PAH 420 Spring 2025: Southside Stories of Environmental Resilience and El Pueblo
Resilience, defined as a set of practices and a communal identity enabling neighborhoods to respond to forces of global change, finds lived expression in the Southside of Tucson. A key narrative in this wellspring of environmental resilience and care is the Southside’s ongoing story to repair experiences of environmental harm from the Trichloroethylene (TCE) water contamination crisis that ensued in the 1980s from the improper disposal of the harmful industrial solvent by Tucson’s aviation and defense industries. Much of this work has been and continues to be nurtured at the El Pueblo, a hub for recreational and public services, neighborly exchange and community place-keeping in the area and beyond. This semester, PAH 420 students applied a suite of innovative design strategies to prototype projects connecting users to the stories of environmental resilience we encountered in and through Southside communities at El Pueblo and beyond. Using multimedia spatial research and storytelling, students designed publicly-engaged projects amplifying how Southside communities’ preserve and imagine their relationships to the environment, especially its historic journey to care for their water. Sed a suscipit tortor. Pellentesque volutpat metus a odio sollicitudin pulvinar. In finibus metus at eros faucibus consequat. Ut posuere interdum leo id pharetra. Vivamus pellentesque, lectus elementum hendrerit convallis, sapien massa porta mauris, ac malesuada quam felis in felis. Fusce id vehicula ipsum. Duis lacinia porttitor justo, ac interdum leo sollicitudin quis.
Acknowledgements:
None of this would be possible without campus and community partners especially from Department of Public and Applied Humanities (PAH), UArizona Libraries (UAL) Special Collections & CATalyst Studio; College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture (CAPLA), Center for Creative Photography, College of FIne Arts (CFA), Arizona Institute of Resilience (AIR) as well as Sunnyside Foundation, Office of Congressman Raúl Grijalva, the Unified Community Advisory Board (UCAB), Tucson Water, Frank de la Cruz Library, the El Pueblo Senior Center, City of Tucson Parks and Recreation, with special thanks to the offices of Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva & Tucson Council Member Lane Santa Cruz for visiting our class. The instructors would especially like to thank reviewers, speakers, site-/archive- visit experts and consultants who accompanied us along the way including Paulina Aguirre-Clinch, Selina Barajas, Cassandra Becerra, Dr. Paloma Beamer, Becca Cammack, Marcos and Nicki Cardenas and the seniors of the El Pueblo Senior Center Art Class, Jasmin Chan, John Choi, Rachel Castro, Sharon Collinge, Laura Corrales, Hilda Cortez, Veronica Cruz-Mercado, Bob Diaz, Sophie Didier, Alba Fernandez-Keys, Sara Fraker, Sofia Forier-Montes, Heather Froehlich, Julissa Galindo, Yolanda Herrera and the members of UCAB, Christine Hoekanga, Cynthia Leo, Cynthia Lopez, Dr. Denise Moreno-Ramírez, Ellen McMahon, Nicholas McCullough, Jennifer Nichols, Chairman Ned Norris, Perri Pyle, Beki Quintero, Niko Sanchez, Elizabth Soltero, Liz Petterson, Alana Varner, Alysha Vasquez and the Mexican-American Museum/Los Descendientes Survival & Resistance: Remembering the Southside Environmental Justice Movement team, Dr. Monica Ramírez-Andreotta, Mia Ruiz, Elliott Welch, Jessica Wolff, Kenny Wong. A warm thank you to Angus Leydic, our PAH 420 Graduate Teaching Assistant, and Jasmin Lopez & Sarah Snyder, who expanded our study of Southside’s stories of environmental resilience through their internships this semester. We also would like to acknowledge support for this course from the UA Library Digital Borderlands Fellowship as well as Arts Research + Resilience Grants programs, enabling instructors to bring new tools and resources for teaching and learning interdisciplinary storytelling to Southern Arizona communities. We also want to acknowledge support from PAH, Hispanic Serving Institute (HSI) Initiatives, Design Accelerator, Marshall Foundation, American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the Arts|Humanities|Resilience (AHR) grant program, administered by AIR and the College of Fine Arts. Thank you for seeding our educational investment in Southside communities in partnership with the Sunnyside Foundation, that has laid the foundation for today’s work.
