Series:

UCLA Chicano Studies

Topic:

Latina and Latino History

UCLA and University of California History

UCLA Research Centers and Programs

Biographical Note:

Postdoctoral scholar in residence and assistant director of the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center. As a student at UCLA, was involved in the Chicano student movement on campus and the drive for the establishment of the research center.

Interviewer:

Centanino, Araceli

Interviewee:

Haro, Carlos

Persons Present:

Haro and Centanino.

Place Conducted:

Carlos Haro’s office at the Chicano Studies Research Center at UCLA.

Supporting Documents:

Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library’s Center for Oral History Research.

Interviewer Background and Preparation:

The interview was conducted by Araceli Centanino, graduate student interviewer, UCLA Center for Oral History Research; C.Phil, U.S. history, UCLA. Centanino’s dissertation focuses on postwar Los Angeles, social movements, and public education. Centanino prepared for the interview by reading Juan Gómez-Quiñones and Irene Vásquez‘s Making Aztlan: Ideology and Culture of the Chicana and Chicano Movement and looking at various dissertations. She also viewed files from Chancellor Charles E. Young’s administration in the UCLA Library’s University Archives; studied the UCLA Center for Oral History Research’s series of oral histories on the founding of UCLA’s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies; and reviewed archival articles from the Daily Bruin about the founding of the ethnic studies centers.

Processing of Interview:

The interviewer prepared a timed log of the audio recording of the interview. Haro was given the opportunity to review the log in order to supply missing or misspelled names and to verify the accuracy of the content but made no changes.

Length:

4 hrs.

Language:

English

Copyright:

Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library.

Audio:

Series Statement:

These interviews document the rise of Chicano studies at UCLA and the founding of the Chicano Studies Research Center. Interviewees were involved in Chicano studies in the late 1960s and early ‘70s as students, faculty, or staff.

Note:

Due to a recording error, the final five minutes of session three were not recorded.

Birth and early childhood—Growing up in the Arizona/Mexico borderlands—Moving to Los Angeles, Bunker Hill—Experiences in school growing up—Moving to East Los Angeles—Applies to UCLA and is admitted—Experiences in the dormitory—Connecting with other Chicanos on campus—Formation of Chicano student organizations—Chicano consciousness and ethnic identity.

Discovering the commonality in the variety of Mexican and Mexican American experiences—The broader Chicano student movement in Los Angeles—East Los Angeles Blowouts—Negotiations with UCLA administrators—Chancellor Charles E. Young—Phi Kappa Psi Viva Zapata Party—Creating an ethnic studies scholarly field—Challenges in formative years of the Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC)—Campbell Hall shootings—Centro Universitario Emiliano Zapata—Entering master’s in education program.

Doing ethnic studies work in graduate school—Working with Simon Gonzalez in UCLA School of Education—Completes Ph.D.—Joins CSRC as assistant director—Juan Gomez Quiñones’s leadership as CSRC director—Impact of Gomez Quiñones on Chicano studies field—Leaving the CSRC—University of California Regents vs. Bakke and the fate of affirmative action—Declining African American and Mexican American student admissions and enrollment at UCLA—Campus-wide budget cuts—Chancellor Young rejects proposal for a degree-granting Chicano studies program—1992 hunger strike—Chancellor Albert Carnesale approves department status in 2005—Returning to CSRC—Chon Noriega’s leadership as CSRC director.