Speakers Bureau Speaker
Elena Díaz Björkquist, Tucson
Elena Díaz Björkquist is the author of a collection of short stories about Morenci, Arizona, entitled Suffer Smoke, and a collection of young adult stories, Water from the Moon. She is co-editor of an anthology, Sowing the Seeds, una cosecha de recuerdos. Elena is also a Chautauqua performer, an artist, and a historian. She is a scholar and research affiliate with SIROW at the University of Arizona. Her personal website is: www.elenadiazbjorkquist.net/.
Presentations may be made in Spanish, and are suitable for high school as well as adult audiences.
Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation
Mexican American artists got their subject matter and audience from the social and political events of the early Chicano movement in the 1960s and 70s. As artist Judith Baca states, "Chicano art comes from the creation of community. In a society that does not affirm your culture or your experience, Chicano art is making visible our reality, a particular reality…" In an interactive presentation using a slide show, the audience will explore Chicano art and determine how it demonstrated resistance and affirmation in the Chicano movement.
• Díaz Björkquist provides a laptop computer and LCD video projector. Host supplies screen.
Growing up Chicana in Morenci
Growing up Chicana in Morenci is a platica (informal talk) about Chicanas who lived in the mining town of Morenci, Arizona. Through a slide presentation of what the town looked like before its destruction in the late 1960s, readings from her books Suffer Smoke and Water from the Moon, and from oral history interviews she conducted for an AHC project, Díaz Bjorkquist portrays the lives of girls and women of Morenci in their own voices. It is a historically accurate picture of life for Mexican Americans in a segregated copper mining town from the 1920s to the late 1960s. This inspirational presentation pays tribute to four generations of Chicanas who, in spite of discrimination, persevered and showed that "si se puede" (it can be done). Morenci Chicanas were the "glue" that kept the family unit together with their unique cultural spirit, demonstrating courage and strength.
Note: The talk can also include the voices of the men by requesting "Growing Up Chicano in Morenci."
• Díaz Björkquist provides a laptop computer and LCD video projector. Host provides screen.
In the Shadow of the Smokestack
This slide show presentation traces the lives of Mexican miners who worked in the early underground copper mines of Morenci, and those of their families who lived in a mining camp that went on to become a company owned town. Díaz Björkquist examines their social, political, and cultural experiences in the 20th century to explain how they met the everyday challenges of living in a different environment without sacrificing their family values, language, or traditions. Mexicans and their children were deported during the depression of 1920 and the Great Depression of the 1930s. World War II brought change and increased opportunities for the new generation of Mexican Americans. An open pit mine brought a new method of mining, and miners who served in the war continued to struggle for equality in pay, benefits, and job opportunities. Finally, through the formation of a union, they succeeded in obtaining it.
• Díaz Björkquist provides a laptop computer and LCD video projector. Host supplies screen.
