George Vargas, Ana Luisa Cardona, and Jesse Gonzalez

During the fervent years of the 1970s at the University of Michigan, a pioneering group of Latina/​o students formed La Raza Art and Media (RAM) Collective. Through self-organized exhibitions, cultural gatherings, and its journal, the collective gathered artists, art historians, poets, and journalists to voice the cultural and political expression of Chicano, Hispanic, and Latinx communities on campus and beyond. Members of the organization went on to become regional and national leaders in Latinx art and activism, education, community and political advocacy, and public arts.

RAM Collective co-founders George Vargas, Ana Luisa Cardona, and Jesse Gonzalez will discuss the lasting impact of this seminal moment in Latinx history at the University and their connections to the broader Latinx Midwest. They will share perspectives on Chicanx and Latinx student activism, DIY publications and new media in the 1970s, and the development of a network of like-minded organizations around the country that centered art as an act of politics and self-definition.

This program is presented in connection with the UMMA exhibition La Raza Art and Media Collective, 1975 – Today and serves as the keynote event of Latinx Midwest History, a 2‑day symposium taking place April 11 – 12, 2025. The exhibition revisits the 50^th anniversary of the foundation of RAM Collective to reflect on the profound impact of these visionary creators and the vital contributions of Latinx artists to Michigan’s cultural landscape on campus and beyond.

Artist George Vargas is a museum consultant and co-curator of the UMMA exhibition La Raza Art and Media Collective, 1975 – Today. Vargas earned degrees in fine arts, film studies, racial and ethnic studies, and art history at U‑M. He is currently working on the history of Chicanx art in the United States and beyond. Vargas is co-founder of The Institute of Architecture Engineering Heritage and founder and director of the Rural Arts Program, both at Texas A&M University Kingsville. He is an advisor for Raasin in the Sun, a multicultural art organization in Austin, Texas focused on creation of community murals. Vargas’ curatorial work includes Cheech Marin’s collection of Chicano art and a retrospective on artist and U‑M alumni Bruno Andrade. 

Ana Luisa Cardona was born in NYC to a Puerto Rican family and moved to Michigan for graduate studies in both History of Art and Education at the University of Michigan. Cardona’s professional life has revolved around the arts, equity, and education in schools, universities, and organizations at the local, state and national levels. Her career has taken her to work with the National Endowment for the Arts, the Detroit Council for the Arts, Casa de Unidad Arts and Media Center, Michigan’s King Chávez Parks Initiative, and the Michigan Department of Education, where she served as Arts Education Specialist, leading the development of the state’s first high school graduation requirement in the arts.

Michigan artist Jesse Gonzales has been hooked on media and photography since high school, when his brother bought him a camera. Several of his photographs were published in the book 500 Years of Chicano History: In Pictures and El Calendario Hispano de Michigan, 1981. Gonzalez has been devoted to photographing symbols and icons that evoke Latinidad and Chicanismo and documenting Latino culture for five decades. He and his wife Juana have donated their entire photography and book collection, covering over 30 years of Latino history and arts, to the Cesar Chavez Collection at Michigan State University and the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan.

This program is presented in partnership with the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) with support from the U‑M Arts Initiative. This project was made possible by a grant from the Arts Initiative at the University of Michigan.

Series presenting partners: Detroit PBS, ALL ARTS, and PBS Books. Media partner: Michigan Public.