Public & Applied Humanities (PAH) 200 Introduction to Applied Humanities “El Pueblo Urban Humanities Studio” S2023: students deployed urban humanities methods to co-create photo-essays narrating the past, present and future of El Pueblo.
This pilot course focused instruction about the public and applied humanities methodologies and signature case studies using the framework of an experiential urban humanities field studio. With a core community partner (“client”), the Sunnyside Foundation, whose mission centers on service to Tucson’s Southside and with support from a campus arts partner, the Center for Creative Photography, the Experiential Learning Design Accelerator Program, and excitingly, an artist-in-residence sponsored by the HSI—Initiatives Seed Grant Program, Dr. Leigh-Anna Hidalgo, students applied a suite of urban humanities methods to produce photo-based projects about the El Pueblo Center, a site established within the historical context of the Chicano movement of Tucson in the 1960s and 70s, that serves as a hub to this day for social and metropolitan services and cultural empowerment in a predominantly Latinx Southside community.
Beginning with photography modules led by the CCP team (inspired by the CCP’s upcoming exhibition on Linda McCartney and her teacher —Hazel Larsen Archer’s groundbreaking approach to photo education), students will begin a semester-long investigation of El Pueblo through examining case studies, going on site visits, conducting class interviews and designing photo-shoots with community storytellers, culminating in final projects that will be featured in public-facing events open to Southside and campus communities, a double-exhibition to be held at El Pueblo and the CCP.
Selected “mini digital exhibitions” produced by student teams from PAH 200 Spring 2023: “The El Pueblo Urban Humanities Studio.” Guided by stories community members shared, and the philosophies of artists they studied, students created images about themes that intrigued and inspired them, from intergenerational celebrations held at the patio to traces of a lifetime of public service at the Congressman’s office, from pride in bilingual culture at the Frank de La Cruz - El Pueblo Library, to the dynamic flows of public transit through the Laos Transit Center.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
We would like to acknowledge funding for this project from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA); the Marshall Foundation; the UArizona Experiential Learning Design Accelerator; UArizona Hispanic Serving Institute (HSI) Faculty Seed Grant, which supported sessions with Latinx digital humanist scholar and course artist-in-resident, Dr. Leigh-Anna Hidalgo; Arts|Humanities|Resilience Grant from UArizona College of Fine Arts (CFA) Research, Innovation & Impact (RII) and the Arizona Institute for Resilience (AIR), which is providing support for our newly inducted community documentarians and artists-in-residence, Luis Gonzalez and Jessica Wolff. We want to thank community and teaching partners, collaborators and storytellers from Sunnyside Foundation; the Office of Congressman Raúl Grijalva; Nuestras Raíces Pima County Public Library (PCPL) and Frank de la Cruz-El Pueblo Public Library; Raúl Council Member Lane Santa Cruz and Ward 1; Council Member Richard Fimbres and Ward 5; Supervisor Adelita S. Grijalva - Pima County Board of Supervisors, District 5; City of Tucson Parks and Recreation, UArizona, especially the College of Humanities (COH) and the Department of Public and Applied Humanities (PAH), College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture (CAPLA), Center for Creative Photography (CCP), UArizona Libraries Special Collections. None of this would be possible without members of our communities who participated in our Community Reinvestment Days, site visits, storytelling panels, community photo-shoots, workshops, pin-ups and reviews, who took the time to help us learn and share the story of El Pueblo.
Stephanie Husman, Juliana Tobar, Mireya Ballesteros & Cara Buchanan
Moving Forward is a digital exhibition recognizing the Laos Center as a transit haven for many in the Southside neighborhood. The images were taken from a bus ride from the Ronstadt Transit Center Downtown to Laos Transit Center to arrive at El Pueblo Neighborhood Center. Public transit has been stigmatized and viewed as an undesirable way to get around the city and the misconceptions associated with this view only reinforce the stigma. Speaking with fare-free transit activists, FUGA, and bus riders shows that this is simply far from the truth. To create a visual representation of this narrative, we created collages of everyday sights one sees as a bus rider and bicyclists, 3 set depicts of a first-time bus rider, and a map collage following the Bus 18 route.
La Calle Fugista | Cara Buchanan | 2023 | Digital Collage
In La Calle Fugista, FUGA bike riders ride across W Irvington Rd, surrounded by community member Selina Barajas and her daughters, Mia Sol and Sofia Luna. This image imagines a celebration overtaking W Irvington Rd, full of community members, bikers, and children playing. Papel picado frames the scene, creating a party atmosphere. The background is full of movement, the blurriness creating a sense of unreality. This collage disrupts the car-centric street to optimistically imagine what a more community-centered and sustainable transit system might look like.
