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Associated Title
Chicano Male Unbonded Series
Artist
Harry Gamboa Jr., born 1951
Sitter
Rodolfo Acuña, born 18 May 1932
Date
2000
Type
Photograph
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Image: 33 × 22.2 cm (13 × 8 3/4")
Sheet: 35.4 × 27.9 cm (13 15/16 × 11")
Topic
Exterior
Costume\Dress Accessory\Eyeglasses\Sunglasses
Rodolfo Acuña: Male
Rodolfo Acuña: Education and Scholarship\Educator\Professor
Rodolfo Acuña: Education and Scholarship\Scholar\Historian
Portrait
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; acquisition made possible through the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center
Rodolfo Acuña was a leading civil rights activist who helped transform the field of education in the late 1960s. At that time, the struggle of communities of color to achieve full participation in American democracy went hand-in-hand with the demand for universities to address key historical experiences that so often had been excluded from classrooms.
A product of the Mexican American civil rights and cultural affirmation movement known as the Chicano Movement, Acuña earned a doctorate in Latin American Studies. In 1969, he led the establishment of the landmark Chicano Studies Department at California State University, Northridge, where he taught for four decades. He has authored numerous books, including the foundational Mexican American history survey Occupied America: The Chicano’s Struggle Toward Liberation (1972).
This photograph is part of artist Harry Gamboa Jr.’s series Chicano Male Unbonded, which appropriates the aesthetics of Hollywood crime dramas to portray accomplished Chicano men.
Nacido en Los Ángeles, California
Rodolfo Acuña, importante activista de los derechos civiles, ayudó a transformar el campo de la educación a fines de la década de 1960. Para entonces, la lucha de las comunidades de color por lograr plena participación en la democracia estadounidense iba de la mano con el reclamo de que las universidades estudiaran experiencias históricas cruciales que se habían omitido de los cursos. Acuña, producto del movimiento mexicoamericano de derechos civiles y afirmación cultural conocido como movimiento chicano, se doctoró en estudios latinoamericanos. En 1969 lideró la fundación del pionero Departamento de Estudios Chicanos de la Universidad Estatal de California en Northridge, donde fue profesor por cuatro décadas. Entre sus numerosos libros está América ocupada: Los chicanos y su lucha de liberación (1972), estudio fundamental de la historia de los mexicoamericanos.
Esta foto pertenece a Chicano Male Unbonded, serie en que Harry Gamboa Jr. aplica la estética de los dramas policíacos de Hollywood a retratos de chicanos prominentes.
