Decades’ worth of archives of CCNMA: Latino Journalists of California — known as the oldest Latino journalist association in the United States — have been acquired by the USC Libraries.
The organization’s records include 45 archival boxes of photos, artwork, correspondence and other documents tracing the history of CCNMA through the social events and job fairs it hosted as well as the scholarship programs it organized.
Archives span from 1972, the year CCNMA was founded, through more recent activities in the 2010s. As the work of CCNMA continues, the group plans to provide additional materials to the collection.
Renowned New York City reporter Pablo Guzmán, 73, died of a heart attack Sunday morning.
Efforts to unearth these archives, which were stored and untouched for years in a basement, were led by CCNMA Treasurer Joe Rodriguez, said CCNMA President Laurie Ochoa, the general manager of food coverage and initiatives at the Los Angeles Times.
“It was important for us to secure a home for the archives that would help current and future researchers understand the struggles and triumphs of journalism by and about Latinos as it evolved over the years,” Ochoa said in a statement. “It’s so gratifying that the USC Libraries has provided such a prestigious home for the archives.”
CCNMA was founded when a small group of L.A. journalists — some of them friends of the late Los Angeles Times columnist and KMEX news director Ruben Salazar — began meeting to figure out how to create opportunities for Latinos in the news industry, according to the CCNMA website.
In 1937, the U.S. Department of the Interior certified that La Casa Vieja de Lopez Adobe in San Gabriel was worthy of preservation for its historic and architectural interest.
Originally called the California Chicano Newsmen’s Assn., the group changed its name to the California Chicano News Media Assn. after the first woman joined. The organization is now known as CCNMA: Latino Journalists of California to be more inclusive of all Latinos.
The historical material — which was acquired in partnership with the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism — is stored at the Boeckmann Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies, where it will be available by appointment for various researchers.
The archives complement the USC Libraries’ existing holdings on Latino journalism. This includes professional and personal papers of Salazar, of KCBS and KNBC reporter Bob Navarro and of Pulitzer Prize-winning Times editor Frank Sotomayor.
Marje Schuetze-Coburn, interim dean of USC Libraries, regarded this new collection “as a significant addition to the rich documentary resources for understanding California.”
USC Annenberg dean Willow Bay added: “Preserving these historic archives for education and research is among the most enduring and impactful ways we can increase Latinx representation in the media.”
