litical and cultural history of the Chicano/Latino community in the United States.
Arellanes is perhaps most recognized for her role as minister of finance and correspondence of the Chicano Brown Beret organization’s founding East Los Angeles chapter in the late 1960s. The Brown Berets were described as a Chicano nationalist activist group of young Mexican Americans.
Arellanes also served as administrator of El Barrio Free Clinic and was a member of the National Chicano Moratorium Committee (1969-70). After leaving the Brown Beret organization in the early ’70s, she organized a women’s group, Las Adelitas de Aztlán, and also coordinated La Clinica del Barrio.
Her collection joins the repository of literary, historical and cultural treasures of the University Library’s aptly named Special Collections. Housed on the second and fourth floors of the Palmer Wing, the collections contain between 4,000 and 5,000 linear feet – approaching close to a mile – of rare library materials that enrich the educational and historical resources of the Los Angeles community.
Christine Gladish, special collections librarian, and Renee James, special collections assistant, work mostly behind the scenes to manage the extensive compilation.
Gladish also oversees the Library’s governmental information. She earned a master’s degree in library science from Case Western Reserve University and a master’s degree in public administration from University of Southern California.
James, with a master’s degree in history and a certificate in archive management from New York University, formerly worked as a senior archivist at The Rockefeller University and the Rockefeller Archive Center in New York.
“The collection,” said Gladish, “has special meaning to the University. It involves preserving the history of Cal State L.A. and an important period in the local community. It also serves as an educational resource to faculty, staff, students, alums, community friends and researchers. The Gloria Arellanes Collection is definitely a wonderful contribution.”
According to James, “Our mission is to preserve and maintain; but it is also to provide access, allowing these materials to be utilized by scholars. It is important for us to monitor to make sure that the temperature and humidity of the rooms are constants, so that the papers and medium do not deteriorate.
“It is beneficial,” James said, “for CSULA students to learn that they can refer to these primary sources—the actual documents—here for their research, as opposed to going online to secondary sources.”
Among the archive’s fans is Jerry Gonzalez of the Latina/Latino Studies Program at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
“As a depository of local public officials’ papers,” said Gonzalez, “the Special Collections department at California State University, Los Angeles is an invaluable resource for scholars concerned with the social, economic, and political development of 20th century metropolitan Los Angeles. My own work on post-World War II suburban Mexican American communities draws significantly from documents culled from the Julian Nava, Edward Roybal, and Ernest Debs collections at Cal State L.A. Moreover…such a wealth of archival material combined with an expert staff places CSULA near the top of institutions covering the history of Los Angeles.”
The Special Collections materials are available for viewing by making an appointment in advance at ext. 3-4435.
Hidden treasures in the University Library’s Special Collections:
• The Klemscott Chaucer (printed in 1896), considered one of the greatest examples of fine printing in the modern era
• Anthony Quinn Collection of Film Scripts
• Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Atlantis (ten-volume facsimile set)
• Bookplate Collection (turn-of-the-century hand-drawn engravings)
• Author Joseph Wambaugh Collection of Manuscripts
• World War II Patriotic Poster Collection
• California Arts Commission Collection of Orchestral Scores and Parts
• American Composer Roy Harris Collection of Musical Scores and Personal Papers
• Ernest E. Debs and Mervyn M. Dymally: Public Officials Papers Collections
• Munitz Chess Collection (currently displayed in the Library)
• Other resources can be found at http://www.calstatela.edu/library/scTOC.htm.
Pictured: (l-r) Library Special Collections staff Christine Gladish and Renee James. back
