Meet and Greet 3 Laureates & A New USC El Centro Chicano

by Michael Sedano

From: Labloga.blogspot.com

After the closing of the 2010 reunion floricanto at USC, Mary Ann Pacheco, Alurista, and I had dinner at LA’s iconic The Pantry. The pair had organized the original 1973 Festival de Flor y Canto and edited the anthology. Mary Ann surprised the heck out of me with a revelation from back then.

I was having the time of my life on the GI Bill and a TA job. For fun I became Chief Photog of the campus rag, “shot” big-time USC sports, and documented everything I saw. In the eyes of the 18- and 19- year olds, I was this old guy who carries a camera everywhere he goes and is always taking their photo. They thought I was a narc.

“CIA,” Mary Ann interjects, as I relate that story to the invitees to a “meet and greet” reception for the three Poets Laureate who would read that evening, not at the postage-stamp Centro, but in prominent Bovard Auditorium.

Things have changed at El Centro Chicano and I wonder how much is a que plus ça change situation? Space is at a premium in the new ECC as people term it now. Unwelcoming linoleum hallways lead to anonymous institutional doors shutting-in unknown spaces. A display case outside displays government citations and awards.

My wife and I took surface rail to the late afternoon event and arrived a quarter hour early to locked doors. Despite that, the hallway holds warm memories. The Daily Trojan offices are on this floor, and the El Rodeo yearbook sign hangs on the wall opposite El Centro Chicano. Today’s El Centro is in the heart of campus, a corner of the top floor of the old Student Union building. In its time, ECC’s been in a deluxe building of its own, before that cramped into antique charming surroundings of the campus cathedral, and started in la raza’s own storefront Centro, prime real estate at the juncture of Hoover and Jefferson.

With murals by Willie Herrón and Roberto Arenivar, El Centro Chicano became a prominent landmark along heavily-trafficked Jefferson Boulevard. across from Shrine Auditorium. El Centro Chicano was the first building anyone saw upon walking onto USC. A fountain and a mound of English ivy today mark the main entrance to campus here where Hoover t-bones into campus. Read Rest of Article Here