You're invited to join us on Wednesday, November 15, noon to 1 p.m. for a book presentation and signing by Dr. Daisy Ocampo Diaz, Assistant Professor of History at CSUSB and author of Where We Belong: Chemehuevi and Caxcan Preservation of Sacred Mountains (University of Arizona Press, 2023). 

20 copies of Where We Belong will be given away.

In this program, Professor Ocampo Diaz (Caxcan), whose research focuses on Native and public history as they intersect with Indigenous peoples, voices, and community narratives, showcases her work on historic preservation and Native American History in order to establish Indigenous preservation practices as sustaining approaches to the caretaking of the land that embody ecological sustainability, spiritual landscapes, and community well-being, bringing together the history and experiences of the Chemehuevi people and their ties with Mamapukaib, or the Old Woman Mountains in the East Mojave Desert, and the Caxcan people and their relationship with Tlachialoyantepec, or Cerro de las Ventanas, in Zacatecas, Mexico.

Through a trans-Indigenous approach, she weaves historical methodologies (oral histories, archival research, ethnography) with Native studies and historic preservation to reveal why Native communities are the most knowledgeable and transformational caretakers of their sacred places. This comparative work dispels the harmful myth that Native people are unfit stewards of their sacred places. Her work transcends national borders to reveal how settler structures are sustained through time and space in the Americas. Challenging these structures, traditions such as the Chemehuevi Salt Songs and Caxcan Xuchitl Dance provide both an old and a fresh look at how Indigenous people are reimagining worlds that promote Indigenous-to-Indigenous futures through preservation.

To attend virtually, please register here: https://tinyurl.com/CSUSBNIHM2023

The program, free and open to the public, will take place in the Faculty Center for Excellence (PL-4005).  Everyone is welcome to attend.

Co-sponsored by CSUSB Libraries, SMSU Cross Cultural Center, the Faculty Center for Excellence, and the History Department.

For questions or more information, contact Robie Madrigal, Pfau Library, at rmadriga@csusb.edu or (909) 537-5104.