BC welcomed UCLA professor Juan Herrera to discuss geography and Chicano/a history on Wednesday, Oct. 11 as a part of the Levan Center’s celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.
Herrera is a PhD graduate at Berkely and a recently tenured professor at UCLA. Herrera’s talk “The Struggle Continues! Latinx Geographies and Why Thinking Relationally Matters” asked “what does it mean for us to celebrate Hispanic heritage month with a spacial lens?”
“I’m interested in how human beings create space,” Herrera stated after his introduction; he thinks of himself as a “storyteller of space.”
Much of Herrera’s understanding of space and activism stems from his research surrounding Fruitvale, a Latin X community in Oakland with origins from the 1960s civil rights era.
When interviewing Chicano activists from that era, he discovered that a lot of them remembered their experiences through the physical locations they interacted with.
One older activist he interviewed decided to draw up map to explain to organizations that she helped create or interacted with during her time empowering the Chicano community.
To explain this phenomenon, he coined the term “cartographic memory,” which is in the title of his first book: “Cartographic Memory: Social Movement Activism and the Production of Space.”
“I’ve learned that so much of social struggle is space-based,” he continued later in the talk, emphasizing how Fruitvale’s community spaces would not have been possible without activists’ intent to make them.
Participants were then able to ask Herrera questions before the event wound down.
Attending the event was BC English professor Richard Marquez who personally connected with Herrera’s talk. “It made me realize that we have those spaces here,” Marquez said, explaining how his grandparents participated in the “Juarez” organization in Bakersfield which continues to serve the community to this day.
Hopeful UCLA transfer and current BC student, Lorenzo Gomez, found the talk “enlightening,” further stating that attending made him feel less intimidated to attend UCLA.
The Levan Center will be hosting two other guest speakers for Hispanic Heritage Month. On Oct. 18, BC Alumnus Cuca Montoya will showcase her art in the Levan Center, and on Oct. 24 Monica Castellanos will present “Saving Lives: The work of Consul Gilberto Bosques in France” in Spanish at the BC Ballroom.
