| As Chicana/o Studies programs emerged in the 1960s, so were Chicana/o Studies professors molding their roles in both academia and their surrounding communities. A partnership between scholarship and activism characterized the role of the Chicana/o Studies Professor, as first articulated in El Plan Espiritual de Aztl and El Plan de Santa Bara: A Chicano Plan for Higher Education and carried out via Chicana/o Consciousness or chicanismo. This thesis examines the experiences of one Chicana/o Studies professor, Miguel Garcia, exercising his Chicana/o Consciousness in contemporary academia. The research question that guides this investigation explores notions of scholarship and activism, while inquiring: Post Chicana/o Student Movement, what do the experiences of one Chicana/o Activist Scholar and his efforts to establish Taller Arte de Aztl reveal about scholarship and activism coming together in contemporary settings? Sub-questions and themes that have emerged from the data include: What does the actual work of an Activist Scholar look like? How does Garcia identify himself? What is the function of mentorship? What are the implications of the work of an Activist Scholar for contemporary Chicana/o Studies? And finally, what are the implications of the work of an Activist Scholar for knowledge production in contemporary academia? Data revealed that Garcia does not identify with the label, Activist Scholar. Instead, he was more comfortable with the identity of "Cultural Worker". Garcia's lived experiences collectively informed this identity which was based on specific definitions of culture, work, mentorship, and community. Additionally, Garcia viewed Chicana/o Art as a vehicle by which to carry out his responsibilities as a Cultural Worker and empower the Chicana/o community, as articulated in El Plan de Santa Bara: A Chicano Plan for Higher Education and El Plan Espiritual de Aztl. Despite the state of contemporary Chicana/o Studies, Garcia felt that the original intent of Chicana/o Studies was still valid and valuable to both academia and Chicana/o communities outside the university. In particular, Garcia worked to fulfill two directives: to return resources to the community and to allow the community outside the university to inform research. |
