EMSI LA2026 "Platica: Erasing and Restoring Memory at El Pueblo de Los Ángeles"

An interactive conversation on muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros’ América Tropical(1932) as an introduction to Latinx cultural identities, citizenship, and censorship, drawing connections between the 1930s and today. Panelists include Edgar Garcia (Loeb Fellow, Harvard Graduate School of Design), Summer Ibarra (Graduate Student, UCLA), and Stevie Ruiz (Professor of Chicana/o Studies, Cal State University Northridge), moderated by Laura Dominguez (LA2026 Postdoctoral Fellow, EMSI).

LA2026 is presented by the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute. It brings together members of the public and humanities scholars for eighteen conversations about museum and cultural exhibitions at six partnering institutions in the Los Angeles region, including the Autry Museum of the American West, The Huntington, LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes / El El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and USC Libraries. Each exhibition frames conversations about the anniversary of 1776 from the perspective of California and the West. Each discussion will focus on specific items from one of the partner exhibitions, encouraging public discussions about national identities, relationships between regional and national narratives, participating in democracy, and human relationships to the land.

The EMSI LA2026 Project has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.