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Hear and Now at The Huntington
Posted on Wed., March 31, 2021
Hear and Now is a new podcast that connects the incomparable library, art, and botanical collections at The Huntington with the wider world. Join host Giovana Romano Sanchez for a series of short audio essays that explore objects and ideas found at The Huntington along with the brilliant minds behind them. What unfolds is an original take on the issues we are facing in the world, right now. Theme song by John Zalewski.
Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
About the Host
Giovana Romano Sanchez is a communications specialist in the office of communications and marketing at The Huntington. She was born in São Paulo, Brazil, and worked as a journalist covering human rights issues in Latin America and Africa before coming to the U.S. in 2015. Giovana has a master's degree in Latin American studies from the University of Texas at Austin.
Episodes
Episode 6: A Year of Red Earth
In this episode, we bring you a conversation with Los Angeles-based and internationally renowned artist, painter, and sculptor Lita Albuquerque. During this past year, when museums around California were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Albuquerque’s outdoor installation at The Huntington, “Red Earth,” was among the few pieces of art that visitors could experience. Located near the southern entrance to the Japanese Garden, “Red Earth” features an approximately 6-by-4-foot rock slab coated with red pigment and surrounded by bamboo stalks affixed with copper-colored bands. To talk with Lita about the story behind “Red Earth” and the meanings the piece gained during this past year, we brought in our gardens cultural curator and programs director, Robert Hori.
Guests:
Lita Albuquerque. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Robert Hori. Gardens Cultural Curator and Program Director at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Extras:
Installation view of “Red Earth” by Lita Albuquerque. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Photo by Karl Puchlik. Courtesy of the artist.
Installation view of “Red Earth” by Lita Albuquerque. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Photo by Karl Puchlik. Courtesy of the artist.
Installation view of “Red Earth” by Lita Albuquerque. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Photo by Karl Puchlik. Courtesy of the artist.
Episode 5: Letters Across the Border
In this episode, we bring you the stories of two immigrant families who, separated by the border, relied on letters to maintain their relationships: the mid-20th-century Mexican couple José Chávez Esparza and María Concepción Alvarado, whose letters are part of The Huntington’s collections, and José Cervantes, a gardener at The Huntington who came to the U.S. from Mexico when he was 24 years old. We hear from Miroslava Chávez-García, José and Maria’s daughter, and from José Cervantes about the emotional toll of moving to a new country and about how writing letters helped them and their families cope with longing and isolation.
Miroslava Chávez-García is a professor of History and Chicana/o Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the author of 
José Cervantes is a gardener at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
José Chávez Esparza (1933–1981), in 1956, as a young man migrating to the United States as a bracero, an agricultural worker in California under contract with a U.S. employer. Photograph in Miroslava Chávez-García’s personal collection. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
The first letter of courtship José Chávez Esparza sent María Concepción Alvarado, known as “Conchita,” in late December 1963. Photograph in Miroslava Chávez-García’s personal collection. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Recently graduated from secondary school in 1963, María Concepción Alvarado (1945–1981) expected to continue with her studies but ended up marrying José Esparza and migrating to the U.S. instead. Photograph in Miroslava Chávez-García’s personal collection. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
A letter from Conchita to José dated April 13, 1964, a few months after they met. Photograph in Miroslava Chávez-García’s personal collection. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Dr. Amina Hassan, scholar, researcher, and the author of 
Kenneth W. Mack, Professor of Law and Affiliate Professor of History at Harvard University, and author of 
Clay Stalls, The Huntington’s Curator of California and Hispanic Collections.
Loren Miller, ca. 1933. As a journalist, lawyer, and judge, Miller dedicated his life and career to fighting discrimination of all types. Langston Hughes Collection. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Listen to our guest Dr. Amina Hassan's 
Western Union telegram congratulating Loren Miller on his Supreme Court victory. May 3, 1948, Box 8 (3), Loren Miller papers. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Representing the Race tells the story of an enduring paradox of American race relations through the prism of a collective biography of African American lawyers, including Loren Miller, who worked in the era of segregation. 
Loren Miller: Civil Rights Attorney and Journalist tells the The story of Loren Miller, a true American original who defied societal limitations to reshape the racial and political landscape of twentieth-century America. 
Shelley Kresan, rare book cataloger in The Huntington's technical services department.
Patrick Kuh, food critic and author of "Finding the Flavors We Lost: From Bread to Bourbon, How Artisans Reclaimed American Food." Photo by Armando Andrade.
A selection of early 20th-century, brand-name recipe pamphlets from The Huntington’s Anne Cranston American Regional and Charitable Cookbook Collection. Photograph by Kate Lain.
Manuscript and newspaper recipes mounted or laid in a charitable cookbook produced in Des Moines, Iowa, August 1903. Photograph by Kate Lain.
Dennis Carr, Virginia Steele Scott Chief Curator of American Art
Olga Tsapina, Norris Foundation Curator of American Historical Manuscripts
David E. Marshall ("Wicked Ned"), Right Whale, ca. 1851. Watercolor. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
David E. Marshall ("Wicked Ned"), manuscripts and drawings, 1845–1865. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. 
Fitz Henry Lane (1804 - 1865), Sailing Ships off the New England Coast, ca. 1855. Oil on canvas, 30 1/8 x 48 1/4 in. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. 
Frederic Edwin Church (1826 - 1900), Chimborazo, 1864. Oil on canvas, 48 x 84 in. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. 
Ted Matson, c
Phillip Bloom, June and Simon K.C. Li Curator of the Chinese Garden and Director of the Center for East Asian Garden Studies. 
Chinese elms penjing by Zhao-Sheng Che. Photo by Andrew Mitchell. 
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