial Scholarship and mailed to UCLA, 1309 Murphy Hall, Los Angeles, California 90095.

To read more about his life, please see http://www.chicano.ucla.edu/center/events/Hernandezobituary.htm

Wendy Belcher
Press Manager
UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center
193 Haines Hall
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1544

--DAO