The Yost Theater is Orange County’s oldest entertainment venue. Louis Olivos eventually purchased the Yost and turned it into one of the most important physical and cultural gathering spaces for ethnic Mexican communities in Santa Ana by exclusively screening Spanish-language films and hosting Mexican A-list celebrities. In this talk, Dr. David-James Gonzales argues that ordinary individuals like the owners and patrons of El Cine Yost practiced a form of Latina/o/x placemaking that challenged their marginalization in Orange County during the mid-to-late twentieth century. Members of the Olivos family will also share stories about the Yost and their family’s legacy. Dr. David-James Gonzales is an Assistant Professor of history at Brigham Young University. His research centers on the relationship between migration, urbanization, and civil rights in Southern California.
To request an accommodation or for inquiries about accessibility, please contact arceliag@uci.edu or kevana@uci.edu.
This event is sponsored by UCI Illuminations, the Department of Film and Media Studies, the Department of History, the UCI History Project, the Department of Chicano/Latino Studies, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and the Humanities Center's "Care and Repair" Series.