Family Ride | Cara Buchanan | 2023 | Digital Collage
In Family Ride, Sunnyside Foundation’s Selina Barajas, her mother, Gracie Rodriguez, and two daughters, Mia Sol and Sofia Luna, overlay an image of bus 18 over busy W Irvington Rd. Surrounding them are images of papel picado, an El Pueblo mural, and the Ronstadt Center welcome sign. This image highlights how transit justice is a family-centered issue. Those who rely on and fight for accessible transportation in Tucson do so primarily to support and care for their families and communities. The papel picado and mural artwork also create an atmosphere of celebration and reference cultural aspects of El Pueblo. The bus overlays W Irvington Rd, directly across from the Laos Center, El Pueblo, and FUGA’s gathering place.
FUGA on the Map | Cara Buchanan | 2023 | Digital Collage
This image features participants in a Familias Unidos Ganando Accesibilidad/Families United Gaining Accessibility (FUGA) bike ride riding across the Tucson bus map towards a sunset. The sunset is made up of an image of ‘Tugo’ bike wheels, a program creating rentable bikes for Tucsonans and free bikes for Fugistas, as well as iconic Arizonan clouds. Shadows of community members and visitors to El Pueblo Neighborhood Center are shown in the bottom left corner, framing the scene. The bikeriders ride across a road made up of a mural featured at El Pueblo, depicting the mountains and natural beauty of the Tucson area. The image aims to capture the forward-looking aspirations of the FUGA organization, which is organizing to secure fare-free transit in Tucson and sustainable infrastructure. FUGA takes up road space to make bikeriders visible on the southside while breaking stigmas about bike riding. This is captured in the image by overlaying the Fugistas across Tucson bus routes– putting them literally ‘on the map.’
Camino de Paz | Juliana Tobar | 2023 | Digital Collage
My digital Collage Camino de Paz is a representation of El Pueblo, and how the community has an impact on Public Transportation. El Pueblo Neighborhood Center has been a beacon of light in the southside community since its opening. By providing essential services to the surrounding community this center has become a crucial aspect of many people’s lives. Some of the people who use the El Pueblo services use the bus as their main form of transportation. Not only that, but they also must the bus to commute to other essential places like the grocery store, or the El Rio clinic. For this project, I interviewed an important member of the community, founder of FUGA, Vanessa Gallego. Through this interview, I was told multiple examples of how other members of El Pueblo use the buses to commute to the senior center or the El Rio Center. This shows how much public transportation aids the El Pueblo and the surrounding community, and how connected they are. In my piece, I have placed the viewer in a bus trip, looking out the window. I used multiple elements of El Pueblo and the neighborhood in my background. The original picture included the Cesar Chavez bridge Over I-10 on Sixth Avenue. Vanessa expressed how big of a symbol that was to the Southside, so I included an outline of it in my image to symbolize the everyday routes that are taken by people living there.
Viaje Común | Juliana Tobar | 2023 | Digital Collage
My digital collage Viaje Comun is a demonstration of the daily lives of bus users. Since my team was focusing on the Laos Transit Center and its impact on the El Pueblo Center and surrounding community, I thought it would be appropriate to create a work that highlighted this important aspect of the southside. Through this piece, I wanted to capture the community of bus users of the Southside. Many times this community tends to be highly stigmatized. These misconceptions can be extremely harmful to those who use public transportation as their main form of transportation. By breaking down the stigma of bus users and putting ourselves in their shoes we can better connect with the El Pueblo community as well as the Southside. Bus commuters are great reminders of the resiliency of the Southside, as well as examples of why Public transportation should remain free in order to be more accessible to those who need it. My digital collage Viaje Comun is a demonstration of the daily lives of bus users. Since my team was focusing on the Laos Transit Center and its impact on the El Pueblo Center and surrounding community, I thought it would be appropriate to create a work that highlighted this important aspect of the southside. Through this piece, I wanted to capture the community of bus users of the Southside. Many times this community tends to be highly stigmatized. These misconceptions can be extremely harmful to those who use public transportation as their main form of transportation. By breaking down the stigma of bus users and putting ourselves in their shoes we can better connect with the El Pueblo community as well as the Southside. Bus commuters are great reminders of the resiliency of the Southside, as well as examples of why Public transportation should remain free in order to be more accessible to those who need it.
