This collection houses 655 images documenting Graciela Olivarez's life and work between 1951 and 1982. The majority of these photographs depict Olivarez attending events, presenting or receiving awards, and giving speeches. Other images show Olivarez at KIFN radio and at Channel 48 KPHO-TV, on the Notre Dame campus, receiving an honorary degree from Notre Dame, and with family and friends. Also included are images showing various television and radio performers.
Identification:
MP MPC 293
Language:
Material in English
Repository:
Arizona State University Library. Chicano Research Collection
P.O. Box 871006
Tempe, AZ 85287-1006
Phone: (480) 965-4932
E-Mail: archives@asu.edu Questions? Ask An Archivist!
Biographical Note
Graciela Gil (known commonly as Grace) was born to Damian Valero and Eloisa Solis Valero Gil in Phoenix, Arizona on March 9, 1928. She began working for KIFN (a Spanish language radio station in Phoenix) in 1952, where she served as a bilingual secretary, as a third-class radio engineer, as an announcer, and finally as the Women's Program Director. After leaving KIFN in 1962, Gil worked as a Staff Specialist at the Choate Foundation (1962-1965) and as the Director of the Arizona State Office of Economic Opportunity (1966-1968). She was also involved with volunteer work to help the poor and physically handicapped of Phoenix and considered both radio and television to be a means of informing the impoverished about the health, social, and educational services available to them. She was married briefly in the late 1950s and had one son, Victor Rene (1959-).
Although she had dropped out of Ray High School in 1944 in favor of completing a six-month course at a business school, Olivarez was admitted to the Law School at the University of Notre Dame in 1967. She became the first woman to earn her JD at this institution in 1970. She was also granted a number of honorary degrees, including an Honorary Doctor of Public Administration from the University of Albuquerque (1985), an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Amherst College (1972), and Honorary Doctorates of Law from Michigan State University (1975), the University of Notre Dame (1978), and St. Mary's-of-the-Woods (1980).
After earning her law degree, Olivarez worked as Director of Food For All (1970-1972), as Director of the Institute for Social Research and Development (1972-1975), and as the New Mexico State Planning Officer (1975-1977) before being appointed the Director of the Community Services Administration by President Jimmy Carter. Olivarez left this post in 1980 and returned to Albuquerque, where she founded Olivarez Television Company, Inc. Graciela Gil Olivarez died in Albuquerque on September 19, 1987.
Scope and Content Note
This collection houses 655 images documenting Graciela Olivarez's life and work between 1951 and 1982. The majority of these photographs depict Olivarez attending events, presenting or receiving awards, and giving speeches. Among the events shown are a fundraiser for Friendly House, the Southwest Conference on Poverty (1966), a Mexican American Democratic Organization meeting, Hispanic Heritage Week (1979), a Mexican American Opportunity Foundation Award presentation (1979), the Seventh Annual Macon County Grassroots Rally (1977), the New Mexico Minority Business Owners Conference (1975), the opening ceremony for the Cranston Community Action Committee Energy Conservation Program, a League of Mexican American Women awards presentation (circa 1963), the White House Conference on Mexican American Problems (1966), a Memphis Community Action Agency banquet (1978), the San Francisco Public Policy Forum, a Kentucky Association of Community Action event, a Milwaukee Community Action Program event, Greater Omaha Community Action, Inc.'s Fourth Annual Dinner (1978), and a Hawaii Community Action Program event (1979). Other images show Olivarez at KIFN radio and at Channel 48 KPHO-TV, on the Notre Dame campus, receiving an honorary degree from Notre Dame, and with family and friends. Also included are images showing various television and radio performers.
Arrangement
This collection consists of six hundred and fifty-five photographs in two boxes.
To view this collection, make an appointment at least five business days prior to your visit by contacting Ask an Archivist or calling (480) 965-4932. Appointments in the Wurzburger Reading Room at Hayden Library (rm. 138) on the Tempe campus are available Monday through Friday. Check the ASU Library Hours page for current availability.
Copyright
The Arizona Board of Regents retains copyright to this collection for and on behalf of the Arizona State University Library. Requests to publish, display, or redistribute information from this collection must be submitted via our online application.
Graciela Olivarez Being Sworn in as Director of the Community Services Administration Next to Leonel Castillo, Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization, 1977
Graciela Olivarez on a Tour with William L. Davis, Director of the United Planning Organization, and Samuel Harahan, Director of the National Children Organization, Undated
Senator Pell, Graciela Olivarez, Mayor Taft and Governor Garrahy at the Opening Ceremony for the Cranston Community Action Committee Energy Conservation Program, Undated
Senator Pell, Graciela Olivarez, Mayor Taft and Governor Garrahy at the Opening Ceremony for the Cranston Community Action Committee Energy Conservation Program, Undated
Senator Pell, Graciela Olivarez, Mayor Taft and Governor Garrahy at the Opening Ceremony for the Cranston Community Action Committee Energy Conservation Program, Undated
Senator Pell, Graciela Olivarez, Mayor Taft and Governor Garrahy at the Opening Ceremony for the Cranston Community Action Committee Energy Conservation Program, Undated
George Woods, of the State Technical Assistance Agency, Addressing the Audience at the Fourth Annual Dinner for the Greater Omaha Community Action, Inc., 1978
Graciela Olivarez, Director of the Community Services Administration, Speaks at the Fourth Annual Dinner for the Greater Omaha Community Action, Inc., 1978
