Historical Riverside

The Riversider | June/July 2022

Viva El Cheech! Viva la Raza! Riverside Mexican American Pioneers, El Movimiento, and The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Arts and Culture

WORDS: H. VINCENT MOSES, PHD

Cheech Marin’s eagerly awaited Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture in Downtown Riverside throws open its doors on June 18th. Opening day is sold out, and tickets are sparse for the following few days. The Cheech by any definition is a roaring success right out of the gate! Under the management of the Riverside Art Museum, The Cheech is an unmatched achievement for Riverside and its historic Latino community. Yours truly is humbled and proud to have introduced Cheech’s Chicano art to Riverside in 2003 as Director of the Riverside Metropolitan Museum. We hosted the first Cheech Marin exhibition at the Museum that year. Thanks go to my friend Melissa Richardson Banks, and Cause Connect that managed the first Cheech shows and enabled the Museum to mount the first exhibition in Riverside. Later, Melissa facilitated a Chicano art show with Drew Oberjuerge; Director of the Riverside Art Museum and the rest is history! The Cheech is an authentic outgrowth of El Movimiento, the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s—a powerful social movement among young Mexican Americans fighting for a distinct cultural identity that preserved and built on their Mexican and Latino heritage. Cesar Chavez’s United Farm Workers Union grew out of the El Movimiento— the Chicano Movement. The movement spread to colleges and universities, including UC Riverside. UCR’s Latino students embraced Chicanismo/a, creating local chapters of the Mexican American Youth Association (MAYA) and Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MECHA), and pushing UCR to establish the

Mexican, Italian, and Japanese congregation of St. Anthony’s Catholic Church arrayed in front of the Church building under construction, Madison Street, Casa Blanca, c1922. Mexican and Mexican American tradesmen, parishioners of St. Anthony’s built the structure by hand and with funds raised by the community. Courtesy Museum of Riverside

The Riversider | June/July 2022

Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History, UCR, Dr. Carlos Cortés, founder of the Chicano Student Programs, UCR. Photo by Michael Elderman

Chicano Student Programs department. Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History Carlos Cortes, who came to UCR in 1968, chaired the department for seven years. He confirmed that Latino students at UCR built the programs through their own initiative. This year, the Chicano Student Programs is celebrating its 50th Anniversary. The program produced scholars such as Riverside’s own late Dr. Ray Buriel, who taught Psychology and Chicano Studies at the prestigious Pomona College for 39 years. Chicanismo/a also captured the hearts of Mexican American musicians, scholars, writers, playwrights, and artists. Gilberto Esquivel, for one, worked in Spanish language radio in the Coachella Valley in the 1970s and promoted the unionizing efforts of Cesar Chavez among the grape pickers and related farm workers. Ofelia Valdez Yeager graduated from UCR into a career as an educator who has fought ceaselessly for educational equity for Latinos and students of color. Jose Medina graduated from UCR with a BA in Latin American Studies and a MA in History, and currently represents Riverside in the California Assembly where he authored the Ethnic Studies Act and brought to Riverside $9.7 million for The Cheech. Local Chicano muralists Roy Duarte, Jim

Assembly member Jose Medina at microphone announcing the passage of his Ethnic Studies Bill, floor of the California Assembly, 2021. Courtesy California Democratic Assembly Office of Communications

“Grandesa Azteca,” mural by Casa Blanca artist Jim Gutierez, eastside of Handball court, Villegas Park, painted in 1980 and restored in 2018. Photo by Cate Whitmore

COURTESY RIVERSIDE MAIN LIBRARY Victoria Avenue Citrus Association Packinghouse, April 10, 1928. Pictured (L to R): Juana Borrego, Pachita Estrada, Diovijilda Borrego, and Maria Luna. Courtesy Museum of Riverside

The Riversider | June/July 2022

Gutierrez, and Daniel “Chano” Gonzales also made their mark on the Casa Blanca neighborhood and UC Riverside during the 1970s-1980s. Now these trail blazers are joined by The Cheech, which will focus the world’s attention on Riverside and Chicano artists from around California and the nation. Cheech Marin grew up amid the creative maelstrom of the Chicano Movement, and has dedicated his life’s work to collecting and preserving Chicano art, from the creations of early movement artists to current practitioners. These icons of the Chicano Movement, however, stand on the shoulders of their ancestors, who built the Latino community in Riverside and the region.

