Inflammatory literature: The legacy of American journalist Ruben Salazar

Join us for an evening of performance and conversation honoring the life and work of Ruben Salazar (1928–1970), a pioneering journalist of Mexican descent who was among the first to cover the burgeoning Chicano movement in the 1960s, opening doors for Latinx journalists, newspapers, and broadcast media in Los Angeles and across the United States. Celebrated actors Chastity Dotson (Young Valiant, Little Book of Battles), Marlene Forte (Knives Out, Fear the Walking Dead, Real Women Have Curves), Matthew Lillard (Good Girls, Bosch), Culture Clash co-founder Herbert Sigüenza (Coco), and David Zayas (Dexter, Gotham, Oz, Rounders) will perform in a short play written by USC professor Oliver Mayer (author of Blade to the Heat) and directed by USC lecturer Edgar Landa. The play is inspired by writings preserved in the Ruben Salazar Papers, donated by his family to the USC Libraries’ Special Collections.