University of California, Riverside Chicana/o/x student newspapers
Owning Institution: UC Riverside, Library, Special Collections and University Archives
About this Collection
In 2022, Chicano Student Programs, Teatro Quinto Sol, the Encuentros, Student Participatory Research Project (ESPARiTU), and UCR Library collaborated to inventory, digitize, and make accessible Nuestra Cosa, the “Chicano alternative newspaper” founded by Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (M.E.Ch.A.) de UCR in December 1972. Running until 2012 after which the zine Nuestra Cosita emerged, a zine created by Teatro Quinto Sol, a student artivists organization on campus. Nuestra Cosa was a crucial resource for the Chicana/o/x community at UCR. The newspaper, published bilingually in English and Spanish, included news coverage of Chicana/o/x issues both locally and nationally, as well as original art and poetry.2022 is a pivotal year and marks the anniversary of many other milestones within the Chicana/o/x community at UCR, including the 50th anniversary of Chicano Student Programs and the Raza Graduation Ceremony. The digitization of Nuestra Cosa opens new opportunities for outreach, teaching and research.
The following excerpt, from the introduction of the 2022 student-created anniversary issue of Nuestra Cosita zine, further elaborates the importance of Nuestra Cosa:
"This is a celebration and a reminder of a legacy of advocacy, Movimiento and palabra intended to be disseminated to the masses. Nuestra Cosa infuses the words of the comunidad on campus and beyond University Avenue. Nuestra Cosa translated in English means Our Thing, it is our stories. It was created in a time of tension reflective of the sociopolitical climate. Nuestra Cosa was a reflection of a thriving Chicana/o/x movement at UCR, a labor rooted in collectivity led by the estudiantes who believed the pen was a mighty force and that photographs of our existence were worthy and necessary to fill the pages of this literary timeline of our presence and now our history on campus. With each volume, Nuestra Cosa weaves our stories so intricately. The authors of each volume call us to action, they document the injustices we face and remind us so boldly that we belong. In these same pages, we are reminded of our joy with Flor y canto and poems narrated by our truths. It documents our navigation in the institution yet the intended audience reaches beyond, documenting our outreach efforts, the creation of escuelitas, tutoring programs, retention services, celebration, victories, and loss. In the early volumes, the authors of Nuestra Cosa are called trabajadores. Each author understood the work, el trabajo, was liberation and what we read in Nuestra Cosa from 1972 to recent articles continue to be the stories that are often untold, written by the community; by us, our thing always. What the estudiantes at UCR did not have, they created including their newspaper, what they did not see they published for themselves and others, and what was misconstrued in the headlines of popular media they challenged and reclaimed. Nuestra Cosa is a documentation of the UCR comunidad, it is a reminder that nuestra voz es fuerte. I invite you all to reflect on this milestone and read this anniversary zine, Nuestra Cosita, highlighting the past, present and future.
C/S ~ Con safos siempre"
UCR Chicano Student Programs website: https://csp.ucr.edu/
View our statement on digital primary resources and historical description.
Filters you've selected: