Event Category: Public Lecture

Saint Louis University Hosts Anthony Macías

When: Monday, April 24, 2023, 4:30 p.m.

Where: Pere Marquette Gallery, Saint Louis University, 221 N. Grand Blvd.,  St. Louis, MO

Anthony Macías will speak on Ex Uno Plura (out of One, Many). In this free public talk, Macías analyzes the concept of cultural pluralism vis-a-vis the defacto United States motto, E Pluribus Unum and its reverse, using Chicano-Chicana cultural production as evidence to demonstrate how popular culture plays a crucial role in imagining Americana. There will be a reception after the talk, and his book Chicano-Chicana Americana will be available for purchase.

Chicano-Chicana Americana, explores American national character by showing how ethnic Mexicans attained social and cultural status through fair, open competition without a radical realignment of political or economic structures. Their creative achievements demanded dignity and earned respect. Anthony Macías argues that these performances demonstrated a pop culture pluralism that subtly changed mainstream America, transforming it from the mythological past of the Wild West to the speculative future of science fiction.

Anthony Macías is an associate professor in the Ethnic Studies Department at the University of California, Riverside. He is the author of the book Mexican American Mojo: Popular Music, Dance, and Urban Culture in Los Angeles, 1935–1968. He has also published on bebop, hip hop, punk rock, Latin music, bandleader Gerald Wilson, Jewish Americans, U.S. historiography, Hollywood westerns, gay rights and Dog Day Afternoon, and the pan-American hemispheric imaginary.

Soundscapes of the Southwest Features Tim Hernandez

When: Friday, April 28, 7:15 p.m.

Where: University of Arizona, Integrated Learning Center, Room ILC 130, 1500 E. University Blvd., Tucson

As part of the Southwest Center Spring 2023 Lecture Series “Soundscape of the Southwest”, author Tim Hernandez and singer/songwriter Ana Saldaña will present a poetic and musical performance, “Searching for the Plane Wreck at Los Gatos.”

This presentation is part of the Plane Crash Project, which centers around the famous 1948 accident in Los Gatos Canyon, Fresno County, which took the lives of 32 passengers, 28 who were “Mexican Nationals.” The pilot, first officer, stewardess and an immigration official who were white received burials in their hometowns. The Mexicans — many of whom were part of the bracero program and working in the U.S. legally — were buried in a mass grave in Fresno, with a small plaque bearing none of their names.

This is the same crash made famous by Woody Guthrie and Martin Hoffman, in the song “Plane Wreck at Los Gatos (The Deportee Song),” which has been recorded by musicians such as Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Dolly Parton, Joan Baez, and Pete Seeger

Tim Hernandez wrote the book All They Will Call You, in which he combines years of painstaking investigative research and masterful storytelling. The author weaves a captivating narrative from testimony, historical records, and eyewitness accounts, reconstructing the incident and the lives behind the legendary song. The book will be available for purchase at the event.

Tom Zoellner Tells Trail Tales at Arizona Historical Society

When: Saturday, March 25, 11:30 a.m.

Where: Arizona Historical Society, 949 E. 2nd St., Tucson, Arizona

In this free and open to the public event, Tom Zoellner shares stories from his book, Rim to River: Looking into the Heart of Arizona. He interweaves his hike along the Arizona Trail from Utah to Sonora with stories about the history and culture of the state.  Zoellner, who grew up in Tucson and Phoenix, walked the length of the state and considers big questions for all Arizonans: Who are we? What is this place? How did it get this way? Zoellner is a fifth generation Arizonan and author of eight nonfiction books including The Heartless Stone, Uranium, Train, A Safeway in Arizona and Island on Fire, which won the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award.

About the book:

Rim to River is the story of an extraordinary journey through redrock country, down canyons, up mesas, and across desert plains to the obscure valley in Mexico that gave the state its enigmatic name. The trek is interspersed with incisive essays that pick apart the distinctive cultural landscape of Arizona: the wine-colored pinnacles and complex spirituality of Navajoland, the mind-numbing stucco suburbs, desperate border crossings, legislative skullduggery, extreme politics, billion-dollar copper ventures, dehydrating rivers, retirement kingdoms, old-time foodways, ghosts of old wars, honky-tonk dreamers, murder mysteries, and magical Grand Canyon reveries.

Rim to River author Tom Zoellner Speaks at Arizona Heritage Center

When: Thursday, March 16, 6 p.m.