Navigating Through Two Cities I | Stephanie Husman | 2023 | Digital Collage
My digital fotonovela spread Navigating Through Two Cities is a summation of the multilayered journey of this project. Fare free transit is an essential service that
eliminates the mobility barriers for many people in the city. Truly in our and especially bus riders everyday lives we are trying to overcome so much more and having one less barrier lifts up an immense weight. Many bus riders are traveling to different destinations with a purpose that varies from each other and through poetic text and the bus ride I took to get to the Laos Center I
wanted to encapsulate that. A student who wants to learn can be applied to students whose only form of transportation is public transit and in a similar vein myself too. I wanted to learn how public transit impacts the Southside, especially the surrounding neighborhoods of El Pueblo. The pioneer in question is Roy Laos who was labeled as “Transit Pioneer '' during the time he owned a private bus line that transported people from the south to the west of Tucson. The “Man” is a more general representation of people who use the bus to get to work. Another crucial part I wanted to incorporate in the text is the unizonation between this class and El Pueblo Neighborhood Center and alongside reflect the connection between Tucson and the Southside of Tucson through a bus route. When communities unite, we heal each other and that’s what we need moving forward.
Navigating Through Two Cities II | Stephanie Husman | 2023 | Digital Collage
My digital fotonovela spread Navigating Through Two Cities is a summation of the multilayered journey of this project. Fare free transit is an essential service that
eliminates the mobility barriers for many people in the city. Truly in our and especially bus riders everyday lives we are trying to overcome so much more and having one less barrier lifts up an immense weight. Many bus riders are traveling to different destinations with a purpose that varies from each other and through poetic text and the bus ride I took to get to the Laos Center I
wanted to encapsulate that. A student who wants to learn can be applied to students whose only form of transportation is public transit and in a similar vein myself too. I wanted to learn how public transit impacts the Southside, especially the surrounding neighborhoods of El Pueblo. The pioneer in question is Roy Laos who was labeled as “Transit Pioneer '' during the time he owned a private bus line that transported people from the south to the west of Tucson. The “Man” is a more general representation of people who use the bus to get to work. Another crucial part I wanted to incorporate in the text is the unizonation between this class and El Pueblo Neighborhood Center and alongside reflect the connection between Tucson and the Southside of Tucson through a bus route. When communities unite, we heal each other and that’s what we need moving forward.
Navigating Through Two Cities III | Stephanie Husman | 2023 | Digital Collage
My digital fotonovela spread Navigating Through Two Cities is a summation of the multilayered journey of this project. Fare free transit is an essential service that
eliminates the mobility barriers for many people in the city. Truly in our and especially bus riders everyday lives we are trying to overcome so much more and having one less barrier lifts up an immense weight. Many bus riders are traveling to different destinations with a purpose that varies from each other and through poetic text and the bus ride I took to get to the Laos Center I
wanted to encapsulate that. A student who wants to learn can be applied to students whose only form of transportation is public transit and in a similar vein myself too. I wanted to learn how public transit impacts the Southside, especially the surrounding neighborhoods of El Pueblo. The pioneer in question is Roy Laos who was labeled as “Transit Pioneer '' during the time he owned a private bus line that transported people from the south to the west of Tucson. The “Man” is a more general representation of people who use the bus to get to work. Another crucial part I wanted to incorporate in the text is the unizonation between this class and El Pueblo Neighborhood Center and alongside reflect the connection between Tucson and the Southside of Tucson through a bus route. When communities unite, we heal each other and that’s what we need moving forward.
Bus #18 | Mireya Ballesteros | 2023 | Digital Collage
Bus #18 is a digital image consisting of photographs taken while riding bus #18 from the Ronstadt Transit Center to the Laos Transit Center. I edited these photographs onto a basemap of Downtown Tucson, South Tucson, and the southside from center to center. My goal with this was to bring attention to how important the Laos Center is to people who attend El Pueblo Community Center, and Tucsonans overall. Bus #18 is the most used bus in all of Tucson. In an interview with local artist, Luck Salway, he enlightened me on how this bus has impacted his life and the lives of others. From this, I wanted to represent the many people who utilize this source of public transportation, especially the Latino/a/e community and the Indigenous community. I wanted to give perspective on what one might see while they are on bus #18, from different people to different views, and both transit centers. This digital collage comes from a place of gratitude that public transportation is free for the citizens of Tucson. As well as hope for the future, and that the Roy Laos Center will get recognition through this exhibition.