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Research
Our research
programs are conducted at three levels, all designed to interact with each
other to enhance educational opportunities.
Each Semester, La
Senora engages in Work/Study Programs: Graduate and undergraduate student
interns from local universities perform historic research and
fact checking for our educational activities. These interns work
with the support of La Senora's Historian to capture and present
historical data in an entertaining and easily absorbed way .
Whenever possible we
endeavor to marry the research project of an Intern with that of one or
more of our Volunteers who are already engaged in related
research. Combining the work of the interns and the volunteers is
currently producing a volume of information that is higher than we are
currently able to process effectively.
These students work
alongside outstanding resources; examples may be found on our
webpage devoted to the Pascual Marquez Family Cemetery in which researchers
from The Cotsen Institute of Archeology, UCLA's Fowler Museum of
Archeology, The Getty/UCLA Graduate Program in Conservation and USC's
School of Archeology all contributed expertise.
Growing from the
initial program, one of the UCLA/Getty Conservation program
professors brought her students to examine objects drawn from
the Archives of the Ernest Marqueq Collection using our materials to
teach the class on archiving and conservation. The dual
objective of teaching an advanced Conservation university program and
helping La Senora's personnel better understand the archiving and
cataloguing processes was achieved.
Since inception in early 2009, the research programs jointly
undertaken with The Cotsen Institute of Archeology at UCLA have
blossomed into the development of a Fellows Program for La Senora with the
first Fellows in Geophysics (Dr. Dean Goodman) and Anthropology (Dr. Teri
Brewer) drawn from the Cotsen's cadre of Research Associates. In
the Spring of 2010 a two-day workshop was attended by over 50
scientists/academics and graduate students.
In early 2011, the
subsurface investigations of the land in and around the Cemetery was
expanded into physical excavation as a team led by the Curator of UCLA's
Fowler Museum of Archeology (Dr. Wendy Teeter) dug to eliminate issues of
burials beneath the newly dug foundations of a home under construction
adjacent to the Cemetery.
Current
Research Topics for which volunteers are sought:
Francisco Reyes - 3rd Alcade (Mayor) of Los
Angeles, 1761 Soldado del Cuero of the Portola Expedition to locate
Monterrey Bay (using a 250 year old Maritime map made by Juan Cabillo);
recipient of the Spanish Land Grant for Encino (the entire San Fernando
Valley) and later Lompoc.
Jose
Mojica - The Mexican Valentino - This colorful and talented
individual who built the Hacienda in which La Senora is sited is the
subject of research by two of our volunteers and our graduate student
Interns. In addition to the collecting of books on Mojica, the files
for 'distinguished persons' in the City Hall in San Miguel de Allende are
being reviewed. Two volunteers have taken photos of the Mojica
residence Villa Santa Monica built by Mojica in San Miguel after he
returned to Mexico from the United States in the mid 1930's. Our
Chamber music programming is undertaken by the Circulo Mojica members.
Loos
Family
Clifford Loos- , M.D. co-founder of Ross-Loos
Foundation - A volunteer is sought to start this research project.
Anita Loos - Playwright &
Screen Writer - Volunteers have been engaged in collecting books,
photos, and films by Ms. Loos. La Senora has on periodic display
Anita' hats and some of her jewelry. La Senora also possesses a Cecil
Beaton drawing of Anita Loos gifted by Mary Anita Loos in 1999.
Mary Loos - Screen Writer; Best Selling
Novelist of six books. The Mary Loos Archives were in part
donated to the Bancroft Library under the terms of her will. The
residual papers were placed in a storage facility in Monterrey
California. It has not yet been possible to obtain access to
these documents, which contain a wealth of photos of old Hollywood,
family scrapbooks with photos and newspaper articles, Mary's very thorough
notes on historical research used in part in her novels, and other
miscellaneous memorabilia. The Foundation Director of La
Senora was named the Literary Trustee in Mary Loos' estate, which
includes the hand written scripts of Anita Loos; however, she has has
not yet received any of the works to be represented.
Lyle Wheeler - Multiple Academy Awards Winning Art
Director - Three of Wheeler's six children are active in La
Senora. Kimball Wheeler, an internationally recognized
Mezzo-Soprano, has served as an Artist in Residence. Brooke
Wheeler, an art director like his father, is the official family historian,
commentator during film screenings and has presented La Senora with a
wealth of materials on his father's dynamic career.
California Land
Commission - 1851 - A Project
funded by a grant administered by the SW Museum allowed the scanning and
indexing of a voluminous amount of testimony documentation.
Interpretation of the results of the Indexing is proceeding slowly as the
graduate student most involved with the project received her degree and
went on to professional employment. Anyone interested in examining
the criteria by which the Commissioners awarded or denied claims for
"patent" of the Rancho lands, or interested in identifying how
land disputes were resolved and what impacts such decisions had on the
newly formed body of law that was to become California Property laws, will
be welcomed by La Senora.
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