Where: Arizona Heritage Center, 1300 N. College Ave, Tempe,  Arizona

In this free and open to the public event, Tom Zoellner shares stories from his book, Rim to River: Looking into the Heart of Arizona. He interweaves his hike along the Arizona Trail from Utah to Sonora with stories about the history and culture of the state. Will he find the Arizonac ranch for which the state is named? What does he learn about the Grand Canyon? Zoellner is a fifth generation Arizonan and author of eight nonfiction books including The Heartless Stone, Uranium, Train, A Safeway in Arizona and Island on Fire, which won the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award.

About the book:

Rim to River is the story of an extraordinary journey through redrock country, down canyons, up mesas, and across desert plains to the obscure valley in Mexico that gave the state its enigmatic name. The trek is interspersed with incisive essays that pick apart the distinctive cultural landscape of Arizona: the wine-colored pinnacles and complex spirituality of Navajoland, the mind-numbing stucco suburbs, desperate border crossings, legislative skullduggery, extreme politics, billion-dollar copper ventures, dehydrating rivers, retirement kingdoms, old-time foodways, ghosts of old wars, honky-tonk dreamers, murder mysteries, and magical Grand Canyon reveries.  

Virtual Talk: Daniel Arreola to Give State of Arizona Research Library’s 2023 Arizona Author Series Talk

Professor Emeritus Daniel Arreola will speak about his book, Postcards from the Sonora Border: Visualizing Place through a Popular Lens, 1900s-1950s, as part of the State of Arizona Research Library’s 2023 Arizona Author Series

When: 1 p.m. MST, Thursday, February 2nd
Where: Zoom
Register

After the talk, there will be time for questions from the audience.


About the Book
Young men ride horses on a dusty main road through town. Cars and gas stations gradually intrude on the land, and, years later, curiosity shops and cantinas change the face of Mexican border towns south of Arizona. Between 1900 and the late 1950s, Mexican border towns came of age both as centers of commerce and as tourist destinations. Postcards from the Sonora Border reveals how images—in this case the iconic postcard—shape the way we experience and think about place.

Making use of his personal collection of historic images, Daniel D. Arreola captures the evolution of Sonoran border towns, creating a sense of visual “time travel” for the reader. Supported by maps and visual imagery, the author shares the geographical and historical story of five unique border towns—Agua Prieta, Naco, Nogales, Sonoyta, and San Luis Río Colorado.

Postcards from the Sonora Border introduces us to these important towns and provides individual stories about each, using the postcards as markers. No one postcard view tells the complete story—rather, the sense of place emerges image by image as the author pulls readers through the collection as an assembled view. Arreola reveals how often the same locations and landmarks of a town were photographed as postcard images generation after generation, giving a long and dynamic view of the inhabitants through time. Arranged chronologically, Arreola’s postcards allow us to discover the changing perceptions of place in the borderlands of Sonora, Mexico.

Daniel Arreola is a cultural and historical geographer who specializes in the study of the Mexican American borderland and Hispanic cultures in America. He is the recipient of the Paul P. Vouras Medal from The American Geographical Society for his studies in regional geography, and the Carl O. Sauer Distinguished Scholarship Award and the Preston E. James Eminent Latin Americanist Career Award from the Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers for his Mexican borderland studies. His Tejano South Texas (2002) book won the prestigious Jackson Prize from the Association of American Geographers

Arreola is the author of seven scholarly books including The Mexican Border Cities: Landscape Anatomy and Place Personality (with James R. Curtis), Tejano South Texas: A Mexican American Cultural Province, and Hispanic Spaces, Latino Places: Community and Cultural Diversity in Contemporary America. He is presently writing a book titled “The Mexican Restaurant in America, a Journey across Time and Place.” He is an Arizona State University, Professor Emeritus, and currently resides in Placitas, New Mexico.

Astonishing Arizona Women with Author Tom Zoellner

When: 1:00 p.m., Saturday, March 18, 2023

Where: Phippen Museum, 4701 Highway 89 North, Prescott, Arizona

Tom Zoellner shares stories from his book, Rim to River: Looking into the Heart of Arizona, about astonishing women who have shaped history and pioneered new ways of thinking. From Native women who re-enact their coming-of-age ceremony through the daily act of running through the canyon country, to a Latina graduate of Arizona State who becomes a trailblazing get-out-the-vote activist for the Democrats, to a dynamic Prescott native who sought a place with the Republicans, to the lauded Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords who remains a source of inspiration, the book is a celebration of Arizona’s women of all backgrounds.

About the book:

Rim to River is the story of an extraordinary journey through redrock country, down canyons, up mesas, and across desert plains to the obscure valley in Mexico that gave the state its enigmatic name. The trek is interspersed with incisive essays that pick apart the distinctive cultural landscape of Arizona: the wine-colored pinnacles and complex spirituality of Navajoland, the mind-numbing stucco suburbs, desperate border crossings, legislative skullduggery, extreme politics, billion-dollar copper ventures, dehydrating rivers, retirement kingdoms, old-time foodways, ghosts of old wars, honky-tonk dreamers, murder mysteries, and magical Grand Canyon reveries.

