Speakers:
José Luis Benavides: Professor, Department of Journalism and Director, Tom & Ethel Bradley Center, California State University, Northridge
Marta Valier: Journalist and Lecturer, Department of Journalism, California State University, Northridge
Moderator: Giovanni Batz (UCSB Chicana/o Studies)
The talk introduces students and scholars to the photographic work of Richard Cross (1950-1983) in Colombia and Central America, with a focus on his documentation of Guatemala and Chiapas in the early 1980s. Cross was a photojournalist studying visual anthropology, and his work documents everyday life, political violence, and community resilience. His photographs range from collaborative ethnographic work in Afro-Colombian communities (1974-1978) to the documentation of political violence, military repression, and displacement in Guatemala and among Guatemalan refugees in Chiapas, Mexico. Bridging journalism and anthropology, Cross’s images form a people-centered visual archive now housed at the Tom & Ethel Bradley Center at CSUN.
The session provides an overview of Cross’s work, followed by a presentation of selected images from Guatemala and Chiapas. It will end with a practical guide on how to navigate and use the Richard Cross digital collection, highlighting examples of how it has been used in different contexts.