Faculty Member Leads Preservation Effort for Library of Congress Collection Illuminating L.A.’s Chicano Movement

The history of Chicano life in Los Angeles has recently gotten a full showing at the Library of Congress, presenting photographs, manuscripts, videos, and periodicals that provide insight into a formative cultural moment. Marta E. Sánchez, professor of teaching and learning in the LMU School of Education, had a hand in the collection.

Sánchez first met Raúl Ruiz (1940-2019) in 1982. By then, Ruiz was a prominent figure shaping Chicano history in Los Angeles-a journalist, photographer, professor, and political activist whose images of protest and police crackdowns gave visibility to a community long overlooked by mainstream media. As editor of La Raza newspaper, he documented pivotal moments like the 1968 East L.A. school walkouts, the Vietnam-era Chicano Moratorium, testifying in court as an eye-witness account to the murder of famed civil rights activist and Los Angeles Timesreporter Ruben Salazar.

"[Ruiz] had this duality of being the kindest, most sensitive, giving human being. But when he saw injustice, he would get really upset, and then you knew to get out of the way, because these things really got to him," Sánchez said. "A lot of people get credit for being a part of the movement, but he was the movement."

Throughout his life, Ruiz had kept detailed records of this time period in his attic-tens of thousands of photographs, manuscripts, videos, and periodicals documenting the Chicano Movement in Los Angeles since the 1960s. Following his passing in 2019, Sánchez, along with her son, Ladis Sánchez, and his daughter, Marcela Ponce, came across Ruiz's vast collection, and sought to preserve his legacy for future generations.

"It was exhilarating and exciting to go through the things this man had treasured, unbeknownst to anybody, really," Sánchez said.

Together they began the work of donating the collection to the Library of Congress. With help from Adam Silvia, curator of photography in the Library of Congress' Prints and Photographs Division, they catalogued and processed 70 boxes packed with photographs, manuscripts, and other materials, ensuring they were properly organized and prepared for long-term preservation and public access.

Today, the Raúl Ruiz Chicano Movement Collection at the Library of Congress fills a previously empty gap in the national archival record of Chicano history, bringing to light the voices and struggles of a generation that continues to fight for equality and cultural recognition. Part of Ruiz's collection is also housed at UCLA's Chicano Studies Research Center. Comprised of some 17,500 photographs and 10,000 pages of manuscripts, along with audio recordings, videos, and original issues of La Raza newspaper and magazine, the collection offers an unparalleled window into the Chicano Movement.

"Young people now do not have an awareness and an appreciation for what people like Raul and I did, what their grandparents and great-grandparents went through as struggling immigrants," said Sánchez. "Our generation pioneered the Chicano movement. We made it happen. That's why this project became so important to me."