La Gente de Aztlán (Spanish for The People of Aztlán) is a bilingual Student News Magazine published, circulated, and run at the University of California Los Angeles.
Since its inception in 1971, La Gente de Aztlán has provided in depth information about art, education, health care, immigration, social justice, the prison industrial complex, the military industrial complex and other issues that concern and affect the Chicana/o, Latina/o communities. It is a bilingual publication put together by UCLA students in an effort to spread awareness and counteract the effects of the corrupted mainstream media a.k.a. FOX NEWS, ABC, NBC.
La Gente is the longest continuous running publication of its kind founded on February 16, 1971 during the height of the Chicano Movement. For over 37 years La Gente has played a vital role in disseminating information to Raza all around the United States. As a testament to La Gente de Aztlan’s dedicated editors and staff it has not only been archived at both Stanford University and the University of California Berkeley but also in the Library of Congress.
In 1996 the magazine had a circulation of 20,000 copies with a collective readership of over 60,000 people. Today the magazine publishes 5,000 copies with a readership of nearly 15,000. La Gente was adversely affected by statewide budget cuts and must now rely on outside funding such as grants and carne asada’s. In spite of such financial woes the magazine has managed to survive and flourish.
Although La Gente targets the 15-26 year old population of Los Angeles, it has effectively reached people from various age groups and backgrounds. It is distributed to high schools, community organizations, panaderias, carnicerias, and tienditas throughout Los Angeles. In addition, it is also distributed to selected correctional facilities, colleges, and universities across the southwest.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
SPECIAL ISSUE DEDICATED TO THE ARTS -- NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2007
Long hours of confinement were spent in our tiny, windowless La Gente office putting this issue together, leaving us tired, exhausted and drained. Getting ready to call it a day, we checked our email one last time and realized that our cover artwork had come in.
There on the computer screen, splashes of orange, yellow and pink flashed back at us, and the beauty of the way these colors were constructed together alongside images of various artworks instantly revitalized our senses as we stared back in wonder.
We looked around at each other, each realizing how much our moods had unexpectedly improved. The piece was impressive, but what amazed us the most was the confirmation of a bigger message: the striking power of art.
This theme has been with us for months and helped propel us into action over the course of two phases. The first, which culminated in an art show/silent auction at Kerckhoff Art Gallery during Spring Quarter 2007, was conceived for several reasons. Faced with insufficient funds to publish the magazine, La Gente sought to raise funds that would ensure the magazine’s survival for its 38th year while spreading awareness of the importance of having alternative media sources on campus and in the community. Titled “Voices from the Other Side,†the exhibit was a collection of donated artwork by local Chicana/o and Latina/o artists who shared our views of providing an alternative voice of discourse other than that of the mainstream. The event opened with a speech by fellow alternative media journalist Michael Slate, host of KPFK’s “Beneath the Surface†and closed on a celebratory note with an energetic performance of son jarocho music by Santa Ana’s Son del Centro.
The second phase manifested itself in the form of this special edition of the magazine, devoted entirely to the promotion of Chicana/o, Latina/o and Native American art. While the art exhibit allowed us to expose Latina/o art to the too-often culturally homogenous UCLA community, the purpose of this issue is to further the reaches of these artists’ points of view and demonstrate the variations of personal experience within the larger scopes of these communities.
We hope that, in a world where exhaustion and confinement threaten to dull the senses and encourage apathy, this issue will bring you a renewed vitality and encourage you to express your own voice.
--La Gente de Aztlán