Riverside Mexican American Pioneers Set the Stage

Riverside’s Mexican American and greater Latino community deserve recognition for their early work that helped to lay the foundation for The Cheech’s arrival. Multiple generations of Mexican and Latino immigrants worked tirelessly to build up Riverside’s community. From the era of the New Mexican settlements at Agua Mansa and La Placita, to the Mexican settlers who worked on the transcontinental railroad and built the citrus industry thorough their labor and know how, who fought for America in two World Wars, the Korean Conflict, and Vietnam, to those who raised families during segregation and discrimination, Riverside Latinos built a community that has endured and made heroic contributions to their hometown. Riverside’s early Mexican American population lived primarily within two neighborhoods: the Eastside and Casa Blanca. The Eastside developed during the era of Jim Crow as essentially a redlined neighborhood of color, where black, brown, and Asian people created a tightly knit community. Casa Blanca formed in the first decade of the 20th century as a citrus “Colonia” providing labor for the Arlington Heights Fruit Company, and associated packing houses and orange and lemon groves.

Casa Blanca

In December 1878, 26-year-old Henry Benedict Lockwood and his mother, Ms. LeGrand Lockwood moved into their new white-plastered adobe

Casa Blanca chapter, Alianza Hispano Americano (Alliance of Hispanic Americans), c1934. Courtesy Museum of Riverside Casa Blanca School, 1923, by architect G. Stanley Wilson, Courtesy Museum of Riverside

Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine under construction (left), and finished (below) in 1927 on Park Avenue, Riverside, was built by Mexican and Mexican American tradesmen from the congregation and with community funds. Courtesy Museum of Riverside

Chicana girls’ procession in Chinas Poblanas (Chinese Skirts), handmade and embroidered skirts for Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 12, 1957, OLGS. Courtesy Museum of Riverside

home. They called it Casa Blanca, or “White House.” The property was elaborately landscaped and so remarkable for arid Riverside that the general area soon became known as Casa Blanca. In 1889, S.C. Evans filed a subdivision nearby which he called “Map of the Village of Casa Blanca” named after the big White House. The village still exists today as a distinct Riverside neighborhood. Casa Blanca is a family-oriented, strong-knit, and residential neighborhood. Casa Blanca is one of the venerable Mexican American neighborhoods in California. Saint Anthony’s Church at 3056-3074 Madison Street represents an early Catholic congregation in post Mexican Revolution California, founded in 1921. Resident craftsmen built the original Spanish Colonial Revival building with their own hands, and with funds raised by the community. During the first half of the 20th century, Casa Blanca included Italian, Mexican, Japanese, and Chinese resident laborers. Like the Eastside neighborhood, the Casa Blanca Colonia constituted a big family of color. By 1920, Casa Blanca had become majority Mexican and Mexican American.

The Eastside: Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine

On the Eastside, the Mexican and Mexican American community lived primarily a south of Eighth Street (University Avenue). Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine (OLGS) Catholic Church serves the Latino community’s religious needs and her desire to maintain a link to their country of origin. The Dioses of San Bernardino wanted the church named “Christ the King,” but its parishioners, all Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans, called it “Our Lady of Guadalupe,” after the New World Mary. Like St. Anthony’s Church in Casa Blanca, local Mexican and Mexican American tradesmen built OLGS in a Spanish Colonial/Moorish style, with their own hands and community funds. In the post war years, middleclass Latinos gained college degrees, and became mobile. Casa Blanca, however, held onto its Latino identity. The Home of Neighborly Services (HNS), opened the Riverside branch in Casa Blanca in 1956. The facility is a vital center for social life and comprehensive assistance in the community. It provides educational programs and field trips for neighborhood children, and currently operates at 7680 Casa Blanca Street. Casa Blanca hero Jesse R. Ybarra devoted two decades to HNS, and to the Community Settlement House in the Eastside. Ybarra became a beloved and respected civic leader throughout the Inland Empire. In the tradition of other products of El Movimiento, Ybarra left his mark on Riverside. Contemporary Riverside Chicano artists include among others Jesus Castañeda, Darren Villegas and Cosme Cordova of Division 9 Gallery. My friend Cosme Cordova and the others fight the good fight to maintain Riverside’s connection to its Latino heritage. While Director of the Riverside Metropolitan Museum, now Museum of Riverside, I had the distinct privilege of working with Cosme to co-sponsor the very first Día de los Muertos Festival in Downtown Riverside. Cosme’s Day of the Dead Festival draws thousands to the Downtown each November. As you read these words, Cosme is hard at work for the Grand Opening of The Cheech. Reserve your tickets online now while you still can. Remember, however, the first day is sold out!