Public & Applied Humanities (PAH) 420 Innovation & the Human Condition “The Murals of El Pueblo” F2023, S2024: students deployed urban humanities methods to produce design concepts and prototypes to activate murals of El Pueblo. Prototypes include intergenerational activation strategies, interactive directories, recipe zines inspired by mural iconography, bilingual children’s activity books, Route 18 - 6th Avenue landmark bus tour and many. Brief: This course equipped students with the skills to use the humanities’ intellectual and analytical traditions to identify and pursue strategic responses to opportunities for innovation in the human condition. In collaboration with a community partner, the Sunnyside Foundation (SF), whose mission centers on service to Tucson’s Southside, this course will focus on SF’s efforts to revitalize and reactivate El Pueblo Neighborhood Center, a hub for recreational and public services, neighborly exchange and community place-keeping in the area and beyond. A key El Pueblo project SF is directing is the restoration of El Pueblo’s historic murals. These cultural treasures are visual expressions of the legacy of the site, especially its spatial identity as a node of Latine/Indigenous/mixed heritage cultural and political empowerment-- contextualized such forces as the historic Chicano movement the 60s and 70s, the vigorous environmental justice advocacy sparked in 80s that continues to this day, and the center’s dynamic leadership in spearheading intergenerational services for a diverse Southside community. Along with additional community and campus partners, we will apply a suite of applied and public humanities engagement strategies to co-produce prototypes for well-researched (visual, spatial and collaborative, archival), multi-sensory and immersive activation ideas, with a focus on digital or print publication (i.e. zines and fotonovelas etc) and mapping (counter-tours, thickmaps, StoryMaps etc), to connect the public to the rich languages and visions contained and inspired by the murals of El Pueblo Center. A program of the final course review can be accessed here.
Acknowledgements:
Fall 2023 Liz Soltero & Selina Barajas (Sunnyside Foundation); Cassandra Becerra & Netza Aguirre (Office of Congressman Raul Grijlava); Brianna Velador, Martha Diaz & John
Munoz (Frank de la Cruz Library), Nicholas McCullough, Keith Bagwell and Elvira Suarez Din (Office of Supervisor Adelita Grijalva, District 5); Adriana Gallego, Abby Christensen, Wylwyn Reyes (Arts Foundation of Southern Arizona); Jessica Wolff (Artist, Los Niños Elementary); Alfonso Chávez (Flowers and Bullets); Denisse Britto (CCP); Brittney Crawford, Stephanie Springer, Suzanne Panferov, Giulia Negretto (PAH); Alba Fernandez-Keys (Special Collections); Jennifer Nichols, Niko Sanchez, Mona Nakamura (CATalyst Studios).
Spring 2024 Veronica Mercado, Laura Corrales & Selina Barajas (Sunnyside Foundation); Cassandra Becerra & Netza Aguirre (Office of Congressman Raul Grijlava); Nicholas McCullough (Office of Supervisor Adelita Grijalva, District 5); Jasmine Chan (and Mila) (City of Tucson, Parks and Rec), Jessica Wolff (Los Niños Elementary); Anna Sanchez; Brianna Velador & Martha Diaz (Frank De La Cruz Library, Marcos & Nicky Cardenas (El Pueblo Senior Center); Gia del Pino, Lizzy Gueverra (CCP); Judd Ruggill, Brittney Crawford, Stephanie Springer, Lily Reese, Giulia Negretto, Chase Crehan, Jasmin Lopez (PAH); Lisa, Duncan, Michelle Boyer Nicole, Bob Diaz, Alba Fernandez-Keys (Special Collections); Jennifer Nichols, Rachel Castro, Gerald Zivic, Niko Sanchez (CATalyst Studios); Abby Christensen (Arts Foundation of Southern Arizona); Aika Adamson & Rebecca Ballinger (World of Words); Heather Froehlich (UArizona Libraries); Kathryn Yahner (Western National Parks Association); Feng-Feng Yeh (Chinese Chorizo Project); Alisha Vazquez (Mexican-American Museum-Sosa Carillo House)