Latinos & Economic Security

Chon A. Noriega

UCLA Department of Film, Television, & Digital Media

Chon A. Noriega is Professor in the UCLA Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media. He is author of Shot in America: Television, the State, and the Rise of Chicano Cinema (Minnesota, 2000) and editor of nine books dealing with Latino media, performance and visual art. Since 1996, he has been editor of Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, the flagship journal for the field since its founding in 1970. In July 2002, he became Director of the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center.

For the past decade, Noriega has been active in media policy and professional development, for which Hispanic Business named him as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Hispanics. He is co-founder of the 500-member National Association of Latino Independent Producers and served on the Board of Directors of the Independent Television Service. Noriega has moderated the Arts and Entertainment Summit of the U.S. Congressional Hispanic Caucus. He is currently conducting a research project on hate speech in collaboration with the National Hispanic Media Coalition and with support from the Social Science Research Council.

In addition to his work in media, Noriega has curated numerous arts projects, including Just Another Poster: Chicano Graphic Arts in California and Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement. The latter show opened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2008 and will travel to Mexico City, Houston, San Antonio, and New York City. He has also helped recover and preserve independent films and video art, including the first three Chicano-directed feature films.