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The year was 1969. It was a time of social protest over civil rights and representation issues. Those protests echoed at UCLA, where Mexican American students were demanding improved access to higher education, as well as greater resources devoted to the study of the Mexican experience in the U.S.
Enter the university’s Mexican American Cultural Center, which was established to support research in what was then the new field of Chicano studies. In the 52 years since, that center now known as the Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC) has grown from a small student- and faculty-led initiative to a full-blown academic center, supporting original research and publications, the maintenance of archival collections and a library.
Gubidxa Guerrero Luis, Portrait of Juan Sandoval, Photograph on Paper, 29¾” x 19¾”. Mexic-Arte Museum Permanent Collection 2020.2.201.1. Gift of Juan Antonio Sandoval Jr. Courtesy the Mexic-Arte Museum
For the majority of prominent art collectors, their ability to buy art can be traced back to an abundance of personal or familial wealth. For Mexican and Latinx art collector Juan Sandoval, it can be traced back to the simple decision to not own a car.
“He always said the money he might have spent buying an automobile, maintaining it and buying gasoline, he had that amount of money available to purchase art,” says Claudia Rivers, head of Special Collections at UT El Paso Libraries and a close friend of Sandoval’s.