Symposium: ‘Confluence: The Colorado River at the Compact’s Centennial’

When: December 6, 2022 from 8:00 A.M. to 5:30 P.M.

Where: University of Arizona Campus ENR2 Building, 1064 E. Lowell St., Tucson, AZ

Please join us for “Confluence: The Colorado River at the Compact’s Centennial.” This event features an array of Colorado River experts speaking about critical topics along “America’s Nile.” In addition to discussing current conditions and future options, we will celebrate the publication of the Colorado River Compact centennial volume, Cornerstone at the Confluence: Navigating the Colorado River Compact’s Next Century. UA Press will have books available for purchase at a 30% discount, and a signing by Cornerstone authors will follow the symposium.

Refreshments will be served, books will be raffled, Cornerstone authors will be present, and a book reception will be held. This event is open to the public and in-person attendance is preferred. For those unable to attend in person, Zoom attendance will be permitted by request. Please send an email with your request to Amanda Leinberger at aleinberger@arizona.edu.

This event is hosted by the Arizona Institute for Resilient Environments and Societies. Thank you to our event co-sponsors: the Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy, the Janet Quinney Lawson Foundation, the Speer Family Foundation, UA press, the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy, and the Water and Tribes Initiative.

Register for the event here.

Reaffirming UA’s Legacy as the Premiere Desert Science Institution in the World

When: October 13, 2022 from 3 p.m. to 4:15 p.m.

Where: The University of Arizona Campus Kiva Room, Tucson, AZ

Join us for Gary Nabhan’s last on-campus lecture after 40 years of involvement with desert sciences, followed by comments from Chuck Hutchinson, David Quanrud, & Aaron Flesch, a public discussion, and a book signing.

The following books written by or edited by Gary Nabhan will be available for sale at the lecture:

The Nature of Desert Nature: The desert inspires wonder. Attending to history, culture, science, and spirit, The Nature of Desert Nature celebrates the bounty and the significance of desert places.

The Desert Smells Like Rain (40th Anniversary Edition): In this work, Gary Paul Nabhan brings O’odham voices to the page at every turn. He writes elegantly of how they husband scant water supplies, grow crops, and utilize edible wild foods. Woven through his account are coyote tales, O’odham children’s impressions of the desert, and observations of the political problems that come with living on both sides of an international border. Nabhan conveys the everyday life and extraordinary perseverance of these desert people.

Ethnobiology for the Future: Ethnobiology is dedicated to celebrating the knowledge and values of some of the most distinctive cultures and practices on Earth. In this important new collection, MacArthur Fellow Gary Paul Nabhan lays out the case for the future of the field. Nabhan and his colleagues from across disciplines and cultures call for an ethnobiology that is provocative, problem-driven, and, above all, inspiring.

We look forward to seeing you at the lecture!

Collaborative Archaeology and the “Becoming Hopi” Project

When: March 7, 2023 at 6:00 p.m., MST

Where: Zoom, register here.

Join Archaeology Café on March 7, 2023, when Stewart Koyiyumptewa (Hopi Cultural Preservation Office) and Wes Bernardini (University of Redlands) will discuss “Collaborative Archaeology and the ‘Becoming Hopi’ Project.” For nearly two decades, Hopi tribal members and external scholars have collaborated on a monumental history of the Hopi Mesas. We will discuss the importance of collaboration and how tribal perspectives have changed our understanding of Hopi history.

Can’t join the session live? No problem! About a week after each café, Archaeology Southwest will post videos of each presentation to the video archive on their website and to their YouTube channel. They’ll share links on their Facebook and Twitter and in their Southwest Archaeology Today and This Month at Archaeology Southwest email newsletters.

About Archaeology Café:
Presented by Archaeology Southwest, a nonprofit organization that explores and protects heritage places while honoring their diverse values, Archaeology Café is an informal forum that brings lifelong learners together with experts.

Learn more about the award-winning volume Becoming Hopi here.

Tucson Festival of Books 2023

When: March 4 & 5, 2023

Where: The University of Arizona Campus, Tucson, AZ

Join us for one of our favorite events of the year, the Tucson Festival of Books! Mark your calendars and save the date for another in-person, community-wide celebration of literature. As always, the festival is free-of-charge for all attendees. We’ll be updating this space in the coming months with more information about University of Arizona Press authors who will be participating in the festival.

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