Awards, a Reading, Identity Again, Gordo Goes to College, and a Brother in Seoul

TOMÁS RIVERA CONFERENCE ANNOUNCES LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

Artist Alfredo Arreguín and author Lauro Flores will receive lifetime achievement awards at the 21st annual Tomás Rivera Conference on Thursday, April 24, at the University of California, Riverside.

The theme of the annual conference, which honors the memory of UCR Chancellor Tomás Rivera, is “AméricaViva” (“America Live”). The event will begin at noon in the University Theatre and continue until 3 p.m.

The conference will feature the presentation of a Lifetime Achievement Award in the Visual Arts to Arreguín and the Lifetime Achievement Award in Chicano Literature to Flores.

New this year is a poetry contest for Inland area college and high school students. Poems must relate to Arrequín’s artwork. The contest deadline is April 11. Prizes of $250, $150 and $100 will be awarded to winners in separate college and high school competitions. Winners must attend the conference to receive their awards. Entry details are available online.


GORDO FINDS A HOME AT BERKELEY
The papers and archives of Gus Arriola have been collected by the Bancroft Library at U.C. Berkeley, Arriola was the creator and artist for the comic strip Gordo. Here's a paragraph from an article in the U.C. Berkeleyan Online (Barry Bergman):

"Gordo, the syndicated comic strip Arriola drew almost continuously from 1941 until 1985, at its peak ran in 270 newspapers, including the San Francisco Chronicle. (The Chronicle was among the original dozen or so papers to pick it up, printing the inaugural strip two weeks before the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor; Gordo took a brief hiatus a year later while Arriola served a stint in the army.) By turns fanciful, narrative, and flat-out psychedelic — especially on Sundays, when the conventions of daily comic-strip art gave way to lyrical, visually dazzling tributes to jazz, ecology, or Mexico’s Day of the Dead — it won kudos from lawmakers on both sides of the border for its role in promoting international understanding, and from fellow cartoonists for its originality. More important, it won the loyalty of millions of readers, many of whom followed Gordo’s adventures as devotedly as the wealthy Widow Gonzales pursued Gordo. (Gordo’s own taste in women, alas, skewed a bit younger.)"

Arriola died on February 2, 2008, about a year after he began to transfer his artwork and related materials such as correspondence, personal papers and promotional materials to the Bancroft Library, a world-renowned resource for the study of California and Western American history and one of the top research libraries in the world.

Accidental Ambassador, Gordo: The Comic Strip Art of Gus Arriola by Robert C. Harvey and Gus Arriola (University Press of Mississippi, 2000) is a biography of the artist that features his art. The publisher says: "Profusely illustrated with runs of the strip from various periods, the book traces Arriola's artistic evolution and celebrates the cartoonist as a supremely inventive stylist whose artwork always displays design qualities unusual for a comic strip. His stunning Sunday fiestas of color and design are exemplified with eight pages of full-color reproductions."



ROBERT MIRABAL - MODERN INDIAN IDENTITY
The Modern Indian Identity lecture series, sponsored by the Center of the American West, presents Robert Mirabal on March 19 at 7:30 PM at the First United Methodist Church in Boulder, Colorado. As a composer, songwriter, and musician, Mirabal has won many honors including two-time Native American Artist of the Year, three-time Songwriter of the Year, and two Grammy Awards for Best Native American Album of the Year. More information at the Center's website. Admission is free.

ROLANDO HINOJOSA-SMITH IN KOREA
Professor Rolando Hinojosa-Smith informed La Bloga that he currently is visiting Seoul National University as a guest of El Instituto de Estudios Latinoamericanos de la Universidad Nacional de Seúl. Rolando is a presenter for the Presencia latina en los Estados Unidos program, and the title of his lecture is El lugar de proveniencia como estímulo para la creatividad. La Bloga's readers recognize Rolando as the esteemed author of the Klail City Death Trip Series of fifteen novels, which set the standard for Chicano multi-generational epic stories. Professor, if you get a chance, would you mind asking about Martin Limón's books? I wonder how they're received over there.

EL LABORATORIO REMINDER
March 15, El Lab at Belmar -- Mario Acevedo and Aaron Abeyta read, perform, answer questions, explain how to do this writing thing, and otherwise act up at El Lab, the Latino Literary forum that has featured excellent programs for the past year or so. The reception begins at 6:00 PM, $10 non-members, $5 for members. El Lab is located in The Lab at 404 S. Upham Street, Lakewood, CO; 303-934-1777.

Later.