SAN ANTONIO – When it comes to the Mexican-American experience in San Antonio and South Texas, the UTSA Libraries Special Collections is considered the library of record, said director Amy Rushing.
The Mexican-American or Chicano civil rights movement that flourished in San Antonio and South Texas in the 60s and 70s is an area of priority, Rushing said.
“We feel like this topic and this history needs to be preserved. We want it for our students to know that this is their history,” said Rushing, emphasizing that UTSA is a Hispanic-serving institution.
Rushing said the large array of photos, clippings, scrapbooks and memorabilia spread across several tables were pulled from several collections donated by activists past and present.
“It’s a tiny, tiny little glimpse of what we have,” she said.
Among them are materials from the Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project, the Mexican American Youth Organization, La Raza Unida, the United Farmworkers, and the Cesar E. Chavez Legacy and Educational Foundation.
“We want to get the word out. We want this material to be seen and used,” Rushing said. “It’s not just for faculty or researchers. It’s for students. It’s for the community.”
Rushing said an effective way to do that has been through “Mapping the Movimiento,” an interactive tour of places on the historic West Side that played a pivotal role in the struggle for Mexican-American civil rights in Texas that began in San Antonio.
She said much like Atlanta was to the civil rights movement for African-Americans in the South, San Antonio became a hotbed of Chicano activism.
Rushing said many people believe archives hold materials that are locked away, never to seen again.
Quite the contrary, Rushing said, “We don’t want to be gatekeepers. We want to be a gateway.”