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Brown University
DEPARTMENT OF VISUAL ART
Providence, RI 02912-1861
USA
Tel: 401-863-2423 Fax: 401-863-3700

July 30, 1992

Dear Mr. Melesio Casas:

My name is Lyla Materón Arum, and I am a junior at Brown University. I have been in contact with Ms. Ava Avalos, the archivist of the CARA exhibition, and she has graciously agreed to forward this letter to you.

This summer I received a grant from the university for the purpose of researching contemporary U.S. Latino artists in the hope of diversifying the slide references utilized by the Department of Visual Art. (By contemporary U.S. Latino I mean all those artist who are descendants of the more than two dozen countries plus Puerto Rico that comprise Latin America. I feel that by using this term, no one is excluded and it helps to represent the diversity within the U.S. Latino/Hispanic community.) There is enthusiastic support and interest in your work by faculty in this department as well as in other departments. 

The goal of this project is to obtain biographies of each artist and slides of each artist's work so that examples of these may be incorporated into the permanent art slide collection at Brown. The slides, along with the biography of each artist will be made available in the form of a booklet for lecture and studio courses.

Having seen examples of your work in the Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation exhibition and catalogue, it would be an honor to have your work represented in the collection I am presently trying to form. Would you be willing to send between five and twenty slides of the work that you feel most represents you? In addition, it would be most valuable if you included biographical information such as: your resume, copies of articles reviewing your work, names of catalogues, galleries, and museums exhibited in, etc.. Your original slides will be returned after duplicates have been made.

The result of this project will be the inclusion of the multiple artistic perspectives of the Latino voice in the education of generations of students who will take courses in the Department of Visual Art at Brown University. I hope very much that I may soon see examples of your work. If you have any questions concerning this project, please contact me at 401-863-2423. Thank you very much for your time and assistance.

Sincerely,
Lyla Materón Arum