Calexico Arts Council calls authors for a second local history book
CALEXICO — The Calexico Arts Council held a press conference Friday to call authors to take part in the second local history book.
This second book seeks to record and preserve the city’s history. To achieve this goal, the CAC has called on historians and writers to participate in the construction of the town’s historical memory.
This time, the book will cover local historic events that occurred from 1930 to 1969.
A CAC flyer shows the selected historical researcher and writer will collect data from various sources, including archives, books, artifacts, diaries, interviews, letters, newspapers, and others, to trace the history of the land, people, and culture.
“We want to cover multi-ethnic groups,”
CAC member Carmen Durazo said. “We want to make sure we cover the history and how it has impacted.”
The second book is expected to cover topics like government, the economy, and of course, arts and culture.
Durazo said the timeline of the 240-page book covers international events like World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The local twist will consider how these events impacted the city and its residents. At the same time, regarding the economics, the upcoming book will include businesses in town that were open during those decades.
“We’ve learned a lot from our first book,” Durazo added. “So we hope with this one and what we’ve learned to apply those lessons.”
About the arts and culture, Durazo said the book will include the binational cavalcades held in town, as well as the dances, weddings, and special ceremonies.
According to Durazo, the CAC is looking for an individual who has a keen sense of history and loves Calexico, and would like to write down the book.
“Depending on who we get, this is the criteria of what we’re looking for,” Durazo said.
Those interested in participating must send their resume, including two reference letters and at least three writings showing their work.
Then, the CAC board will take a look at the proposals, interview the three finalists in person, and select the winning author. The winner will be announced on June 11.
All documents must be submitted from May 13 through May 28 by email at carmendurazo1@yahoo.com.
Durazo assured the CAC is looking to include people from different gender, racial, and ethnic backgrounds.
“Sometimes our history only sees one ethnic group, we don’t see everybody,” Durazo said. “We’d like to be able to see everybody.”
The CAC has also called community members to contact the nonprofit organization to provide any local information from those decades. Durazo said students of the Imperial Valley Campus of San Diego State University will help the researcher gather items. Also, the CAC plans to reach out to the Imperial Valley Pioneers’ Museum for the research.
Durazo said the research includes individual interviews with community members. However, residents interested in helping with the effort can email items like yearbooks.
The book release date is yet unknown as the council desires to work with the author without any rush.
The first book, with an edition of over 700 copies, had a cost of about $5,000. Those funds were provided by the City of Calexico, the Imperial Irrigation District, the County of Imperial, and the Calexico Unified School District, whose superintendent purchased a set of books for each local history class so teachers could use it.
“Part of our mission is to have new people learn about Calexico and feel they’re part of the community and they have to learn about their history,” Durazo said.
According to the CAC board member, who is slated to be once again the lead editor, the nonprofit plans to work with the same layout artist and the same printing company.
Like the first book, the second one will be published in both English and Spanish, with an all-picture third part.
“This was our first experiment,” Durazo said regarding the first book. “We learned a lot of lessons.”
The CAC President detailed that the first book — written by Mexicali historian Olga Sánchez Ogás — was labor intensive as the author did not speak English and was not familiar with city places and culture.
“I had a wonderful opportunity to sit in on all the interviews, for example, which was a learning experience for me,” Durazo said.
According to the CAC board member, some residents approached for the first book were initially hesitant about collaborating, eventually regretting the failure to respond to the call.