Yolanda Broyles-Gonzalez and Francisco González Archive, 1958-2007 | Remote Storage

Title: Yolanda Broyles-Gonzalez and Francisco González Archive, 1958-2007

ID: 07/C000105

Extent: 144.0 Linear Feet

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Yolanda Broyles-González was among the first Chicana Yaqui scholars to attain a doctorate degree and to achieve rank of full professor at a major research university, at the University of California at Santa Barbara. She received her doctorate degree in German Studies from Stanford University in German Studies and lived in Germany for 12 years where she helped bring Chicana/o and Latin American literature to a European readership. She corresponded extensively with German intellectuals and also engaged in photojournalism and feature writing while living in Germany. Her photographs from this period in Germany are part of the collection. Dr. Broyles-González has held academic appointments at the University of Texas (in Modern Languages), and at the University of California (Chicana/o Studies and German Studies). She is chairperson/ professor emerita of the Chicana and Chicano Studies Department at the University of California Santa Barbara. She also served as chairperson of the Women Studies Department at the University of Arizona in Tucson from 2004-08. Since 2008 she has been appointed in the Mexican American Studies Department at the University of Arizona. In 1996 she received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the National Association for Chicana & Chicano Studies. After her pay equity lawsuit against the University of California she was honored by President Clinton in the White House.

Dr. Broyles-González’s publications span many areas of borderlands popular culture/performance studies. Her book publications include:

Lydia Mendoza’s Life in Music. La historia de Lydia Mendoza. Norteño Tejano Legacies (2001, 2004, 2006 Oxford University Press); El Teatro Campesino, Theater in the Chicano Movement (1994, UT Press); Re-Emerging Native Women of the Americas: Native Chicana Latina Women’s Studies (2001, Kendall/Hunt); Earth Wisdom. A California Chumash Woman (2011, University of Arizona Press); The German Response to Latin American Literature and the Reception of Jose Luis Borges and Pablo Neruda (1981, Heidelberg).

Francisco González is a musician, composer, and specialist in Mexican and Chicano music. González was born and rasied in East Los Angeles surrounded by multiple Mexican musical traditions such as Norteño, and Jarocho music, as well as by jazz, rock, and salsa. During the last four decades he has worked in many capacities within Chicano/Mexican music; in performance around the world as a string musician specializing in Mexican harp; a recording artist; as a composer for films; doing lecture demonstrations; and in theater as a musical director for many professional theater productions. He founded, led, and composed the music for Los Lobos in the 1970s. Thereafter, he did award-winning musical direction and composition in Chicano theatrical productions, including five years of musical direction for numerous productions with the legendary El Teatro Campesino. González’s work in musical direction and performance gained widespread recognition. For outstanding musical direction and arrangement he was awarded the San Francisco Chronicle’s Circle Award “for outstanding achievement in the theater.” In the last ten years, González has also written and performed music for various films, such as for Cormack McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses. Among his recordings are The Gift/El regalo and Viejas Canciones para viejos amigos (Old Songs for Old Friends). In 2011 González was honored by the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation with the Pearl Chase Award honored Gonález for his “lifelong dedication to historic preservation and conservation”—as director of the Santa Barbara Pastorela and for his revival of early California musics. In Tucson, Arizona he has been active establishing a Jarocho harp school for youth.

In addition to theater and film work, González regularly performs Jarocho and Norteño music at clubs, fiestas, and other social gatherings. He also offers workshops for musicians, and lecture demonstrations on Mexican/Chicano music at universities, schools, and for community groups. González, under the name of Dueto Guadalupe, plays Mexican harp music within the jarocho and ranchera traditions. He performs throughout the country accompanied by his daughter Esmeralda Broyles-González on jarana. In June 2004, González received national recognition from the Smithsonian. He was recognized at the American Folk life Festival for his contributions as a music string craftsman. His custom-made strings produced at Guadalupe Custom Strings in Santa Barbara, California (now in Los Angeles) are distributed internationally.

