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westernartgirlHonoring Hidden Stories: The Gay and Lesbian Rodeo Heritage Foundation Paladin Award
By Marva Felchlin Autry Director of Libraries and Archives The Autry National Center is the proud recipient of the Gay and Lesbian Rodeo Heritage Foundation’s first annual Paladin Award. The Autry was recently honored as the first major American history institution to formally recognize the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community’s contribution to the … Read more
Russell Means, Native American Rights Activist
Russell Means, the often controversial Native American rights activist and Oglala Sioux leader who in later years portrayed Native elders in Hollywood movies, died Monday of complications from cancer of the esophagus at his ranch near Porcupine, S.D. on the Pine Ridge Reservation. He was 72. “Today marks a significant and sad day in our … Read more
Josefina Quezada: A Lifetime of Fighting for Public Art
A Mexican artist who was responsible for starting the drive to restore David Alfaro Siqueiros’ downtown Los Angeles mural América Tropical was honored Monday, June 11, in perhaps the best way possible: with the start of conservation work on one of her own murals. Josefina Quezada died about three weeks ago in Mexico, but she … Read more
A Welcome Reversal: Recording Academy Reinstates Latin Jazz GRAMMY
Some of us here might be inclined to think the decision was made just in time to coincide with The Autry’s Sizzling Summer Nights series, which starts in July. Well, no, but even so, musicians across the country on Friday rejoiced at news that the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences‘ Board of Trustees … Read more
A Long Line of Scholars, and an Even Longer One of Immigrants
California Senator Carol Liu, who is Chinese-American, acknowledges her father and grandfather did not have to endure the ordeal of thousands of Asians and Pacific Islanders who entered the United States through Angel Island in the first half of the twentieth century. But as one in a long line of scholars, she shares those immigrants’ … Read more
A Los Angeles Tourist Guide for the 99 Percent
Consider taking a tour of Los Angeles, and you might think of a star map to the mansions in Beverly Hills or a walk down Hollywood and Vine, or even, if you’re a little adventurous, maybe an excursion down to the famed, Gaudi-esque Watts Towers in South Central LA. But what about seeking out the … Read more
A Cinco de Mayo Ditty
Music has always been part of the festivities in the 150 years that Cinco de Mayo has been celebrated in Southern California. But among the archives at the Autry is a popular song that could have been intoned at that first known pachanga to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, in May 1862 in Columbia, CA, not … Read more
Gabrielle Burton Examines the Struggles of Women Like Herself
In the 1970s, when her own brood of five girls was growing up, author Gabrielle Burton became fascinated with Tamsen Donner, the matriarch of one of the families of the Donner Party, the doomed group of pioneers that in 1846 joined a wagon train heading to California and got lost in the Sierra Nevada mountains, … Read more
Gustavo Arellano, the Original “Mexican” Columnist, Answers Questions About Mexican Food in the U.S.
Updated April 18, 2012 — I had a chance this month to chat with Gustavo Arellano, the original “¡Ask a Mexican!” columnist and now OC Weekly editor, about Mexican food in the U.S., the subject of his new book Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America. Arellano is one of the featured speakers at the … Read more
Robert Temple Ayres, Creator of the Original Ponderosa Map on “Bonanza”
Updated March 9, 2012 — Robert Temple Ayres, the artist who painted the original Ponderosa map featured on the TV show Bonanza, has died. He passed away on February 25 in Los Angeles, surrounded by friends and family. He was 98. Ayres, who had a long career working as an illustrator for several Hollywood studios, … Read more
