Increasing Awareness Spokane Will Host The Annual Conference Of The National Association Of Chicano Studies. It Will Be Just The Second Time The Conference Has Been Held Outside Of The Southwest.

Quick, now, when was the last time you thought of something Spanishrelated?

A. The last time you ate at Rancho Chico.

B. Last Cinco de Mayo.

C. When you came across your old college copy of “One Hundred Years of Solitude.”

D. The last time your kids turned on “Sesame Street.”

If any or all of these answers apply, then Carlos Maldonado wants you to know about the annual conference of the National Association of Chicano Studies (NACS), which begins its four-day run Wednesday in Spokane at the Ridpath Hotel.

Maldonado, director of the Chicano Studies Program at Eastern Washington University, sees the conference as an opportunity not only to draw attention to the local Latino community, but to bring the Northwest Latino community to the attention of the rest of the nation.

“The community’s growing,” he says. “And by having the conference in Spokane, in a very conservative climate, it tells you, ‘Hey, we’re also here. This is our home base.”’

Maldonado is an example of that community. Originally from south Texas, he came to the Northwest with his family, he says, “in the ‘60s as part of the migrant farm-worker stream.”

He attended school in Oregon, eventually graduating from the University of Oregon with a doctorate in educational administration. In 1987, he was hired by Eastern.

Coincident with his arrival at EWU, the voice of Northwest Latinos has been growing on the national scene. In the years since NACS was formed in 1972, the 2,000-member organization has held its national conference outside the Southwest only twice - once in Michigan and now in Washington.

This year’s conference itself is indicative of that growth: Sponsors include Chicano studies programs at Washington State University, Gonzaga, Central Washington, the University of Washington, plus private businesses such as Seafirst and First Interstate banks. Maldonado expects some 500 conference attendees.

The growth in regional consciousness is, in fact, one of the main conference topics.

“The notion there is that we need to go beyond the Southwest because we feel that a regional restriction of the Chicano experience is not a complete story,” Maldonado says. “We need to include other regions that have emerged beyond the Southwest, such as the Midwest and the Northwest, where Chicano communities have been historically established since the ‘20s and ‘40s.”

The other main topic is contained in the conference’s official title: “Expanding Raza Worldviews: Sexuality and Regionalism.”

“What we’re looking at here is notions of sexuality and how we deal with those notions inside our community,” Maldonado says. “We’re looking at dispelling myths about how sexuality impacts our socialization, how it impacts gender roles, impacts our actions of sexism and how that deals with relationship to power.”

Conference speakers who will address these issues are Emma Perez from the University of Texas-El Paso and Gilberto Cardenas of the University of Texas-Austin. Other issues will be addressed in individual sessions that will be held concurrently throughout the four-day gathering.

An art exhibit and reception featuring the works of Alfredo Arreguin, Cecilia Alvarez and Ruben Trejo will be held Thursday night.

And on Friday, beginning at 5:30 p.m., a Cesar Chavez commemorative march will be held in downtown Spokane. Marchers will include representatives of the United Farm Workers of Washington State and Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste from Oregon.

Following the march, at 7:30, a “Noche de Cultura” celebration of mariachi music, dance, poetry and theater will be held.

In addition to what the conference says about the growing influence of the Latino voice in the Northwest, it offers non-Latinos an opportunity to learn more about a subculture that exists right in their midst.

A growing subculture that’s demanding attention from a shrinking world.

“We need to expand the educational canon,” Maldonado says. “We can no longer ignore new voices emerging from African-American studies, Chicano studies and others that are important in expanding our worldview.”

MEMO: The 1995 conference of the National Association for Chicano Studies will be Wednesday through Saturday at the Ridpath Hotel. All sessions are open to the public. For registration and specific scheduling information, call the Chicano Studies Department at Eastern Washington University at 359-2404.