MALCS Undergrad Rep Karina Avalos was one of five students from San Jose’s National Hispanic University who out-debated the “heavily favored” USC team to win the California state Ethics Bowl title and a berth in the national championships next week.

Columnist Joe Rodriguez at the Mercury News writes:

Avalos rips into her debate topic, the questionable ethics of Ryoei Saito, the Japanese businessman who paid a fortune for two masterpieces by Van Gogh and Renoir and then threatened to have the paintings cremated with him. He died and was cremated in 1996, leaving no trace of the Van Gogh.

Avalos’ confidence is etched on her determined face. Just two months ago, she and her debating teammates from tiny NHU in East San Jose defeated a heavily favored team from the University of Southern California to win the state Ethics Bowl title and a berth in the national championships next week.

Fearlessly, NHU will go up against 30 bigger regional champions, including perennial debating powers from the University of Washington, Indiana, Clemson and the Army and Naval academies.

Without looking at her notes or watch, the 22-year-old senior from the 600-student campus in East San Jose carefully builds her case against the “immoral and selfish” art collector. The masterpieces had acquired a “sense of common property,” she asserts. Saito bought them with company money, not his own, and then hid them from public view. Society must adopt regulations to protect masterworks from irresponsible buyers.

NHU is the small up-and-coming university (o ya llegado?) in East San Jose founded in 1981 by Dr. B. Roberto Cruz on the model of Historically Black Colleges; NHU is currently home to MALCS chair Adriana Ayala (Chair of Liberal Studies) and Chingona Cecilia Burciaga (provost), as well as Ms. Avalos and her chingona teammates….

Full news story here

I just received the latest gorgeous copy of Chicana/Latina Studies featuring a cover image of Guatamaltecas demonstrating in the streets, and a preface by outgoing editor Alicia Partnoy. The Fall 2006 issue features articles on puertorriqueña filmmaker Frances Negron-Muntaner and the late Gwen Araujo, by Rosa Campos-Brito and Linda Heidenreich respectively, as well as poetry by Norma Cantu & Patricia Marina Trujillo. Joann Lo writes about global labor activism; Roselyn Costantino about femicide in contemporary Guatemala; Tiffany Ana Lopez about academic struggles, and Eden Torres about Catriona Esquibel’s new book.

Congratulations to Alicia, KarenMary Davalos, and all the CLS staff for a truly beautiful journal. If you haven’t received your copy soon, update your membership! The journal is free to all paid MALCSistas.

Feel free to add your own comments here by clicking on “Comments” below

From the L.A. Weekly, 10/4

Rocks in my Salsa – Writer-performer Cristina Nava says she remembers working to create atmosphere for a romantic evening by blending salsa in a molcajete bowl she had just bought in Tijuana. Unfortunately, what she didn’t do was eliminate the tiny stone chips loosely lodged in most such basalt bowls. Her boyfriend chipped a tooth, and the rocks in the salsa have emerged as a metaphor in her first solo performance for the tiny, pain-inducing obstacles that accompany being a Chicana in Hollywood.

[Read more…] about Belated congrats to Nava & Palacios

Here’s a great photo and feature article on la muy Distinguida Doctora Deena J. Gonzalez from the LMU/LA home page. Deena, Chair of LMU’s Department of Chicana/o Studies, has been recognized as one of the 50 most important living women historians in the U.S. as part of the Smith College project, “Living U.S. Women’s History, 1960-2000: Voices from the Field—an Oral History Archive.”

–submitted by Antonia Castañeda

Kudos to newly-tenured Associate Professor of Spanish Gabriella Gutierrez y Muhs at Seattle University, Washington. Gabriella is a gifted teacher, researcher, and poet from Watsonville in Santa Cruz County, California. Her current academic projects include Rebozos de Palabras: An Helena María Viramontes Reader and the forthcoming Chilean and Chicana Authors: Chicanas, Chilenas and Other Cultural Exiles (Lexington Books). Her works of poetry include The Plastic Book (CD Rom) and the poetry collection A Most Improbable Life (Finishing Line Press, 2003).

Way overdue here is congratulations to veteran Malcsista Rusty Barcelo, newly appointed Vice President and Vice Provost for Equity and Diversity at the University of Minnesota. Her office oversees Disability Services, Equal Opportunity & Affirmative Action, the GLBT Programs Office, the Multicultural Center, and the Office for University Women.

After five years at the University of Washington, Rusty is returning to familiar territory. From 1996 to 2001, she served as Minnesota’s associate vice president for multicultural and academic affairs; two of those years, she also chaired the Chicano studies department on the Twin Cities campus. A grants program for collaborative multicultural projects was established in 2002 and named in her honor.

Here’s a link to more details.

Dr. Linda Heidenreich, received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor of Women’s Studies, Washington State University, Pullman in Spring, 2006. Linda is cranking out publications as well: she has an essay in the forthcoming 6:1 fall issue of Chicana/Latina Studies, titled “Learning from the Death of Gwen Araujo?: Transphobic Racial Subordination and Queer Latina Survival in the Twenty-first Century.” She also has a book in the works titled History and Forgetfulness in an American County for the Chicana Matters Series (UT Press).

Members will receive the fall issue of Chicana/Latina Studies soon. If you haven’t paid up your membership, go here now to download and mail in the membership form. Membership fees are sliding scale, and in the words of Dra. Sandra Torres, the “best deal around in professional associations!”

Finally, kudos to Dr. Rocio Delgado, Assistant Professor of Education at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX who has finished her UT Austin dissertation (title?). She is beginning her second year at Trinity University.

Trinity is also fortunate to have recent hires Rosana Blanco-Cano (Ph.D. Tulane University) and Debra Ochoa (Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin), joining the Department of Modern Languages. Rosana researches Spanish-American literature and culture, and Debra works on twentieth century Spanish Peninsular Literature/Film and Spanish Women Writers.

Best wishes to all these MALCSistas!

Submitted by Antonia Castaneda