The William H. Hannon Library has digitized 43 issues of Vida, a student-run newspaper that amplified the voices and concerns of the Chicana/o/x and other marginalized communities at Loyola Marymount University from the early 1970s until the late 1990s. Users can access these issues online through LMU Digital Collections, which features unique materials digitized from the library’s archives and special collections.
Published by the university chapter of El Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (M.E.Ch.A.) and moderated by the Department of Chicano Studies, the publication covered critical local, national, and international events impacting the Chicana/o/x community. It provided student journalists a platform to connect with over 2,000 readers across Los Angeles, covering topics including the Coors Boycott and United Farm Workers strike on Delano grapes, U.S. interventionism in Latin and South America, income equality and workers’ rights, bilingual-bicultural education and first-generation university student experiences, and the impact of developments in affirmative action and immigration policy. Additionally, Vida valued creative expression and published student submitted poetry in most issues.
“This collection centers student expression and showcases the power of student activism,” said Danielle Worthy, DEIA project metadata librarian. “Particularly moving are the narratives written by first-generation students about their experience after their first year at LMU. Sharing their fears, struggles, and how they overcame them demonstrates community care and is a practice we continue to use and learn from and which strengthens our campus community today.”
During the 1980s, Vida expanded to publish the Vida newsletter in addition to the Vida newspaper. The newsletter spotlighted campus events offered by Chicano Latino Student Services organizations, scholarships, internships, and news of particular interest to Chicana/o/x students. In 1994, Vida transitioned from a monthly newspaper and newsletter to a literary magazine published twice a semester to promote multiculturalism and inclusivity within the Loyola Marymount University campus community. Submissions included articles, drawings, poems, and announcements of campus events, with a section devoted to events sponsored by organizations within the Chicano Latino Student Services.
About LMU Digital Collections
Loyola Marymount University’s Digital Collections feature unique materials digitized from the William H. Hannon Library, as well as from LMU’s Center for Ignatian Spirituality, which contributed the Sacred Heart Chapel Collection. The digital resources represent historically significant documents, photographs, audiovisual recordings, rare books, manuscripts, scrapbooks, maps, postcards, and diaries. Access these collections at https://digitalcollections.lmu.edu/
About the William H. Hannon Library
The William H. Hannon Library fosters excellence in academic achievement through an array of distinctive services, collections, and programs that enable learners to feed their curiosity, experience new worlds, develop their ideas, inform their decision-making, and inspire others. For more information, visit https://library.lmu.edu.