MEXICAN AMERICAN STUDIES & RESEARCH CENTER
The University of Arizona


John Garcia, Acting Director
(602) 621-7551
(602) 621-7966 fax

The Mexican American Studies and Research Center is an interdisciplinary research center within the auspices of the Social and Behavioral Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences. Its expenditures are state funded as are its faculty and staff positions. It is headed by a director, and is currently divided into three components: Research and Curriculum, Publications, and Buisness Systems and Sponsored Projects. This year the University placed its nationally-known Guadalajara Summer School under the Center's direction. The Center offers a major and a minor in Mexican American Studies and crosslists over thirty courses with several departments within the Humanities College and the Social and Behavioral Science Faculty.

The Center's research philosophy is one of controlled growth, choosing individual research projects carefully on the basis of:

There are five main research thrusts: Adaptation of Mexican-born into U.S. Society; Educational Practice and Policies; Minority Entrepreneurship and Economic Development; Expressive Culture; and Health Care Behavior and Intervention Strategies. Illustrative projects under each of these areas are:

Adaptation of Mexican-born into U.S. Society

Fundamental political orientation and the Latino Community project. John Garcia is one of four principal investigators in this study funded by the Ford Foundation that attempts to predict Latino voting behavior.

Educational Practices and Policies

a. Integrating Minority Women into the Curriculum -- Funded by Ford Foundation -- a collaborative effort with the Southwest Institute for research on women. This program is intended to promote the interest of women by providing assistance to faculty members in integrating material on minority women into their classes.

Minority Entrepreneurship

a. "La Alianza Project" focusing on the origins and development of one of the Southwest's largest mutual aid association. David L. Torres, Ignacio Garcia, co-principal investigators, Roberto de Anda, Olivia Arrieta and other professional involvement. Main Focus: 1) Collective Action, 2) entrepreneurship.

Expressive Culture

a. Saguaro -- literary journal and major outlet for expressive culture.

b. MASRC's Prespective in Mexican American Studies, Vol. 1 -- devoted to the classical works on the folklore of the Chicano Southwest.

Health Care Behavior and Intervention Strategies

a. "Colon Cancer Prevention and Hispanic Elderly" funded by National Cancer institute. Judith Gonzalez, principal investigator. Studies factora related to prevention of colon cancer - $50,000.

b. AIDS Project -- in collaboration with the Rural helath office of Family and Community Medicine.

The Center plans to reassess its future research directions beginning this spring. Much of what happens in terms of future agendas depends on faculty recruitment -- the MASRC is actively involved in recruiting new faculty to begin thier tenure in FY 89-90.

The Center works closely with the University of Arizona faculty by providing support services for proposal writing, by sponsoring brown bag colloquiums and by offering issue editorships of its three publications. The Center has also served as a co- P.I. for numerous research funded projects in collaboration with individual researchers.

Publications

Complementing the Research Component is a strong Publications program that publishes one literary journal, an interdisciplinary monograph series, a lecture series monograph and other one-time works. The publications are:

The Center is equipped with 6 IBM PC's. 4 compaqs, 7 dot matrix printers, 2 letter qulaity printers, 4 IDX lines and a complete desktop publishing system will be installed this month. It occupies 2,209 sq. ft. at the 3rd floor of the Douglass Building in the middle of the campus.