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Scope and Contents: The Dr. Yolanda Broyles- González & Francisco González Archive is a rich borderland Mexican-American collection with a focus on performance arts, theater, and music. Dr. Broyles-González studied and lived in Germany for twelve years, in Berlin, Freiburg, and Hamburg. She published the first translations of Chicano literature into German and she was instrumental in bringing Chicano/a literature and history to European readerships and consciousness. The performance segment includes two decades worth of the California-based El Teatro Campesino performance scripts and music manuscripts, as well as dozens of early actors. Francisco González was the musical director of the Teatro Campesino from 1980-84. Among his collection are scripts and compositions of plays produced by the theater company during this time. His collection makes up five boxes of the archive but it intertwines with Dr. Broyles-González’s materials. No one has written on the music of El Teatro Campesino and Francisco’s materials are a good foray into this type of research. The collection includes recordings of Borderlands music in the form of 300 audio cassettes, 78’s and 45’s of noted Tejano performers, ranchera music, including Texas-Mexican conjunto music. This collection of music in various formats is crucial for understanding the collection—which is based on performance studies. Also included is the Lydia Mendoza Collection, which includes 25 hours of interviews, her recordings across 50 years, rare footage of her performances and two of her performance dresses, close to 100 photographs, and extensive correspondence and materials. In addition, the collection includes a rare video recording of a 1982 concert by Mendoza, videotaped by Broyles-González in San Antonio that is one of few concerts of Mendoza ever recorded. Mendoza, queen of Tejano music, began her legendary career singing in the plazas of downtown San Antonio with the chili queens in the 1930s. Broyles-González used this material to write a book about Mendoza. Mendoza is the only Chicana/Tejana to receive the National Medal of Arts at the White House. The collection also includes Francisco González’s performance arts memorabilia pertaining to his founding of the Los Angeles-based musical group Los Lobos. Formed in 1973 in East L.A., Los Lobos are best known for their rendition of “La Bamba” on the 80’s movie of the same name, Los Lobos originally called themselves “Los Lobos del Este Los Angeles” (the Wolves of East Los Angeles). The collection includes scripts, production notes, reviews, musical manuscripts, and programs from his many years as music director for Teatro Campesino and other theater work, including one box documenting ten years directing La Pastorela in Santa Barbara, California. Also included are other Pastorela scripts from Texas, New Mexico, Sinaloa, and California. The collection also includes approximately 100-250 posters of various productions. One focus of this collection is early Chicano literature. A second focus of the collection are documents pertaining to the history and development of Chicana/o Studies in the United States. The book collection embraces early Chicano movement publications, especially literary first edition books and also an extensive collection of the first Latin American literary publications in German translation. Dr. Broyles-González did the first German translation of Chicano writer Rolando Hinojosa’s work. This section also includes approximately 500 books including two copies of Rudy Acuña’s first edition of _Occupied America_, Juan Rulfo’s first edition of Pedro Paramo (signed). Many others are signed editions of authors such as Andre Gunder Frank, Rolando Hinojosa, Angela de Hoyos, and many others. The Chicano/a Studies section also includes Dr. Broyles-González’s curriculum notes and materials for the development of the Chicana/o Studies discipline, including communications with UCSB administration. Dr. González was part of the founding first generation of scholars to teach Chicano/a Studies at the university level. A focal point of the collection is the borderlands Mexican-American performance arts, especially theater and music. This performance segment embraces an extensive Teatro Campesino Collection including two decades worth of Teatro Campesino performance scripts and music manuscripts (of works such as “Fin del Mundo,” “Rose of the Rancho,” “Los Corridos,” “Las cuatro apariciones de la Virgen del Tepeyac,” “La Gran Carpa”) as well as dozens of early actors. It furthermore includes oral histories with all the core members of the legendary company (approx. 60 hours) including Luis Valdez, Olivia Chumacero, Smiley Rojas, Yolanda Parra, Socorro Valdez, Jose Delgado, Felipe Cantu, Diane Rodriguez and more. The performance arts are also represented by a collection of music recordings including rare mint condition 78’s of stars such as Jorde Negrete, Pedro Infante, Las Mensajeras, Pedro Vargas, Miguel Aceves Mejia, and others. There are also many music audio-cassettes. Especially numerous are those of Tejano performers of the 1980’s, and CDs of borderlands music including extensive Chalino Sanchez and Celso Piña collections. The music collection features recorded ranchera music and Jarocho music, including Texas-Mexican conjunto music, of approximately 300 tapes.

Finding Aid
Series 1: 1958-2007
Series 2: 1958-2015
Series 3: 1930-2015